The development of the biological diversity protocol and its effectiveness in discharging accountability for nature, species and biodiversity

Abstract

Purpose This paper aims to explore how the development and use of the Biological Diversity Protocol render biodiversity impacts calculable and how Protocol-generated information may support organizational decision-making and accountability for biodiversity protection. It also examines the Protocol's relevance to rewilding and de-extinction while distinguishing impact measurement from organizational, stakeholder and ecological outcomes. Design/methodology/approach The study adopts a qualitative design involving document analysis, a focused, structured review of relevant academic and practitioner materials, and semi-structured interviews with purposively selected stakeholders, protocol developers, biodiversity and spatial-data specialists, participants with experience supporting organizational applications and stakeholder engagement, and an assurance provider. The analysis is informed by sensemaking theory to examine how biodiversity accountability is constructed around the protocol in practice. Atlas.ti software (Version 24) was used in analyzing the data from the second empirical phase, semi-structured interviews. Findings The BD Protocol renders biodiversity impacts organizationally visible through boundary-setting, reference states, impact inventories, and the accounting of gains and losses. Participants reported that Protocol-generated information was used for biodiversity baseline and footprint assessments, value-chain analysis, management reporting, budgeting and disclosure, as well as for evaluating rehabilitation, restoration, offsetting and other conservation actions. Its broader accountability contribution is nevertheless conditioned by data quality, resource and expertise constraints, incomplete value-chain coverage, limited organizational and policy integration and the absence of a Protocol-specific assurance benchmark. The findings, thus, distinguish the Protocol's demonstrated calculative contribution from participant-reported organizational uses and conservation-related outcomes. Originality/value The study explains how a South African-developed biodiversity-accounting protocol converts ecological complexity into organizational accounts and identifies the conditions under which calculative sensemaking may or may not develop into integrated, credible and outcome-oriented biodiversity accountability.