Agriculture is a key driver of biodiversity loss, yet is dependent on many of the ecosystem services that biodiversity provides (nutrient cycling, water availability, pollination and pest control). Protecting and enhancing on-farm biodiversity can be delivered through appropriate biodiversity-friendly farming practices. The Cool Farm Tool (CFT) biodiversity module is intended to be a reference for growers, policy makers and other stakeholders in the value chain to take management decisions in support of on-farm biodiversity.

The aim of our project was to initiate a pre-competitive cross-industry collaboration, with a view to bringing industry alignment on which on-farm biodiversity-enhancing practices to promote within supply chains. We also sought to identify where enhancements could be made to the CFT biodiversity tool, to make it an industry standard. The intention is that developments made will subsequently help people measure and quantify farmland biodiversity in a standardised way to provide actionable insights for farm practices and management decisions.

We held a workshop with a range of organisations (such as Unilever, PepsiCo, Amazon, WWF UK and The Nature Conservancy) to understand their needs when it comes to biodiversity metrics and tools. Key themes that became apparent from the workshop included the need for biodiversity guidance to be simple and globally applicable, but that detailed and locally relevant information is critical to support the development of effective biodiversity action plans.

Outputs from the workshop were consolidated into several key builds for the tool, which the Cool Farm Alliance’s Biodiversity Working Group – formed as part of this work – took forward for implementation. 3Keel’s Caitlin McCormack is still part of the Biodiversity Working Group, helping guide further developments.