ID: 1790
Presenting Author: David Vieira
Session: 653 - Biodiversity Impact Assessment: Information Disclosure, Risk Identification, and Legal Regulation
Status: pending
Comparative analysis of CDP biodiversity disclosures and EIA practices in Brazilian and EU mining companies, highlighting contextual and regulatory influences on transparency.
This paper conducts a comparative analysis of biodiversity-related disclosures by mining companies from Brazil and the European Union (EU), based on the 2023 Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) database—acquired for this research and not publicly available—and the 2025 CDP questionnaire. The analysis compares the 2023 questions and corporate responses of six Brazilian and 17 European mining companies and examines how the 2025 questions address biodiversity issues. A qualitative content analysis was performed in Atlas.ti, following a summative approach. The study assessed the wording of CDP questions and the quality of corporate responses, categorized by completeness, outcome, and thematic scope. Results indicate that Brazilian companies provided proportionally more complete and detailed answers, despite the EU’s more stringent requirements under the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD). The findings also reveal contextual differences in the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) process, such as Brazil’s continuous analysis of biodiversity monitoring reports in order to maintain an Operational License (LO), in contrast with the EU's EIA process. Overall, the study suggests that regulatory disclosure obligations alone do not guarantee higher-quality reporting; contextual pressures, such as environmental accountability and recent mining disasters, play a critical role in shaping corporate transparency. The study contributes to understanding the evolving landscape of biodiversity disclosure and its connections with other regulatory processes, such as the EIA.
Master’s student in Mining Engineering, focused on corporate biodiversity targets and information disclosure within Environmental Impact Assessment and monitoring practices.
Coauthor 1: Luis Enrique Sánchez
Coauthor 2: Thayla Zomer