Refining Biodiversity Safeguards for International Development Projects

Environmental safeguard frameworks developed by multilateral finance institutions are increasingly applied to industrial-scale development projects involving many UK companies, banks and consultancies. However, these frameworks are relatively newthe International Finance Corporation's widely applied Performance Standards were launched in 2012and a number of technical issues have come to light during implementation. At project level, these can result in ambiguity or inconsistency, leading to biodiversity loss, as well as substantial delays and extra costs for businesses. Some progress has been made in streamlining existing biodiversity safeguard frameworks (e.g. Pilgrim et al. 2013, Martin et al. 2015, Bennun et al. 2017), but there is an urgent need to address fundamental technical constraints in their application.

The goals of this studentship are to develop more consistent and scientifically defensible industry performance standards and to improve the rigour and efficiency of implementation. The student will review how such frameworks have been applied in practice across regions and sectors, identifying data availability and key gaps. They will then examine a range of practical steps, such as the delineation of assessment areas, identification of critical habitat, identification of priority ecosystem services, biodiversity loss/gain accounting, all in the context of variations in data quality. Building on these investigations, the student will test and develop quantitative modelling approaches for streamlining the application of performance standards, and explore the potential for developing semi-automated tools for technical implementation (e.g. through the Integrated Biodiversity Assessment Tool, IBAT). The outputs will promote environmentally sustainable development and efficient financing of UK projects at global scales, with the ultimate goal being to create tools for streamlining the performance standards process.

The student will be trained in the spatial analysis of large-scale biodiversity data in the context of international development projects. TBC will be closely involved with supervision, providing access to unpublished data from business case studies, and technical training in biodiversity management and policy related to development projects.