The UNGPs provide a framework for how states and business can mitigate the adverse impacts of business operations on both human rights and biodiversity.

UNGPs: THREE PILLAR FRAMEWORK

Enforce laws preventing business-driven environmental damage and biodiversity loss that could impact human rights.
Provide guidance to companies on how to respect human rights and biodiversity, and encourage or require companies to disclose how they address their impacts.
Apply strict environmental and human-rights standards to State-controlled businesses, holders of government contracts, and procurement processes.
Conduct both human rights and environmental due diligence to identify, mitigate and communicate human rights impacts caused by environmental damage.
Express a commitment to respect human rights, and explicitly recognise that harm to nature and biodiversity can result in human rights abuses.
If a business causes or contributes to adverse human rights impacts, it should provide or cooperate in remediation.
States should ensure that victims of human rights abuses resulting from biodiversity loss have access to remedy through judicial and non-judicial mechanisms, and facilitate access to non-State-based mechanisms.
Businesses should have operational-level grievance mechanisms for potentially affected individuals and communities.
Operational grievance mechanisms should be based on engagement and dialogue with affected stakeholders.
The UNGPs: Pillar one, The UNGPs: Pillar two, The UNGPs: Pillar three

Recommendations for States

Recommendation 1

Enforce and build on existing environmental laws- including those governing conservation, pollution, waste disposal, water use, protection of wildlife, management of forests, and use of natural resources- on the basis that preventing environmental harm can pre-empt adverse human rights impacts.

Recommendation 2

Implement policies to fulfil the targets of the GBF including those related to business, such as requiring assessment and disclosure of biodiversity-related risks and impacts, phasing out subsidies harmful to biodiversity, and mobilizing finance for biodiversity.

Recommendation 3

Integrate human rights into National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plans (NBSAPs), including by specifically referencing international human rights obligations and identifying key rights relevant to biodiversity, and by providing for the protection of rights of women, children, Indigenous Peoples, and environmental and human rights defenders (EHRDs). The UNDP-backed NBSAP Accelerator Partnership supports countries in developing and implementing plans aligned with the GBF. 130

Recommendation 4

Ensure that National Action Plans on Business and Human Rights address the need to safeguard biodiversity, as well as the application of rights-based perspectives to conservation projects and business activities in ecologically sensitive locations. Guidance provided by Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights provides that governments should introduce “legislation preventing and addressing adverse environmental impacts.” 131

Recommendation 5

Require environmental impact assessments (EIAs) for public and private-sector projects with potentially significant environmental consequences, and ensure EIAs are carried out impartially and involve meaningful consultation with potentially affected stakeholders.

Recommendation 6

Introduce nature-related reporting requirements for publicly listed companies aligned with the recommendations of the Taskforce on Nature-related Disclosures (TNFD). These should cover companies’ value chains as well as their own operations.s

Recommendation 7

In connection with nature-related reporting requirements, encourage companies to carry out assessments of nature and biodiversity-related impacts, dependencies, risks and opportunities. These should include consultation with potentially affected rightsholders, and be guided by the TNFD’s LEAP framework or equivalent approaches.

Recommendation 8

In line with Principle 4 of the UNGPs, take additional steps to prevent environmental and human rights abuses by companies owned, controlled or supported by the State, and ensure that these companies follow international best practices in order to lead by example.

Recommendation 9

In line with Principles 5 and 6 of the UNGPs, apply rigorous environmental and human-rights standards to companies that hold public contracts, and incorporate rights-based environmental criteria into procurement practices.

Recommendation 10

Design and implement policies to accommodate the diversity of companies’ needs and capacities. This includes providing SMEs with support in adopting nature-positive practices, while preventing harmful practices from evading enforcement.

Recommendation 11

Strengthen recognition and protection of land tenure for Indigenous Peoples and other vulnerable groups, as the lack or insecurity of land rights often underlies environment-related human-rights abuses.

Recommendation 12

Ensure that legal frameworks accommodate the pursuit of remedy for indirect human-rights impacts caused by environmental damage.

