Biodiversity in Project Life Cycle

Manage your biodiversity objectives and advance your projects with certainty.

Along with climate change, loss of biodiversity and its cascading impacts have spurred global initiatives to reverse the trend and shifted the attention of investors, governments and the public to focus on environmental, social and governance (ESG) objectives of corporations and their considerations for biodiversity protection in their projects and operations. Now is a critical period for organizations across sectors and industries to integrate biodiversity management in their project life cycle planning to remain on track with evolving requirements and stakeholders’ expectations.

Featured capabilities

Our biodiversity experts help you manage your biodiversity objectives from the project outset to completion. From project designs, specialized studies and assessments to management strategy to restoration and offset plans, we cover the whole gamut of biodiversity management in the project life cycle. Whether you involve us in the early, middle or end-stage of the project life cycle, we can support you in achieving your biodiversity performance goals and creating sustainable, long-term value.

Biodiversity baseline characterization

Effective biodiversity management starts with understanding the biodiversity within your project vicinity.

It’s what allows you to know the potential project impacts and subsequently define mitigation plans to protect or restore biodiversity. WSP draws on the multidisciplinary expertise of industry-leading in-house biologists and ecologists and the traditional knowledge of local and Indigenous communities to support baseline characterization for your project. We combine our experience covering all major biomes on the planet with our internal bench strength and extensive global network of partners and specialists to design and implement advanced data collection techniques that we adapt to each unique project context. Whether your project involves deserts, tropical forests, mountain streams and arctic marine ecosystems, our biodiversity experts can help you start your project off right.

Specialized biodiversity studies

Specialized in-depth studies help you improve your understanding of potential project impacts on one or more biodiversity features, especially for species of conservation concern.

WSP’s team of quantitative ecologists can help facilitate these studies when needed. Whether your project requires telemetry studies, wildlife corridor definition, species distribution models, resource selection functions, carrying capacity models, population viability analyses, or other rigorous analyses, we can support you in meeting your unique project needs and goals.

Critical habitat assessment

Knowing whether critical habitat is present in your project vicinity early in the project planning stages helps with successful project design and implementation.

It’s also required by international best practices (e.g., IFC standards) to ensure appropriate management plans are identified, defined and developed for projects with the potential to impact key conservation features. WSP is practiced in preparing Critical Habitat Assessments, which are built on the conservation principles of uniqueness, vulnerability and irreplaceability to identify areas of exceptional biodiversity conservation importance. We can help you identify critical habitats based on the presence of highly threatened or locally endemic species, key areas supporting migratory or congregation species, threatened and/or unique ecosystems and areas associated with evolutionary processes, allowing you to plan your project with a clear understanding of potential challenges, needs and goals.

Project design optimization and nature-based solutions

Ensuring proposed projects work in harmony with the natural environment is important to us.

Not only are the costs of biodiversity loss and ecosystem degradation substantial, but the operational, reputational, and financial implications for clients are significant. That’s why we recommend you involve us early in the design phase to ensure nature-based solutions are integrated, and the mitigation hierarchy focused on avoidance and minimization is implemented. WSP brings specialized skills and know-how underpinned by our broad experience working with clients to optimize projects in extremely sensitive biodiversity hotspots in the world. Whether you involve us early or mid-way through the project planning process, we can help improve your biodiversity outcomes, achieving nature-positive results and long-term value.

Environmental and social impact assessment

Environmental and Social Impact Assessments (ESIAs) are essential to obtaining permits and investments and central to developing projects that meet increasingly stringent corporate ESG standards.

They allow you to gain a clear understanding of the impacts your project could have on biodiversity and leverage that information to optimize your project plan to gain the legal and social licence to operate. WSP brings an integrated multidisciplinary perspective to impact assessment bolstered by our experience facilitating federal and provincial regulatory approvals and permitting requirements, working with stakeholders and Indigenous communities, applying international best practices and obtaining project approvals. We ensure you are engaged throughout the process and leverage our diverse experience to deliver successful ESIAs for scalable projects of disparate complexity and magnitude.

Management strategies for biodiversity protection

Every project and environment presents unique situations, biological characteristics and biodiversity concerns.

Understanding this, WSP works closely with you to implement the mitigation hierarchy by developing a targeted biodiversity management strategy for your project. We help you protect and enhance biodiversity during project implementation with bespoke strategies to address your needs, challenges and goals by developing a wide range of plans, including:

Biodiversity Management Plans
Wildlife Management Plans
Vegetation and Habitats Management Plans
Species-Specific Management Plans
Invasive Plant Management Plans
Monitoring and Adaptive Management Plans

Biodiversity action plan

If you suspect your project may potentially impact highly sensitive biodiversity features, developing a Biodiversity Action Plan (BAP) targeting no net loss or net gain relative to the impacts of your project will help you gain peace of mind and social acceptability.

Experienced in developing BAPs in compliance with IFC, AFDB, EMBRD and World Bank requirements, WSP can help you achieve your project goals while avoiding potentially costly nature-negative results. With the support of our international network, our locally dedicated experts can help implement robust BAPs, including rigorous stakeholder engagement programs.

Restoration and offset plans

Certain projects, such as Greenfield projects, can have adverse impacts on biodiversity even with mitigation measures in place due to the nature of the project components.

When this happens, restoration is central to remedy the effects by putting biodiversity value back on a disturbed landscape. Where restoration is not enough, an offset strategy is needed to neutralize the net loss or achieve a net gain. WSP's biodiversity specialists and planners are adept at developing programs that combine our understanding of your corporate, regulator and stakeholder responsibilities concerning biodiversity and maximize your net gain to ensure your project results in nature-positive outcomes.

Biodiversity loss-gain calculations

Biodiversity loss-gain calculations allow for tracking and demonstrating how net gains balance biodiversity losses over time.

They enable you to identify when no net loss or net gain for biodiversity has been achieved. Drawing on our experience developing a variety of metrics tailored to specific environments and meet applicable regulations, we can help you develop appropriate metrics for your project.

Biodiversity monitoring and evaluation

Monitoring biodiversity enables you to verify predicted impacts on biodiversity and evaluate the effectiveness of actions taken to avoid, minimize or offset the effects.

Subsequently, the data collected through monitoring will enable you to evaluate the effectiveness of mitigation measures implemented and adjust accordingly. WSP can help you develop and execute both short and long-term tracking suitable for a wide range of sectors and jurisdictions worldwide using novel techniques, such as eDNA to monitor biodiversity.

Clients we help

	Mining, resource and industry We help you meet regulatory requirements or best practices by laying a solid foundation base that comes from understanding your project and the biodiversity it might impact. We use this information to support your project through permitting, operations and closure by helping you develop and implement appropriate plans to avoid and minimize impacts to biodiversity and restore and offset impacts that cannot be prevented.
	Investor and private equity firms Through a wide range of studies and assessments and a detailed review of your portfolio, we provide you with science data and advice drawn from years of experience essential for you to make informed investment and business decisions.
	Forestry and agriculture We help you improve biodiversity performance in response to regulatory changes and growing public pressure. Further, we deliver sound advice and technical capabilities to help you navigate biodiversity and ESG challenges and goals.
	Energy providers and utilities Working with us, you’ll gain science-based data to integrate into your business decision-making process to optimize your project implementation. We provide a combination of technical expertise and strategic guidance needed to help you manage risk, capture opportunities, and minimize your project’s adverse impacts on biodiversity and ecosystems.