Biodiversity: your main obligations

Biodiversity, a contraction of biological and diversity, represents the diversity of the living world at all levels: fauna, flora, environments, natural resources...

The 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro established the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). The aim of this international commitment is to develop national strategies for the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity. To date, this convention has been ratified by some 190 countries, including France on July 1 ^er 1994.

In 2004, France decided to give concrete form to this international commitment by launching the National Biodiversity Strategy (SNB) 2011-2020. The idea is to put in place a coherent framework so that all public and private project sponsors can be aware of biodiversity issues and act accordingly.

The Grenelle de l'environnement process began in 2007, leading to the adoption of French law no. 2010-788 of July 12, 2010, on the "national commitment to the environment", known as Grenelle 2. This law includes a chapter on biodiversity (chapter 4, articles 94 et seq.), the aim of which is to ensure the proper functioning of ecosystems by protecting species and habitats.

In this context, it is important to identify :

• Biodiversity stakeholders, from whom you can gather information;

• regulatory constraints specific to biodiversity ;

• tools for self-assessing the impact of your activity on biodiversity.

Law no. 2016-1087 of August 8, 2016 for the reconquest of biodiversity, nature and landscapes, published in the Journal officiel of August 9, 2016, contains several provisions designed to protect biodiversity.