Theiva Lingam, Sahabat Alam Malaysia - Friends of the Earth Malaysia
In the implementation of the KMGBF, a key but neglected aspect is the role of sectors, corporations, financial institutions, and supply chains driving biodiversity loss. The Global Review should explicitly name the activities of destructive sectors as root causes of ecological destruction. This issue is not sufficiently addressed in the Global Review, which mirrors the lack of ambition in Target 15.
As currently framed, Target 15 requires governments to ‘encourage and enable businesses, particularly large and transnational corporations and financial institutions, (…) to progressively reduce negative impacts on biodiversity and increase positive impacts…’ through self-assessments, monitoring, and disclosure. Evidence shows that voluntary self-reporting often lacks clear data, common standards, independent checks, and proof that companies are actually reducing harm. We cannot disclose our way out of ecological collapse.
What is urgently needed are binding national laws, under international coordination, that legally obligate businesses and financial institutions to prevent, mitigate, and remedy biodiversity harm across their operations, subsidiaries, and supply chains. Where companies seeking profit destroy ecosystems, threaten key biodiversity areas, or violate the rights of indigenous peoples, governments must act decisively by denying permits, suspending operations, imposing meaningful penalties, requiring ecological restoration and rehabilitation, and securing reparations for affected communities. These measures must be accompanied by robust participatory processes and the guaranteed right to free, prior and informed consent.
Target 15 must also be read in conjunction with Targets 18 and 19. Governments cannot ask companies to disclose their impacts and risks while continuing to subsidise environmentally destructive industries or failing to finance genuine alternatives. Harmful subsidies, tax incentives, and other forms of public support for destructive activities must be phased out, while public finance is redirected toward agroecology, ecosystem restoration, community-based conservation, and indigenous and local governance systems.
The biodiversity crisis will not be solved through better reporting alone. It demands that governments confront concentrated corporate power, regulate destructive sectors, end unsustainable extractive models, and place justice, human rights, and ecological integrity at the heart of implementation. Only then can biodiversity policy move beyond compliance and become a genuine force for transformation.