“Ecosystem condition describes the overall quality of an ecosystem measured in terms of its biotic (living) and abiotic (physical rather than biological) characteristics.”
From UNEP-WCMC et al., ‘Measuring Ecosystem Condition- a Primer for Business, Aligning Accounting Approaches for Nature’ published through the Align EU project.
Components of Ecosystem Condition
- Composition: Indicators measure what species are present in the species assemblage as a whole and their relative abundances (rather than the number of individuals within a single species) within an ecosystem.
- Structure: Indicators reflect aggregate biophysical properties of ecosystems, irrespective of specific species composition such as vegetation heights or seabed habitat complexity. At a landscape scale, structure also includes levels of fragmentation and connectivity (i.e., how linked one patch of habitat is to another).
- Function: Indicators measure a process that the ecosystem completes or reflects the ability to undertake these processes, e.g., net primary production, water filtration.
From UNEP-WCMC et al., ‘Measuring Ecosystem Condition- a Primer for Business, Aligning Accounting Approaches for Nature’ published through the Align EU project.
Context
Environmental challenges :
- 75% of terrestrial lands and 66% of oceans have been heavily altered by human activities (IPBES, 2019).
- Biodiversity is essential for ecosystem services that support human activities and needs to be protected and restored.
Frameworks and Metrics:
Several regulatory and voluntary disclosure frameworks require reporting on ecosystem condition, including:
- GRI101 Biodiversity Standard: under disclosure 101-7 “Changes to the state of biodiversity”;
- Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD): under the core global disclosure metrics, under metric C5.0;
- Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD): under paragraph 41 b of Disclosure Requirement E4-5 Impact Metrics;
- Science Based Targets Network (SBTN): ecosystem integrity/condition within the dimensions of biodiversity relevant for Step 1 and 2 methods.
Despite these frameworks, there is a lack of consensus on ecosystem condition measurement and related metrics.