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  • About Us
    • Core Group >
      • Core Group Meeting Minutes
    • Our Partners and Affiliates
    • AGMs
    • Ethics
  • Membership
    • Sign Up for NZAIA Membership
  • Conferences
    • Proceedings from Past Conferences >
      • 2022 - Wellbeing, Sustainability and Impact Assessment: towards more integrated policy-making
      • 2021 - Social Impact Assessment >
        • Posters
        • 2021 Students
      • 2019 - Climate Change >
        • Posters
        • 2019 Students
        • Conference Photos
        • Contact List
      • 2018 - Regional Development
      • 2016 - Strategic Environmental Assessment
      • 2015 - Where to for Impact Assessment?
      • 2014 - Transport Infrastructure
      • 2013 Fresh Water Management
      • 2012 - Mineral Extraction
  • Impact Connector
    • Issue #14 Impact assessment for infrastructure development >
      • Impact assessment for infrastructure development - an introduction
      • Place Matters: The importance of geographic assessment of areas of influence in understanding the social effects of large-scale transport investment in Wellington
      • Unplanned Consequences? New Zealand's experiment with urban (un)planning and infrastructure implications
      • Reflections on infrastructure, Town and Country planning and intimations of SIA in the late 1970s and early 1980s
      • SIA guidance for infrastructure and economic development projects
      • Scoping in impact assessments for infrastructure projects: Reflections on South African experiences
      • Impact Assessment for Pacific Island Infrastructure
    • Issue #13 Health impact assessment: practice issues >
      • Introduction to health impact assessment: practice issues
      • International Health Impact Assessment – a personal view
      • Use of Health Impact Assessment to develop climate change adaptation plans for health
      • An integrated approach to assessing health impacts
      • Assessing the health and social impacts of transport policies and projects
      • Whither HIA in New Zealand….or just wither?
    • Issue #12 Risk Assessment: Case Studies and Approaches >
      • Introduction
      • Risk Assessment and Impact Assessment : A perspective from Victoria, Australia
      • The New and Adaptive Paradigm Needed to Manage Rising Coastal Risks
      • Reflections on Using Risk Assessments in Understanding Climate Change Adaptation Needs in Te Taitokerau Northland
      • Values-Based Impact Assessment and Emergency Management
      • Certainty about Communicating Uncertainty: Assessment of Flood Loss and Damage
      • Improving Understanding of Rockfall Geohazard Risk in New Zealand
      • Normalised New Zealand Natural Disaster Insurance Losses: 1968-2019
      • Houston, We Have a Problem - Seamless Integration of Weather and Climate Forecast for Community Resilience
      • Innovating with Online Data to Understand Risk and Impact in a Data Poor Environment
    • Impact Connector #11 Climate Change Mitigation, Adaptation, and Impact Assessment: views from the Pacific >
      • Introduction
      • Climate change adaptation and mitigation, impact assessment, and decision-making: a Pacific perspective
      • Climate adaptation and impact assessment in the Pacific: overview of SPREP-sponsored presentations
      • Land and Sea: Integrated Assessment of the Temaiku Land and Urban Development Project in Kiribati
      • Strategic Environmental Assessment: Rising to the SDG Challenge
      • Coastal Engineering for Climate Change Resilience in Eastern Tongatapu, Tonga
      • Climate-induced Migration in the Pacific: The Role of New Zealand
    • Impact Connector #10 Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation >
      • Introduction
      • Is a “just transition” possible for Māori?
      • Adapting to Climate Change on Scale: Addressing the Challenge and Understanding the Impacts of Asia Mega-Cities
      • How responding to climate change might affect health, for better or for worse
      • Kanuka, Kereru and carbon capture - Assessing the effects of a programme taking a fresh look at the hill and high country land resource
      • Wairoa: Community perceptions of increased afforestation
      • Te Kākahu Kahukura Ecological Restoration project: A story within a story
    • Issue #9 Impacts of Covid-19 >
      • Introduction to Impact Connector Issue 9 – Impact assessment and Covid 19
      • Covid-19 fast-track consenting: climate change legacy key to success
      • Tourism – the long haul ahead
      • Making sense of the impact of Covid-19: planning, politics, and the public good
    • Issue #8 Social Impact Assessment >
      • Challenges for Social Impact Assessment in New Zealand: looking backwards and looking forwards
      • Insights from the eighties: early Social Impact Assessment reports on rural community dynamics
      • Impact Assessment and the Capitals Framework: A Systems-based Approach to Understanding and Evaluating Wellbeing
      • Building resilience in Rural Communities – a focus on mobile population groups
      • Assessing the Impacts of a New Cycle Trail: A Fieldnote
      • The challenges of a new biodiversity strategy for social impact assessment (SIA)
      • “Say goodbye to traffic”? The role of SIA in establishing whether ‘air taxis’ are the logical next step in the evolution of transportation
    • Issue #7 Ecological Impact Assessment >
      • The future of Ecological Impact Assessment in New Zealand
      • Ecological impact assessment and roading projects
      • EcIA and the Resource Management Act
      • Professional Practice and implementation of EcIA
      • EcIA in the Marine Environment
    • Issue #6 Landscape Assessment >
      • Introduction
      • Lives and landscapes: who cares, what about, and does it matter?
      • Regional Landscape Inconsistency
      • Landscape management in the new world order
      • Landscape assessment and the Environment Court
      • Natural character assessments and provisions in a coastal environment
      • The Assessment and Management of Amenity
      • The rise of the THIMBY
      • Landscape - Is there a common understanding of the Common?
    • Issue #5 Cultural Impact Assessment >
      • Introduction
      • Potential of Cultural Impact Assessment
      • The Mitigation Dilemma
      • CIA and decision-making
      • Insights and observations on CIA
      • Achieving sustainability through CIA
      • CIA - Enhancing or diminishing mauri?
      • Strategic Indigenous Impact Assessment?
    • Issue #4 Marine Environment >
      • Introduction
      • Iwi, Impact Assessment and Marine Environment
      • Sea-Bed Mining Application in Taranaki
      • The wreck of the MV Rena
      • High Court RMA Controls on Fishing
      • Initiatives in the Pacific Islands
      • SEA in an NZ context
    • Issue #3 Strategic Environmental Assessment
    • Issue #2
    • Issue #1
  • Resources
    • Webinars
    • IAIA Resources
    • United Nations Guidance
    • Donors Guidelines and Principles
    • Oceania and the Pacific
    • Natural Systems >
      • Biodiversity & Ecosystem Services
      • Agriculture & Food Systems
      • Water Management
    • Social Impact Assessment
    • Health Impact Assessment >
      • Climate Change & Health
      • Air Quality Impact Assessment
    • Cumulative Impact Assessment
    • Community and Stakeholder Engagement
    • Indigenous Peoples
    • Climate Change and Disaster Risk Resilience >
      • Adaptation Planning
      • Nature-based Solutions
    • Urban Development
    • Sustainable Development Goals
    • Strategic Environmental Assessment
  • Community
    • Membership Directory
    • News
    • Policy Submissions >
      • Past Submissions
    • Courses

