Session Description
International lender safeguards are increasingly shaping how project biodiversity impacts are assessed, avoided, managed and verified. For many projects, national EIA approval is not the final test of environmental acceptability. Lender standards, including IFC Performance Standard 6, World Bank ESS6, IDB ESPS6, and related development sustainable finance and certification frameworks, can introduce additional expectations for critical habitat assessment, alternatives analysis, risk screening, cumulative biodiversity impact assessments, no net loss or net gain commitments, Biodiversity Action Plans, independent expert review, long-term monitoring and evidence of implementation. The growing influence of lender biodiversity safeguards raises important questions for national impact assessment practice. Are lender safeguards advancing biodiversity IA practices by requiring risk-focused baselines and rigorous application of the mitigation hierarchy? Or are they creating a parallel assurance system to national permitting, with different thresholds, terminology, timelines and expectations? How should developers and IA practitioners respond when a project is legally permitted but lender requirements need supplementary studies and assessments? This session will explore how lender expectations have changed the practice of biodiversity-inclusive impact assessment. It will examine how permitting-focused IA can be scoped to best meet lender safeguard requirements and so reduce delays and cost to access international finance.
Session Summary
This session explores the interface between national EIA permitting practices and lender biodiversity safeguards. Speakers will examine how biodiversity-inclusive EIA can better support bankable, credible and implementable project outcomes beyond legal compliance.
Session Chair
Joseph Altobelli
Nature Positive Ltd
New Zealand