EcoService Models Library (ESML)

Document: Biodiversity integrated assessment and computational tool | B-INTACT (Doc-469)

469
Authors
FAO
Year
2021
Title
Biodiversity integrated assessment and computational tool | B-INTACT
Document Type
Report
Place Published
Rome, Italy
Publisher
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
Volume
2nd edition
Pages
1-46
Abstract
As a timely response, the EX-ACT team from the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations has developed the Biodiversity Integrated Assessment and Computation Tool (B-INTACT). B-INTACT uniquely seeks to extend the scope of environmental assessments to capture biodiversity concerns, which are not accounted for in conventional carbon pricing. The tool is designed for users ranging from national investment banks, international financial institutions and policy decision-makers, and allows for a thorough biodiversity assessment of project-level activities in the Agriculture, Forestry and Land Use (AFOLU) sector while maintaining the logic of the EX-ACT model. The biodiversity assessment in the tool takes on a quantitative and qualitative approach. The quantitative approach considers a set of relationships for anthropogenic impacts on biodiversity from land use changes, habitat fragmentation, infrastructure and human encroachment. Biodiversity responses are quantified in the mean species abundance (MSA) metric, which expresses the mean abundance of original species in disturbed conditions relative to their abundance in an undisturbed habitat (where MSA = 1 highlights an entirely intact ecosystem and MSA = 0 highlights a fully destroyed ecosystem). Nonquantifiable impacts to biodiversity from project activities are assessed with a qualitative appraisal of the biodiversity sensitivity, management activities and agrobiodiversity practices, to complement the quantitative assessment.
URL Exit
https://openknowledge.fao.org/items/6822f818-949b-43fb-8e5f-c75fc1018af1
EMs citing this document as a source
EM-999
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