Biodiversity & Ecosystem Services

Biodiversity is the variability of life on Earth, from genes to species and their habitats to ecosystems. Living and non-living components interact in ecosystems. In broad terms, ecosystems support us by providing services on which our health, livelihoods, and well-being depend, i.e., water purification and regulation; provision of food, medicine, fiber, and energy; and places for physical, cultural, and spiritual recreation.

People attach a range of values to living things and ecosystems: they can have intrinsic value, use value or cultural value. People are an inseparable part of ecosystems. Although we all rely on these systems for our well-being, poor and vulnerable people often rely directly and most heavily on them for their livelihoods.

Biodiversity assessment aims to identify and adaptively manage the impacts and risks of development in such a way that the variability of life on Earth is maintained in a healthy, functioning and connected state, and the benefits we obtain from ecosystem goods and services will extend into the future. Biodiversity assessment is increasingly striving to achieve a “no net loss,” or preferably, “net positive impact” outcome for biodiversity. Biodiversity assessment recognizes, too, that there are limits to the substitution of services provided by natural systems. It aims to ensure that the costs and benefits of impacts on biodiversity are fairly distributed, striving in particular to avoid increasing the vulnerability of people who are heavily dependent on natural systems for their survival and well-being.
FIVE IMPORTANT THINGS TO KNOW

1. The distribution patterns, threat status, sensitivity and levels of protection—at global and national levels— of ecosystems, habitats, and species affected by development.

