Biodiversity Performance Tool and Monitoring System

Biodiversity Performance Tool and Monitoring System

Biodiversity assessments at farm level are poorly developed compared to other classic farming indicators such as nitrogen balance, pesticide pressure, energy performance, water footprint, and GHG emissions. There is a marked absence of easy-to-use and meaningful tools for certified farmers, certifiers and assessors to assess biodiversity and the quality of the measures.

The Biodiversity Performance Tool

With the newly developed Biodiversity Performance Tool (BPT), the current situation and the further development for biodiversity protection on farms will be analyzed. With the BPT the quality of implementation of measures as well as monitoring of a Biodiversity Action Plan (BAP) can be assessed. Certifiers as well as product and quality managers of food companies will get a simple but meaningful overview regarding the quality of the BAP and the biodiversity performance of the farm.

The BPT was tested by various companies and in our pilot projects involving farms in cereal cultivation (Germany), tomato cultivation (Spain), olive production (Spain), in grasslands used for meat production (Portugal) and grasslands used for milk production and dairy products (France).

 

The BPT: A practical tool for assessing the biodiversity performance at farm level

The Biodiversity Monitoring System

In addition, the Biodiversity Monitoring System (BMS) allows standards and food companies to monitor the biodiversity performance of certified farms and/or supplying farmers. The monitoring is based on 25 indicators with high relevance for the protection and creation of potential for biodiversity and the reduction of negative impacts. Standards and food companies using the BMS will have access to include data of their associated farms, to aggregate data sets and to elaborate multiple options of analysis by combining the 25 indicators.

You want to learn more about the  BPT and BMS? We provide guidance and trainings regarding the application of these tools. Contact our team