What are territorial planning stakeholders lacking to better consider biodiversity in their projects?
Effective tools and mechanisms that allow them to guide their funding decisions and evaluate their impact.
So, we decided to address this issue. This is the focus of a research project named Forbes ("Regionalized Financing Tools for Biodiversity Management by Companies") that we will be starting in a few weeks.
Incidentally, this is the fifth research project we’re launching this year — we’re fearless!
Forbes is based on two observations :
- on one side, public stakeholders, particularly local authorities, are looking for ways to better integrate biodiversity considerations into their project financing tools
- on the other side, the European CSRD directive, which came into force at the beginning of 2024, establishes new standards and obligations for non-financial reporting for large companies and certain SMEs. Biodiversity is a key component of this reporting, and the companies involved need tools to accurately assess their contribution to species and ecosystem conservation.
The goal is to design and test an economic model and a joint biodiversity management system for public and private stakeholders. This system would benefit from a hybrid financing arrangement inspired by the current model of water agencies.
To achieve this, the project will begin with a three-year research phase dedicated to building this system and developing the associated ecological indicators.
A subsequent two-year trial phase will test this mechanism under real conditions and improve it if necessary. This phase will involve both local authorities and infrastructure operators and should result in a stabilized, robust, and operational system.
he Forbes project has won the call for projects "Infrastructure Challenges in Territories Amid Global Changes and Biodiversity Decline," supported by ITTECOP (Infrastructure, Territories, Transport, Energy, Ecosystems, and Landscapes program).
We won’t be alone in this adventure... So thank you to the partners who agreed to embark on this journey with us: ECO-MED, UVSQ (University of Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines), the Sustainable Infrastructure Foundation (SOURCE), Supplément d'âme, ERM (Environmental Resources Management), the Occitanie / Pyrénées-Méditerranée Region, Nîmes Métropole, and SNCF RESEAU.
Starting early 2025!