2. The objectives, priorities and targets for biodiversity and ecosystem services of official environmental and conservation agencies having jurisdiction in the affected area, and all biodiversity policies or performance standards that must be met by the development proponent.

3. The levels of dependence by local communities on natural resources for livelihoods, health, cultural practices and protection from natural hazards; and trends in the condition or availability of those resources.

4. The limits to what can be lost, harmed, restored and/or off set, taking into account both the irreplaceability and vulnerability of affected biodiversity and the levels of dependence on natural systems by affected human communities.

5. The functional role of the development area in the wider landscape, its buffering role for protected or priority areas, or its role in connecting habitats or ecosystems across climatic or topographical gradients that gives them resilience in the face of climate change.
Copied from IAIA Biodiversity Assessment Fastips
FIVE IMPORTANT THINGS TO DO

1. Identify major constraints, high risk areas, and significant impacts on biodiversity and ecosystem services at the outset, seeking alternatives to avoid them. Only when impacts are unavoidable should measures to minimize, restore, off set biodiversity loss, and compensate for lost ecosystem goods and services be addressed.

2. Use appropriate local specialists with explicit Terms of Reference, and integrate social, economic and biodiversity considerations. Assess indirect, induced and cumulative impacts on biodiversity as well as direct impacts; these impacts are often more harmful than direct or “footprint” impacts.

3. Engage with interested and affected parties—including indigenous peoples—to identify and evaluate impacts and to determine how traditional knowledge and local cultural practices can contribute to any biodiversity initiative.

4. Take a precautionary approach when baseline information is poor, or there is uncertainty about impacts or the effectiveness of mitigation. Good monitoring, research and adaptive responses are crucial for managing impacts on biodiversity.

5. Seek to make a lasting net positive contribution to biodiversity conservation in the affected area through interventions beyond “no net loss.”

New Zealand Ecological Impact Assessment Guidelines
Te Mana o Te Taiao - Aotearoa New Zealand Biodiversity Strategy 2020
Ecosystem Services Review for Impact Assessment: Introduction and Guide to Scoping
Social and Biodiversity Impact Assessment (SBIA) Manual for REDD+ Projects
Weaving Ecosystem Services into Impact Assessment - Technical Appendix 
Voluntary Guidelines on Biodiversity-Inclusive Environmental Impact Assessment
Toolkit for Ecosystem Service Site-Based Assessment (TESSA)
Ecosystem Services in New Zealand
The nature of wellbeing: how nature’s ecosystem services contribute to the wellbeing of New Zealand and New Zealanders
Picture
The IPBES Conceptual Framework
A common framework of natural capital assets for use in public and private sector decision making
Evaluating the Effectiveness of Policy Instruments for Biodiversity
Valuing Nature Conservation: A Methodology for Quantifying the Benefits of Protecting the Planet's Natural Capital
Guidelines on Business and KBAs: Managing Risk to Biodiversity
Best Practice Guidance for Biodiversity-Inclusive Impact Assessment: A Manual for Practitioners ad Reviewers in South Asia
Best Practice Principles - Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services in Impact Assessment
Best Practices for Publishing Biodiversity Data from Environmental Impact Assessments
Connecting people's wellbeing and biodiversity in impact assessment
VIDEO: Accessing and interpreting biodiversity information for high-level biodiversity screening

Agriculture & Food Systems

ICAT - Agriculture Sector Guidance
ICAT - Forest Sector Guidance
Managing the Biodiversity Impacts of Fertiliser and Pesticide Use
Our Land and Water - Growing Kai Under Increasing Dry
Towards Sustainable Land Use
Innovation, Productivity and Sustainability in Food and Agriculture
The Lake Taupo Nitrogen Market in New Zealand
Principles for the assessment of livestock impacts on biodiversity 
Nutrient flows and associated environmental impacts in livestock supply chains - Guidelines for assessment
Avoiding Future Famines: Strengthening the Ecological Foundation of Food Security through Sustainable Food Systems
The Global Livestock Environmental Assessment Model (GLEAM)
IPCC 2019 Special Report: Climate Change and Land
Climate Change Impacts for Land Use Suitability (NZ)
Climate Indicators for Agriculture (US) 
Our Land and Water: Land Use Tools
Our Land and Water: Economic Tools
Our Land and Water: Decision Support Tools

Water Management

Our Land and Water: Decision Support Tools
Nature-based solutions for adapting to water-related climate risks
Large Marine Ecosystems Toolkits
A good practice guide: Drinking water, biodiversity and development
Mobilising people towards integrated water resource management
Guidelines for Wetland Management Planning
Wetland Restoration: A Handbook for New Zealand Freshwater Systems
Managing Our Estuaries
Environmental impact assessment of irrigation and drainage projects 
Groundwater Allocation: Managing Growing Pressures on Quantity and Quality
Australian and New Zealand Guidelines for Fresh and Marine Water Quality
The Water Footprint Assessment Manual
Environmental risk assessment of marine activities
Environmental effects of major marine infrastructure
CONTACT US
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  • Home
    • Environmental Impact Assessment
    • Social Impact Assessment
    • Strategic Environmental Assessment
    • Community & Stakeholder Engagement
    • Management, Monitoring and Reporting
  • About Us
    • Core Group >
      • Core Group Meeting Minutes
    • Our Partners and Affiliates
    • AGMs
    • Ethics
  • Membership
    • Sign Up for NZAIA Membership
  • Conferences
    • Proceedings from Past Conferences >
      • 2022 - Wellbeing, Sustainability and Impact Assessment: towards more integrated policy-making
      • 2021 - Social Impact Assessment >
        • Posters
        • 2021 Students
      • 2019 - Climate Change >
        • Posters
        • 2019 Students
        • Conference Photos
        • Contact List
      • 2018 - Regional Development
      • 2016 - Strategic Environmental Assessment
      • 2015 - Where to for Impact Assessment?
      • 2014 - Transport Infrastructure
      • 2013 Fresh Water Management
      • 2012 - Mineral Extraction
  • Impact Connector
    • Issue #14 Impact assessment for infrastructure development >
      • Impact assessment for infrastructure development - an introduction
      • Place Matters: The importance of geographic assessment of areas of influence in understanding the social effects of large-scale transport investment in Wellington
      • Unplanned Consequences? New Zealand's experiment with urban (un)planning and infrastructure implications
      • Reflections on infrastructure, Town and Country planning and intimations of SIA in the late 1970s and early 1980s
      • SIA guidance for infrastructure and economic development projects
      • Scoping in impact assessments for infrastructure projects: Reflections on South African experiences
      • Impact Assessment for Pacific Island Infrastructure
    • Issue #13 Health impact assessment: practice issues >
      • Introduction to health impact assessment: practice issues
      • International Health Impact Assessment – a personal view
      • Use of Health Impact Assessment to develop climate change adaptation plans for health
      • An integrated approach to assessing health impacts
      • Assessing the health and social impacts of transport policies and projects
      • Whither HIA in New Zealand….or just wither?
    • Issue #12 Risk Assessment: Case Studies and Approaches >
      • Introduction
      • Risk Assessment and Impact Assessment : A perspective from Victoria, Australia
      • The New and Adaptive Paradigm Needed to Manage Rising Coastal Risks
      • Reflections on Using Risk Assessments in Understanding Climate Change Adaptation Needs in Te Taitokerau Northland
      • Values-Based Impact Assessment and Emergency Management
      • Certainty about Communicating Uncertainty: Assessment of Flood Loss and Damage
      • Improving Understanding of Rockfall Geohazard Risk in New Zealand
      • Normalised New Zealand Natural Disaster Insurance Losses: 1968-2019
      • Houston, We Have a Problem - Seamless Integration of Weather and Climate Forecast for Community Resilience
      • Innovating with Online Data to Understand Risk and Impact in a Data Poor Environment
    • Impact Connector #11 Climate Change Mitigation, Adaptation, and Impact Assessment: views from the Pacific >
      • Introduction
      • Climate change adaptation and mitigation, impact assessment, and decision-making: a Pacific perspective
      • Climate adaptation and impact assessment in the Pacific: overview of SPREP-sponsored presentations
      • Land and Sea: Integrated Assessment of the Temaiku Land and Urban Development Project in Kiribati
      • Strategic Environmental Assessment: Rising to the SDG Challenge
      • Coastal Engineering for Climate Change Resilience in Eastern Tongatapu, Tonga
      • Climate-induced Migration in the Pacific: The Role of New Zealand
    • Impact Connector #10 Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation >
      • Introduction
      • Is a “just transition” possible for Māori?
      • Adapting to Climate Change on Scale: Addressing the Challenge and Understanding the Impacts of Asia Mega-Cities
      • How responding to climate change might affect health, for better or for worse
      • Kanuka, Kereru and carbon capture - Assessing the effects of a programme taking a fresh look at the hill and high country land resource
      • Wairoa: Community perceptions of increased afforestation
      • Te Kākahu Kahukura Ecological Restoration project: A story within a story
    • Issue #9 Impacts of Covid-19 >
      • Introduction to Impact Connector Issue 9 – Impact assessment and Covid 19
      • Covid-19 fast-track consenting: climate change legacy key to success
      • Tourism – the long haul ahead
      • Making sense of the impact of Covid-19: planning, politics, and the public good
    • Issue #8 Social Impact Assessment >
      • Challenges for Social Impact Assessment in New Zealand: looking backwards and looking forwards
      • Insights from the eighties: early Social Impact Assessment reports on rural community dynamics
      • Impact Assessment and the Capitals Framework: A Systems-based Approach to Understanding and Evaluating Wellbeing
      • Building resilience in Rural Communities – a focus on mobile population groups
      • Assessing the Impacts of a New Cycle Trail: A Fieldnote
      • The challenges of a new biodiversity strategy for social impact assessment (SIA)
      • “Say goodbye to traffic”? The role of SIA in establishing whether ‘air taxis’ are the logical next step in the evolution of transportation
    • Issue #7 Ecological Impact Assessment >
      • The future of Ecological Impact Assessment in New Zealand
      • Ecological impact assessment and roading projects
      • EcIA and the Resource Management Act
      • Professional Practice and implementation of EcIA
      • EcIA in the Marine Environment
    • Issue #6 Landscape Assessment >
      • Introduction
      • Lives and landscapes: who cares, what about, and does it matter?
      • Regional Landscape Inconsistency
      • Landscape management in the new world order
      • Landscape assessment and the Environment Court
      • Natural character assessments and provisions in a coastal environment
      • The Assessment and Management of Amenity
      • The rise of the THIMBY
      • Landscape - Is there a common understanding of the Common?
    • Issue #5 Cultural Impact Assessment >
      • Introduction
      • Potential of Cultural Impact Assessment
      • The Mitigation Dilemma
      • CIA and decision-making
      • Insights and observations on CIA
      • Achieving sustainability through CIA
      • CIA - Enhancing or diminishing mauri?
      • Strategic Indigenous Impact Assessment?
    • Issue #4 Marine Environment >
      • Introduction
      • Iwi, Impact Assessment and Marine Environment
      • Sea-Bed Mining Application in Taranaki
      • The wreck of the MV Rena
      • High Court RMA Controls on Fishing
      • Initiatives in the Pacific Islands
      • SEA in an NZ context
    • Issue #3 Strategic Environmental Assessment
    • Issue #2
    • Issue #1
  • Resources
    • Webinars
    • IAIA Resources
    • United Nations Guidance
    • Donors Guidelines and Principles
    • Oceania and the Pacific
    • Natural Systems >
      • Biodiversity & Ecosystem Services
      • Agriculture & Food Systems
      • Water Management
    • Social Impact Assessment
    • Health Impact Assessment >
      • Climate Change & Health
      • Air Quality Impact Assessment
    • Cumulative Impact Assessment
    • Community and Stakeholder Engagement
    • Indigenous Peoples
    • Climate Change and Disaster Risk Resilience >
      • Adaptation Planning
      • Nature-based Solutions
    • Urban Development
    • Sustainable Development Goals
    • Strategic Environmental Assessment
  • Community
    • Membership Directory
    • News
    • Policy Submissions >
      • Past Submissions
    • Courses