Incentivizing corporations to protect biodiversity

There is an increasing regulatory pressure on corporations to mitigate and compensate for their negative biodiversity impacts.

However, the effectiveness of policy regulations in directing corporate investments to biodiversity conservation is largely unknown, inhibiting informed enhancements of regulations.

In this project, I will evaluate how regulations and incentives affect corporate investments to restore and protect biodiversity, and how different incentives affect the cost-effectiveness of biodiversity conservation.

I will use a combined approach consisting of (1) a quantitative review of corporate sustainability reports to evaluate the impact of existing regulations on investments for, and the measuring of, biodiversity, (2) a survey study to understand corporate incentives to restore and protect biodiversity, and (3) largescale modelling studies to compare biodiversity outcomes and opportunity costs when nature is protected with the incentive to minimize costs, maximize outcomes or maximize cost-effectiveness.

As a result, the proposed project will provide increased understanding for drivers and barriers to corporate investments for biodiversity, which can be used to enhance regulations to safeguard biodiversity. It will also demonstrate the potential of different incentives to achieve cost-effective biodiversity conservation.

The project will ultimately have the potential to contribute to increasing the benefits of future protected areas to biodiversity.