National foreword

This British Standard is the UK implementation of ISO 17298:2025.

The UK participation in its preparation was entrusted to Technical Committee BDY/1, Biodiversity management.

A list of organizations represented on this committee can be obtained on request to its committee manager.

Contractual and legal considerations

This publication has been prepared in good faith, however no representation, warranty, assurance or undertaking (express or implied) is or will be made, and no responsibility or liability is or will be accepted by BSI in relation to the adequacy, accuracy, completeness or reasonableness of this publication. All and any such responsibility and liability is expressly disclaimed to the full extent permitted by the law.

This publication is provided as is, and is to be used at the recipient’s own risk.

The recipient is advised to consider seeking professional guidance with respect to its use of this publication.

This publication is not intended to constitute a contract. Users are responsible for its correct application.

Compliance with a British Standard cannot confer immunity from legal obligations.

This British Standard was published under the authority of the Standards Policy and Strategy Committee on 31 October 2025.

Foreword

ISO (the International Organization for Standardization) is a worldwide federation of national standards bodies (ISO member bodies). The work of preparing International Standards is normally carried out through ISO technical committees. Each member body interested in a subject for which a technical committee has been established has the right to be represented on that committee. International organizations, governmental and non-governmental, in liaison with ISO, also take part in the work. ISO collaborates closely with the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) on all matters of electrotechnical standardization.

The procedures used to develop this document and those intended for its further maintenance are described in the ISO/IEC Directives, Part 1. In particular, the different approval criteria needed for the different types of ISO document should be noted. This document was drafted in accordance with the editorial rules of the ISO/IEC Directives, Part 2 (see www.iso.org/directives).

ISO draws attention to the possibility that the implementation of this document may involve the use of (a) patent(s). ISO takes no position concerning the evidence, validity or applicability of any claimed patent rights in respect thereof. As of the date of publication of this document, ISO had not received notice of (a) patent(s) which may be required to implement this document. However, implementers are cautioned that this may not represent the latest information, which may be obtained from the patent database available at www.iso.org/patents. ISO shall not be held responsible for identifying any or all such patent rights.

Any trade name used in this document is information given for the convenience of users and does not constitute an endorsement.

For an explanation of the voluntary nature of standards, the meaning of ISO specific terms and expressions related to conformity assessment, as well as information about ISO's adherence to the World Trade Organization (WTO) principles in the Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT), see www.iso.org/iso/foreword.html.

This document was prepared by Technical Committee ISO/TC 331, Biodiversity.

Any feedback or questions on this document should be directed to the user’s national standards body. A complete listing of these bodies can be found at www.iso.org/members.html.

Introduction

Biodiversity is a critical component to support life on earth. It underpins global nutrition and food security, buffers against disease, provides livelihoods, and has its inherent value. It is essential to ecosystem health, giving us protection from disasters, contributing to climate change mitigation and adaptation, providing clean air, clean water and healthy soil. It is also critical to business: an estimated USD 44 trillion of the world's gross domestic product is highly or moderately dependent on nature.^[1^] The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF)^[2^] has provided a historic agreement for society consistent with halting and reversing biodiversity loss by 2030 and achieving full recovery of nature by 2050. Target 15 of the GBF calls for large and transnational companies and financial institutions to monitor, assess, and transparently disclose their risks, dependencies and impacts on biodiversity, including value chains and portfolios. These actions are aimed at progressively avoiding and reducing adverse impacts on biodiversity, increasing benefits and opportunities, reducing biodiversity-related risks to business and financial institutions, and promoting actions to ensure sustainable patterns of production. To meet the objectives of this framework, a standardized approach is needed.

The aim of this document is to help organizations to include biodiversity conservation, ecological restoration and sustainable use into their business, social and environmental strategies and practices. This document is intended for all types of organizations, whatever their size or nature, and either at the landscape level (production site, regional presence, commercial zone, farm, etc.) or organizational level (industrial corporation, local authority, etc.).

This document provides decision-making support that enables any organization to assess its biodiversity dependencies, impacts, risks and opportunities, and to define, implement and monitor an action plan. This allows added value for both the organization itself and its interested parties. Indeed, the organization, through the individual behaviours of different actors within it, can create sustainable practices and concretely help to bring about necessary systemic changes.

As the steps of the biodiversity approach are iterative, organizations will typically move back and forth through various stages described in this document.

This document is expected to be used in conjunction with other relevant standards concerning ecological engineering, landscape-level approaches (e.g. ISO 37101^[3^]), or social responsibility (e.g. ISO 26000^[4^]).

The biodiversity approach proposed in this document is intended to be implemented on a stand-alone basis or can be used in conjunction with an environmental management system (e.g. ISO 14001^[5^]) or a comprehensive social responsibility approach (e.g. ISO 26000^[4^]), regarding risks and opportunities to consider or actions to implement.

Figure 1 provides an outline of the structure of this document and the connection between its various components.

1 Scope

This document specifies requirements and guidelines for organizations to consider biodiversity in their strategies and operations, thereby adopting a biodiversity approach.

It is applicable to any type of organization, irrespective of its size or nature (e.g. large groups, public institutions, local authorities, mid-cap companies, associations, micro-structures, single-member companies), sector, level of development and the extent to which it includes biodiversity protection in its activities.

2 Normative references

3 Terms and definitions

3.1 Terms specific to biodiversity

3.2 Terms specific to the approaches of the organizations

4 Context of the biodiversity approach

4.1 Scope of the biodiversity approach

4.2 Review of existing policies, initiatives and actions

4.3 Consideration of interested parties

4.4 Staying updated

5 Involvement of interested parties

6 Identifying and prioritizing biodiversity impacts, dependencies, risks and opportunities

6.1 General

6.2 Identification of the material ecosystem services dependencies

6.3 Identification of the material impacts on biodiversity and ecosystem services

6.4 Identification of the material biodiversity-related risks and opportunities

6.5 Prioritization of the impacts, dependencies, risks and opportunities

7 Formalizing the biodiversity action plan

7.1 Organization’s ambition

7.2 Defining objectives

7.3 Action planning

7.4 Setting indicators

7.5 Integrating the local context

8 Communication

8.1 General

8.2 Internal communication of results

8.3 External communication of results

9 Implementation, monitoring and review

9.1 Implementation

9.2 Monitoring indicators

9.3 Analysis of indicators' results

9.4 Continual improvement

Bibliography

BS ISO 17298:2025

Biodiversity. Considering biodiversity in the strategy and operations of organizations. Requirements and guidelines

Current

Published:

31 Oct 2025