This practical course provides a structured approach to identifying, assessing, managing, and disclosing biodiversity and nature-related risks, with particular focus on the LEAP approach and the recommendations of the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD). It addresses how organizations depend on and affect ecosystems, and how land conversion, water use, pollution, and habitat loss translate into operational, regulatory, financial, and reputational risks for developers, lenders, and public agencies.
The program covers nature dependencies and impacts, ecosystem services, the drivers of nature change, and the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. Participants apply the Locate, Evaluate, Assess, and Prepare phases of LEAP to sites and portfolios, establish biodiversity baselines, identify critical habitats and ecologically sensitive locations, and work through the mitigation hierarchy of avoid, minimize, restore, and offset. Particular emphasis is placed on no net loss and net gain planning, biodiversity offset design, and biodiversity management plans aligned with IFC Performance Standard 6.
Through case studies of desert, coastal, marine, and mountain developments, participants map sensitive locations, score dependencies and impacts, test mitigation options, and draft nature-related disclosures covering governance, strategy, risk and impact management, and metrics and targets. They leave with a practical roadmap for integrating nature into project planning, enterprise risk management, lending decisions, and corporate reporting.