Recommendation 13

Work to close the finance gap for biodiversity-related investment. This can include collaboration with international efforts such as the UNDP’s Biodiversity Finance Initiative (BIOFIN) and the Global Environmental Facility (GEF), as well as use of blended finance, debt-for-nature swaps and payment-for-ecosystem-services.Financial regulators should help channel private capital toward nature-positive investment, including through incentives for green and social bonds and loans, sustainability-linked facilities, and other emerging funding mechanisms. Regulators can improve the credibility of such financing through taxonomies, sustainable-fund regulation and anti-greenwashing measures to increase investor confidence in sustainable products.

Recommendation 14

Financial regulators should help channel private capital toward nature-positive investment, including through incentives for green and social bonds and loans, sustainability-linked facilities, and other emerging funding mechanisms. Regulators can improve the credibility of such financing through taxonomies, sustainable-fund regulation and anti-greenwashing measures to increase investor confidence in sustainable products.

Recommendations for businesses

Recommendation 15

Make human rights policy commitments in line with the UNGPs, recognizing explicitly that environmental harm can lead to abuses of human rights. When relevant, policies should acknowledge the need for rights-based approaches to conservation.

Recommendation 16

Conduct HRDD with its environmental dimensions.This includes paying special attention to human rights risks resulting from adverse impacts on ecosystems and biodiversity.

Recommendation 17

Listed companies, as well as other larger and transnational businesses, should provide disclosure aligned with the TNFD’s reporting recommendations. This should include disclosure about impacts on nature, rather than focusing on business risks and opportunities.

Recommendation 18

Conduct assessments of nature-related impacts, dependencies, risks and opportunities using the TNFD’s LEAP approach or equivalent frameworks. This includes developing an awareness of the company’s relationships with ecosystems throughout its value chains, rather than simply measuring environmental indicators.

Recommendation 19

As part of both human-rights and environmental due diligence, engage with diverse stakeholders, especiall groups at risk of adverse impacts. Consultations with rightsholders should be inclusive and reflect the perspectives of potentially vulnerable demographics including women, youth, Indigenous Peoples and local communities.

Recommendation 20

Larger companies should use their leverage and resources to incentivise and support responsible environmental and human-rights conduct among smaller enterprises in their value chains.

Recommendation 21

Financial institutions should integrate environmental and human-rights considerations into lending and investment practices, both to fulfill their responsibilities under the UNGPs and to better reflect risks and opportunities. This includes calling on investees to provide relevant disclosure, requiring environmentally and socially responsible behaviour, and being prepared to divest or withhold financing from companies with harmful practices.

Recommendation 22

Financial institutions can promote the use of sustainability-focused instruments such as green bonds and loans, while taking steps to ensure their credibility and prevent greenwashing.

Recommendation 23

Ensure that carbon-offset projects and other commercial nature-based solutions are designed through rights-based approaches that include the participation of local communities, respect traditional land tenure, and share benefits equitably.

Recommendation 24

Operate with respect for the land and resource rights of Indigenous Peoples and other vulnerable groups, including in situations where customary land rights are not officially recognised.

Recommendation 25

Reduce and report greenhouse-gas emissions and provide climate-related disclosures, with the understanding that climate change takes a severe toll on biodiversity and human rights.

Additional recommendations

Recommendation 26

International agreements on biodiversity and conservation should specify the responsibility of businesses to prevent and mitigate harm, rather than focusing on disclosure requirements.

Recommendation 27

The scientific community can support integration of ecological considerations into business practices by continuing to develop detailed spatial data on biodiversity and other nature-related indicators that can help identify risks and adverse impacts. Academic research can also help illuminate the relationship between ecosystem services and human rights.

Recommendation 28

Civil society organisations (CSOs) can help ensure business respect for environmental rights in a variety of ways, including by facilitating engagement with rightsholders, supporting victims’ access to remedy, and compiling data on customary lands.

Recommendation 29

Consumers should use their influence, both individually and through collective action, to punish companies with abusive environmental and social practices while rewarding those that operate responsibly.

Recommendation 30

Leaders at all levels of society can support a value shift around the relationship between nature and development, moving beyond a zero-sum view and instilling an understanding that sustainability is consistent with prosperity.