PROJECT DESCRIPTION
BACKGROUND
Numerous studies confirm that the food sector with intensive agriculture as the main provider of raw materials has a huge negative impact on biodiversity. Food companies are increasingly becoming aware that biodiversity loss is affecting their core business and should be addressed as a priority – together with climate change mitigation and adaptation. However, the majority of food companies still do not have biodiversity strategies, action plans and concrete goals for biodiversity in place. New and upcoming EU legislation forces more companies to identify and evaluate their risks, impacts and dependencies related to biodiversity. The main objective of the project is to improve the biodiversity governance and performance of the food sector in Germany and in other EU countries. The project supports food companies to fulfil current and upcoming biodiversity related legislation and to go even beyond legal requirements. This will significantly contribute to a more effective implementation and enforcement of compliance with binding EU instruments on nature. Based on the experience of the German initiative “Food for Biodiversity”, the project supports the creation of a minimum of five new national food sector initiatives for the improvement of biodiversity performance in EU countries. A European-wide network is created to agree on minimum requirements (Basic Set of Biodiversity Criteria) for the food sector, to harmonize methods and procedures of monitoring, to use synergies and facilitate exchange of experiences and lessons learned. The project will strongly improve the biodiversity knowledge of managers in the food sector, including information about biodiversity tools, incentives for farmers and biodiversity credit schemes for insetting projects. Auditors and accountants are trained so that they can audit biodiversity information in corporate sustainability reports.