Biodiversity conservation activities for nature-positive goals: Cases of Korean companies

Corporation operations and other anthropogenic activities threaten global biodiversity and ecosystem services. They also raise financial risks for the sustainability of society. International organizations and initiatives have developed guidelines on the disclosure of nature-positive business practices to support the conservation of biodiversity. However, biodiversity-conserving performances of corporations have yet to undergo a comprehensive assessment, either quantitatively or qualitatively. Here, we analyzed the biodiversity conservation activities, or the evolution of Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) management, of the top 200 corporations in South Korea based on their sustainability reports covering years 2017 to 2021. The number of corporations issuing sustainability reports doubled in the five-year period, and over 70% issued sustainability reports in 2022. Based on the 15th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (COP15) Global Biodiversity Framework’s directionality and consistency with the targeted ecosystems, 22% of the corporations reported engagement with biodiversity conservation without substantive outcomes. The methodology developed in this paper can guide major corporations on biodiversity-related disclosures, including those required by the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD).