The Mistra BIOPATH research programme is carried out in three work packages

Our structure for reaching our vision and aims in the first four years of the BIOPATH programme is built around three interrelated work packages (WPs). The WPs have distinct characters, focussing on quantification of biodiversity impact (WP1), integration of biodiversity into financial decision making (W2) and mainstreaming biodiversity through governance innovation (WP3), yet closely integrated through the set-up of the organisational structure, research tasks, and sub-tasks.

Our focus will initially be direct and indirect effects on land-use change and management intensity related to agriculture, forestry and energy, because land-use is the largest driver of terrestrial biodiversity loss. To this end, we build on our extensive experience in the fields of land-use and biodiversity. Over the programme period, we will consider additional drivers of biodiversity loss affected by industry, including a wider take on land-use as well as emerging drivers such as climate change.

WP 1 - Quantifying Biodiversity Impact for Industry and the Financial system

Academic leaders: Henrik G. Smith (Lund University, LU), Johanna Alkan Olsson (LU)
Partner leaders: Ashley Marie Montcalm (Arla Foods), Olle Eliasson (Kraftringen), Sara Kralmark (Kraftringen), Jessica Nordin (Södra Skogsägarna)
Participating researchers: Ulrika Palme (Chalmers), Ullrika Sahlin (LU), Thomas Sterner (GU), Ben Groom (University of Exeter), Daniele Silvestro (Fribourg/GU), Pål Börjesson (LU), Marie Stenseke (GU), Alexandre Antonelli (GU/Royal Botanical Gardens Kew), William Sidemo Holm, (Postdoc LU), Carla Coelho, (Postdoc LU), Abigail Starkey (PhD LU), Carlos Jair Munoz (PhD LU)

WP 1 will systematically map and evaluate available approaches (methods, metrics, and tools) that link decisions in industry and the financial system with impacts on biodiversity and ecosystem services/nature’s contribution to people, as well as evaluate how useful, transparent, relevant, and credible they are. In addition, WP1 will consider issues of limitations regarding systems understanding and data. The mapping will serve as a baseline for guidance for use, refinement of existing, and innovation of new approaches tailored to inform decision-making that directly and indirectly affects land-use change and management on consequences for biodiversity and ecosystem services.

The tasks will include rapid selfassessments salient to decision-makers and possible to apply at low cost, adapted Life Cycle Assessments (LCA) suitable for financial and industrial decision-making, and a novel advanced tools that exploit big data using artificial intelligence and BIG data capturing spatially explicit biodiversity impacts and risks. Approaches will be tested in joint case studies with our partners, in order to identify gaps in information and metrics used, determine their usability and when possible, ground-truth outcomes, so that they can advise on further developments and ultimately to user-friendly tools for use in financial decision-making.

WP 2 Integration of Biodiversity considerations into Financial Decision-making

Academic leaders: Susanne Arvidsson (Lund University, LU), Viktor Elliot (University of Gothenburg, GU),
Partner leaders: Catharina Belfrage Sahlstrand (Handelsbanken), Philip Gudinge (Handelsbanken) Camilla Johansson (Handelsbanken) Peter Lööw (Stora Enso) Kenneth Collander (Stora Enso)
Participating researchers: Hossein Asgharian (LU), Fredrik NG Andersson (LU), Ylva Baeckström (FIN - Kings College, GU), Mari Paananen (GU), Krisitina Jonäll (GU), Michal Dzielinski (Stockholm University, SU), Lu Liu (SU), Sara Linnéa Jonsson (SU), Giovanna Michelon (Bristol University), Frederik Steen Lundtofte (Aalborg University), Johan Magnusson (GU), Andrea Neagu (PhD LU), Van Cao Thi Hong (PhD LU), Emma Tova Olofsson (PhD GU).

WP 2 will systematically map best practices for integrating biodiversity consideration among financial market actors as well as land-using industrial firms in their decision-making processes across the value chains of agriculture, forestry and energy, and evaluate them based on their usability for actionable decision-making. The mapping is conducted in close collaboration with WP1 and WP3 and will serve as a baseline for our development of an online-based configurator for efficient integration of biodiversity into financial decision-making and novel approaches (methods, metrics, tools) accounting for biodiversity impacts and restoration for example in investment decisions, portfolio analyses, capital acquisition, insurance, and lending.

The methods, metrics and tools will be tested with selected partners to ensure usability including compliance with existing regulatory requirements, operational efficiency, and scalability. These approaches will also be tailored to and tested in a wider context to analyse the financial performance of investments that promote biodiversity, whether portfolios can be altered to reduce nature-based risks/impact at low cost to return, and whether these investments have a de facto positive impact on biodiversity or only a reduced negative impact.

WP 3 Mainstreaming Biodiversity through Governance Innovations

Academic leaders: Nils Droste (Lund University, LU), Lena Gipperth (University of Gothenburg, GU)
Partner leaders: Amanda Björsell (LRF), Eva Mayerhofer (The European Investment Bank), Stefan Karlsson (The Swedish Forest Agency), Giuliana Zanchi ( The Swedish Forest Agency)
Participating researchers: Mine Islar (LU), Jesper Svensson (Postdoc LU), Jens Christiansen, Postdoc (LU), Julia Qian Mao, PhD (LU), Lovisa Fransson (PhD GU)

WP 3 will deliver scientific knowledge about the current state of the regulatory system regarding the financial system and land-using industries in relation to how they consider the needs of biodiversity. A key focus is improving the informational basis for public regulation and monitoring of market-based approaches for biodiversity, in particular through the development of (sub)national accounts for biodiversity and an assessment of the alignment of public finances with biodiversity.

This development of decision supporting approaches will provide the basis for co-creative policy labs, through the establishment of a transdisciplinary research network with our partners. These policy labs will constitute co-creative spaces in which experiences from the markets, the regulators, and science will come together and jointly identify gaps and innovate solutions to improve the overall system performance to protect biodiversity. The most promising solutions will be brought to fruition for pilot testing through either imaginative scenario planning or experimental applications that pave the ground for larger scale transformations.