Benchmarking biodiversity integration in environmental assessments

This paper presents the results of a comprehensive analysis of Environmental Assessment (EA) practices across Denmark, Germany, Spain, and Portugal, utilizing a best practices benchmark for integrating biodiversity considerations. The benchmark evaluates the degree of alignment between both Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) and Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) reports and best practices for biodiversity integration, offering insights into the effectiveness of current EA practices. We analyzed 191 EA reports, focusing on eight key themes: significance, knowledge, synergies and trade-offs, ecosystem services, goals and visions, uncertainty, mitigation and enhancement, and monitoring. The results highlight both areas of strength, such as the use of monitoring, and areas requiring improvement, such as the integration of ecosystem services and management of synergies and trade-offs. The findings provide a basis for enhancing EA practices and ultimately promoting biodiversity conservation in spatial planning.