PBL webinar on Intactness-based Biodiversity Impact Factors

October 21, 2025 | Events

On Tuesday 25 November 2025, 10:00 – 11:15 CET, the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency (PBL) organises a webinar to share and explain a novel set of ‘biodiversity impact factors’ based on the Mean Species  Abundance (MSA) indicator, an ecosystem intactness metric. A paper with updated factors has just been published on:  https://www.nature.com/articles/s41597-025-05946-1

 
The target group of this webinar are those interested in biodiversity impact assessment, with a basic knowledge of biodiversity footprinting, using pressure-impact models and assessment tools like input-output or life-cycle analysis.
 
According to Target 15 of the Global Biodiversity Framework of the CBD, large businesses and financial institutions need to assess, disclose and reduce their negative impacts on biodiversity worldwide. Such assessments are often done using methods based on life-cycle-analysis, in which the impact of environmental pressures on biodiversity can be calculated using pressure-impact factors.
The new IBIF dataset (intactness-based biodiversity impact factors) contains a coherent set of country-level impact factors that can be used to attribute losses in local terrestrial biodiversity intactness to emissions and resource use associated with production or consumption in a given country. We used the GLOBIO v4 biodiversity model to obtain this set of impact factors based on the mean species abundance (MSA) metric, for 234 countries and five environmental pressures: CO2 emissions, NH3 emissions, NOx emissions, roads and land use (urban land, cropland, pasture, forest plantations and mines).
 
In the webinar, we will explain how the factors were derived, how they can be applied, the pros and cons of the MSA indicator, and the conditions of use for developers, data providers and others. A practical guidance document covering these topics will be made available following the webinar.
 

Related publications:

Featured publication imageThe impact of river regulation on the biodiversity intactness of floodplain wetlands Featured publication imageSubnational greenhouse gas and land-based biodiversity footprints in the European Union Quantifying the biodiversity footprint of Dutch diets Featured publication imageGLOBIO-Aquatic, a global model of human impact on the biodiversity of inland aquatic ecosystems