ISO 17298:2025, published in October 2025, is ISO's first International Standard on biodiversity, and it sets requirements and guidelines for considering biodiversity in an organisation's strategy and operations. Its requirements sit in clauses 4 to 9, which take you from scoping and stakeholder involvement, through assessing dependencies, impacts, risks and opportunities, to a monitored biodiversity action plan.
This guide is for sustainability, environment and risk managers deciding how to apply it.
What is ISO 17298:2025 and who is it for?
The full title is "Biodiversity: Considering biodiversity in the strategy and operations of organizations: Requirements and guidelines". It is the first edition, 20 pages long, and was prepared by ISO/TC 331, the technical committee on biodiversity. ISO launched it on 7 October 2025 at its annual meeting in Kigali, Rwanda. AFNOR, the French standards body, chairs ISO/TC 331.
The standard applies to any organisation, whatever its size, sector or starting point. That includes companies, public bodies, local authorities and associations. You can apply it to a defined area, such as a production site, a farm or a commercial zone, or to the whole organisation.
ISO links the standard to Target 15 of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, which asks large companies and financial institutions to assess and disclose their biodiversity risks, dependencies and impacts. The details are on ISO's ISO 17298 page.
Is ISO 17298 a management system standard?
Not in the usual ISO sense. Standards such as ISO 14001 follow ISO's Harmonized Structure, with clauses on leadership, planning, support, operation, performance evaluation and improvement. ISO 17298 does not. Its clauses follow the steps of what it calls a "biodiversity approach", and the requirements end at clause 9.
The standard says the approach can run on its own or alongside an environmental management system such as ISO 14001, or a social responsibility approach based on ISO 26000. It has no normative references, so it does not depend on another standard. The steps are iterative, and the standard expects organisations to move back and forth between them.
In practice, many organisations will run it inside an existing ISO 14001 system. Our guide to ISO 14001 environmental management covers that system. Any internal audit, document control or management review you add comes from your own system, not from an ISO 17298 clause with that name.
What do clauses 4 to 9 of ISO 17298 cover?
The table lists the clause and subclause headings from ISO's published table of contents. The right-hand column is AGS's interpretation of the evidence an organisation would typically keep, not wording from the standard.
| Clause | What it covers | Evidence you would typically keep |
|---|---|---|
| 4 Context of the biodiversity approach | Scope of the approach, review of existing policies and actions, interested parties, staying updated | Scope and boundary statement, review of current initiatives, legal and knowledge watch register |
| 5 Involvement of interested parties | How interested parties take part | Engagement and consultation records |
| 6 Identifying and prioritizing | Material ecosystem service dependencies, material impacts, material risks and opportunities, prioritization | Dependency and impact assessments, risk and opportunity register, prioritisation matrix |
| 7 Formalizing the biodiversity action plan | Ambition, objectives, action planning, indicators, fit with the local context | Ambition statement, objectives, action plan, indicator definitions |
| 8 Communication | Internal and external communication of results | Communication plan and published results |
| 9 Implementation, monitoring and review | Implementation, monitoring indicators, analysis of results, continual improvement | Monitoring log, indicator analysis, improvement actions |
Two annexes support the clauses. Annex A lists resources for implementing a biodiversity approach, and Annex B applies the DPSIR framework (drivers, pressures, state, impacts, responses) to biodiversity.
How do you identify and prioritise dependencies, impacts, risks and opportunities?
Clause 6 is the analytical core, and it works in four passes. You identify the ecosystem services you depend on, then your impacts on biodiversity and ecosystem services, then the risks and opportunities that follow. Finally you prioritise them. The word "material" appears in each identification step, so the standard expects you to concentrate on what matters most.
What this looks like depends on the level you chose in clause 4. A quarry or a coastal hotel will usually work at site level. Its dependencies might include water supply and erosion control, and its impacts habitat loss, noise and runoff. A food manufacturer or retailer will usually work at organisation level, because most of its dependencies and impacts sit in the farms and fisheries it buys from.
Write down why each item was ranked high or low. The ranking drives every objective in the action plan, so a weak record here weakens everything after it. If you need to put a monetary value on an impact or a dependency, our guide to ISO 14007 and ISO 14008 environmental valuation explains the methods.
What goes into an ISO 17298 biodiversity action plan?
Clause 7 turns the priorities into a plan. It starts with the organisation's overall ambition, then sets objectives, plans the actions, sets indicators and checks that the plan fits the local context. A site plan should reflect local species, habitats and existing conservation work rather than a group template.
The standard defines the mitigation hierarchy among its terms. It starts with avoiding impacts, then minimising those that cannot be avoided, then restoring on site, and treats offsets as the last step where feasible and necessary. Using that order when you choose actions gives the plan a defensible logic.
Clauses 8 and 9 close the loop. You communicate results internally and externally, implement the actions, monitor the indicators, analyse the results and improve. If you also report under ISO 26000, our guide to ISO 26000 and SA8000 shows where the environment sits among its core subjects.
Can an organisation be certified to ISO 17298?
ISO does not certify organisations to any standard. ISO 17298 contains requirements, so a certification body can audit against them. Before you commit, ask any body offering ISO 17298 certification whether the certificate is accredited, and by which accreditation body.
AFNOR reported in October 2025 that its AFAQ Biodiversité certification, based on the French standard NF X32-001, will be updated to include the requirements of ISO 17298. Its AFNOR article gives the background. Until you hold a certificate, describe your work as following or aligned with ISO 17298.
How AGS can help
The ISO 17298-2025 Biodiversity Management System kit contains 54 editable Microsoft Word documents. It includes a manual with a clause-to-document map, a process scheme, 12 procedures and 20 forms, covering the dependency and impact assessments, the action plan and indicator sheets. There are also 2 record registers, 9 checklists, 5 guidance notes on topics such as the mitigation hierarchy and DPSIR, 3 training documents and a master index.
Frequently asked questions
How does ISO 17298 relate to TNFD?
The Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures is a liaison organisation to ISO/TC 331. It says it supported the standard's development, building on its LEAP approach (locate, evaluate, assess, prepare).
Are more ISO biodiversity standards on the way?
Yes. ISO says future work includes vocabulary, biodiversity net gain and the characterisation of products based on native species.
Is ISO 17298 only for large companies?
No. Its scope covers organisations from large groups to single-member companies, and ISO says it suits SMEs, public institutions and cities.
Does buying documentation mean the organisation will be certified?
No. Documents are a starting point. Any certification depends on how the approach works in practice and on the certification body's audit findings.
AGS provides independent documentation toolkits. This guide and the referenced documents are prepared to support ISO 17298:2025 requirements. They are not affiliated with, endorsed by or approved by ISO, AFNOR, TNFD or any certification body, and they do not guarantee any certification outcome.
Reviewed October 2026. Facts checked against the sources current at publication.
