Criterion: Biodiversity and Productive Land
Policy commitment to no net loss of biodiversity, baseline conditions assessment, conservation targets, and action plans to prevent and mitigate adverse impacts on critical habitats and biodiversity.
Full Description
ENV07 Biodiversity and Productive Land
Standard Section: 7.7 Category: Environmental Scheme: Responsible Minerals Assurance Process (RMAP) Standard Version: 2.0 for Piloting (effective April 30, 2025)
Overview
Policy commitment to no net loss of biodiversity, baseline conditions assessment, conservation targets, and action plans to prevent and mitigate adverse impacts on critical habitats and biodiversity.
Requirements
The Facility shall:
- 7.7.1 Establish a documented policy that includes the following commitments for biodiversity conservation:
- a) No net loss of biodiversity or critical habitat over the Facility's lifecycle, with consideration for net gain.
- b) Prohibit exploration or development of new projects in World Heritage Sites, and respect limitations established in designated protected areas and their buffer zones.
- c) Avoid or minimize deforestation and forest degradation during planning and construction of Facilities.
- 7.7.2 Identify baseline conditions of the biological environment, including known locations of critical habitat, biodiversity and conservation status of flora and fauna, land conservation status, historical information on deforestation, soil health, and the productive value of the land in scope. This includes assessment of all soil contaminants related to current and past site use.
- 7.7.3 When a Facility determines that there are no salient biodiversity impacts in scope of the Facility's operations, they shall document their findings and provide evidence of how they conducted the assessment.
- 7.7.4 Establish and document targets for biodiversity conservation in alignment with the commitment to achieve no net loss of biodiversity.
- 7.7.5 Establish documented action plans, consistent with mitigation hierarchy, to prevent, mitigate, and remediate adverse impacts on biodiversity and productive land. This shall include measures to avoid adverse impacts on critical habitats and endangered species and minimize deforestation. Where offsets are used as part of an action plan to meet targets or address impacts, the source and nature of the offset accreditation shall be publicly disclosed.
Source: RMI Facility Standard for Social, Environmental, OHS and Governance Risks, Version 2.0 for Piloting (April 2025), Section 7.7
Profiles using this criterion
Responsible Minerals Assurance Process
Conformity Alignment
Meets
Pass: Yes
Definition: "Facility has a documented biodiversity conservation policy (committing to no net loss, no development in World Heritage Sites, and minimizing deforestation), has established biological baseline conditions including critical habitat and land conservation status, documented biodiversity targets, and implemented action plans consistent with the mitigation hierarchy to prevent, mitigate, and remediate adverse impacts on biodiversity and productive land."
Partially Meets
Pass: No
Definition: "Biodiversity management exists but is incomplete: e.g., policy commitments exist but baseline conditions have not been established, biodiversity assessment has been conducted but no targets or action plans are in place, or action plans do not adequately address critical habitats or endangered species."
Remediation: 180 days
Does Not Meet
Pass: No
Definition: "No documented biodiversity policy, no baseline assessment of biological environment, no biodiversity targets, or no action plans to prevent and mitigate adverse impacts on biodiversity and productive land."
Remediation: 90 days
Priority
Pass: No
Definition: "Priority findings are not raised against this criterion. Biodiversity impacts are assessed under Does not Meet."
Remediation: 30 days
Not Applicable
Pass: Yes
Definition: "This criterion may be not applicable where the facility's ESG risk assessment confirms no salient biodiversity impacts within scope of operations. The facility must document its assessment findings and methodology as evidence."
Not Able To Assess
Pass: No
Definition: "The assessor was unable to access biodiversity assessment reports, baseline studies, or inspect the site to verify the status of biodiversity impacts."
Change Log
1.0.0 (2026-06-24)
Initial release.