Question-ID: 1172

The undertaking is required to disclose the total area (in hectares) of a site owned, leased or managed in or near protected areas or key biodiversity areas if it has activities related to these sites that are negatively affecting a biodiversity-sensitive area. The disclosure refers to the total area of the site, not just the portion that may fall within or be adjacent to the biodiversity-sensitive area.

Information on the total size of a site can be relevant to assess the undertaking’s actual and potential impacts, as activities carried out in the site beyond the immediately adjacent or overlapping portions of a site can still affect biodiversity-sensitive areas nearby.

What to consider as ‘near’ depends on the type of impact that the company has on the biodiversity-sensitive area. It could, for example, depend on the type and amount of pollutant emitted by the undertaking and whether it is transported by water flows (e.g. rivers), ground water or air currents, potentially impacting aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems kilometres away from the pollution source.

If the impact is directly related to land-use or land-use change, an understanding of the portion of the site overlapping or adjacent to the biodiversity-sensitive area will better inform the assessment of the impact of the undertaking on the biodiversity-sensitive site.

However, if the impacts are related to the integrity/fragmentation of habitats or the structural connectivity of ecosystems that affect the movement of species between different areas, then land-use or land-use change may be relevant to characterise even if not adjacent or overlapping with the biodiversity-sensitive area. For example, the enlargement of a production site or land-use change for agriculture between two biodiversity-sensitive areas may affect the connectivity between the populations of a species and have a significant effect on their overall viability on both biodiversity-sensitive areas. In this case, the undertaking’s site is not overlapping with or adjacent to any biodiversity-sensitive area, but the undertaking will define as ‘near’ the two biodiversity-sensitive sites based on its assessment of its actual or potential material impacts.

Characteristics like magnitude (e.g. amount of contaminant, noise intensity), spatial extent (e.g. area of land contaminated, area of land converted to agriculture, size of habitat fragmentation) and temporal extent (e.g. duration of persistence of contaminant, duration of habitat modification) determine how impacts affect ecosystems and biodiversity and at what distance and therefore help identify whether the undertaking’s site is located ‘near’ a biodiversity-sensitive area.