The Biodiversity Monitoring-System allows standards, producer associations and food companies to monitor the biodiversity performance of their certified farms, members and/or supplying farmers. The monitoring results provide indications regarding the baseline situation on the farms and whether the biodiversity requirements of standards or companies are contributing to a continuous improvement on farm level. The monitoring is based on 25 indicators, with high relevance for the protection and creation of potential for biodiversity (e.g. habitat creation) and the reduction of negative impacts (e.g. reduction of chemical pesticides and fertilizers). The indicators are collected by 50 questions, mainly on agricultural practice but also on farm management and structural elements of the area, such as water bodies and semi-natural habitats.
One of the strengths of the monitoring system is that it is applicable on a global level and for all types of products and production systems. Moreover, with only 25 indicators major threats to biodiversity with global relevance are addressed. Hence, the complex topic of biodiversity can be monitored and evaluated with an acceptable cost-benefit ratio. Another clear strength of the Biodiversity Monitoring-System is the user-friendly visualization of the aggregated monitoring data which facilitates the identification of regional and thematic challenges and provides information for fact-based reporting and communication.