Biodiversity and Ecosystem
Supporting the SDGs Goals
The Bank recognizes the importance of biodiversity and has established policies to ensure that its operations do not adversely affect biodiversity. The Bank also refrains from providing financing to customers whose activities are likely to cause significant environmental impacts, including risks or impacts related to environmental and social issues, community health and safety, biodiversity, and cultural heritage.
Stakeholders Directly Impacted
Our Goals
Challenge and Opportunity
The Bank has adopted the International Finance Corporation (IFC) Performance Standards as its Environmental and Social Management System (ESMS) policy to serve as the Bank’s operational guidelines for assessing environmental and social risks. Under this ESMS framework, it is a challenge to communicate the Bank’s operational procedures to internal personnel, customers, partners, and all relevant stakeholders.
Management Approach and Value Creation
In 2023, the Bank collaborated with the International Finance Corporation (IFC) to adopt the IFC Performance Standards as the basis for developing the Bank’s Environmental and Social Management System (ESMS). This framework serves as a guideline for assessing environmental and social risks associated with the Bank’s lending customers. Under the ESMS framework, the Bank will not conduct transactions with customers whose activities are likely to result in significant environmental impacts that may be sensitive, diverse, or uncertain due to the absence of precedent. These include activities associated with:
- Involuntary resettlement
- Risks of adverse impacts on indigenous peoples
- Significant environmental or social risks or impacts, including community health and safety, biodiversity, and cultural heritage
- significant workforce retrenchment
- significant occupational health and safety risks, including risks of serious injury or fatality to workers. The policy also covers activities such as marine fishing using drift nets exceeding 2.5 kilometers in length and marine or coastal fishing practices that may significantly harm vulnerable and protected species, biodiversity, or marine habitats.
The Bank is currently studying biodiversity-related risk assessments to further integrate such considerations into its operations and to develop more effective approaches for managing and mitigating these risks.