Vision & Scope
The IUCN RHINO approach
The IUCN RHINO approach aims to deliver rapid, significant, measurable and verifiable contributions to the KMGBF and the Nature Positive Global Goal, specifically in reducing species extinction risk and risk of ecosystem collapse.
Vision for the IUCN RHINO approach
The IUCN RHINO approach guides companies and other actors on what to do, where to act, and how to measure progress towards Nature Positive outcomes.
The IUCN RHINO approach will support companies, including finance institutions, insurance companies, and other commercial enterprises, to:
Deliver rapid, high-integrity interventions that contribute to Nature Positive outcomes in line with the KMGBF
Screen their land holdings, value chains and investments, for impacts to nature, and corporate risks and opportunities
Support companies in the application of the TNFD LEAP approach
Report on these impacts, risks and opportunities to disclosure and reporting frameworks
Define SMART objectives and assess performance measures, or Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), to drive actions that will improve positive and reduce negative impacts
Decide on, design, and deliver interventions
Ensure regular monitoring, verification, and disclosure of progress
Allow the assessment of IUCN RHINO contributions to societal goals and to Nature Positive.
Key building blocks for the IUCN RHINO approach for companies
Our approach is built on six key building blocks that empower organisations to engage effectively with nature. Each block serves as a vital characteristic, ensuring a comprehensive understanding of how to achieve Nature Positive outcomes.
Suitable metrics and data
Reliable, science-based metrics and data that are feasible for companies to use and which provide an effective connection between societal goals and companies’ positive and negative impacts
Assessment framework and tools
Clear guidance, access to expertise and reference material, and well-adapted toolkit are needed to enable effective use of data and metrics
High-integrity principles and guardrails
Implementation of companies’ contributions to Nature Positive needs to ensure both local-scale and system-scale integrity
Collaborative, fair and inclusive
Actions must be planned and implemented in collaboration with partners, government and civil society
Target-setting methods and guidance
Companies need to know where the most important opportunities to deliver contributions are, what issues need management, and how to manage them
Commitment, disclosure and verification
To be credible, company contributions need to be documented and transparent
How the IUCN RHINO approach relates to government action
Government contributions to the KMBGF are structured through the National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plans (NBSAPs), so IUCN RHINO contributions, which can be broken down by sector, company or administrative unit, are ready to be included.
Planners and regulators can easily see how corporate contributions to the NBSAP can be made through land-use planning, policy and incentive tools, through management of particular threats to biodiversity, and in relation to international and national regulatory frameworks
How the IUCN RHINO approach relates to civil society action
Civil society has an essential role to play in delivering IUCN RHINO contributions. They can engage with companies in places where they are active, and ensure that corporate awareness of IUCN RHINO is increased.
They are often a key participant in planning and implementing management actions on the ground, through contribution of knowledge of the distribution and threats to species and ecosystems, and awareness of local economic and governance contexts. Civil society can also make government aware of the IUCN RHINO framework, and encourage them to ensure that regulatory and policy frameworks are aligned with the potential for delivering IUCN RHINO contributions.
Scope and novel contributions
The IUCN RHINO approach targets an appropriate balance between speed and efficiency — the need to act is now! The range of actions supported is restricted, for the moment, to those that deliver reductions in extinction risk for a subset of threatened species — terrestrial vertebrates.
At this time, the IUCN RHINO approach does not allow users to define quantified outcomes related to ecosystems. This is because comprehensive spatially explicit datasets for identifying priority ecosystems and actions within them that would permit users to deliver verifiable IUCN RHINO contributions are not yet available.
Furthermore, the approach does not:
Provide a framework to assess risks and opportunities for non-living nature (for instance water, soil carbon)
Provide a framework to assess, plan and implement actions to improve the genetic component of biodiversity
Provide an accounting framework that would be necessary to allow an organisation to become ‘Nature Positive’, through a comparison of total positive and negative impacts
Actions that result from following the approach have a high probability of generating positive impacts on wider biodiversity as well as to the subset of threatened species. The threats that apply to these species apply in most cases to ecosystems and genetic variation in the species found in the places where the threatened species occur. Reducing these threats will likely lead to quantifiable positive impacts to the subset of threatened species and also unquantified positive impacts on the rest of biodiversity.
These actions can take place immediately in specific places where those species are threatened with extinction. Companies can also create the enabling conditions for extinction risk to be reduced, through engaging with peer companies, suppliers, and governments, and through their investments (Track B and Track C).
This approach is backed by a set of scientific publications that present the theory, logic, methods, pilot cases, and results.
Take your first step to Nature Positive outcomes
IUCN RHINO guides what to do, where to act, and how to measure progress towards Nature Positive outcomes.
