What Is The Mitigation & Conservation Hierarchy?

This framework from the Conservation Hierarchy outlines four steps (refrain, reduce, restore, and renew) that can be implemented to help businesses advance nature-positive outcomes. The steps can be implemented via two pathways: the mitigation hierarchy, for mitigating future negative impacts, and the conservation hierarchy, for delivering additional conservation potential. The framework is based on the well-established 'mitigation hierarchy' for addressing impacts on biodiversity, and moves beyond it by recognising the need to address past, indirect, and diffuse negative impacts on biodiversity and by combining impact mitigation and proactive conservation. Understanding and implementing this framework is an important starting point for any business that is committed to addressing its direct and indirect impact on nature.