Professional biodiversity studio: access biodiversity data, analyse nature on demand. This manual takes a corporation from scoping to a TNFD-aligned report, and uses Gaia (gaia.eco) as the data and analysis platform in every LEAP phase.

Gaia Map and Gaia Layers are used in every phase. Gaia Nexus starts at Evaluate and Gaia Traits at Assess, and both carry the nature-based solutions in Prepare.

0. Decisions to lock, and the Gaia modules used

Lock the eight decisions below in the first two weeks and record them in a one-page scoping memo signed by the executive sponsor. Decision 4 is easier once a first Gaia screening of all sites exists (section 2, step L2): it shows where species records and protected habitats concentrate.

What Gaia does and what stays with you

Gaia modules used in this manual

Definitions used throughout this manual

• Dependency: reliance on an ecosystem service (for example water supply, pollination, flood regulation).

• Impact: a change in the state of nature caused by your activity, positive or negative.

• Priority location: a location that is material to you, sensitive for nature, or both. These are the locations you disclose under Strategy D.

• Sensitive location: high biodiversity importance, high ecosystem integrity, rapid decline in ecosystem integrity, high physical water risk, or important to Indigenous Peoples, Local Communities and affected stakeholders.

Status of the standard (as of 12 Oct 2026): TNFD v1.0 recommendations and LEAP guidance remain the working basis. The ISSB exposure draft on nature-related disclosures is due this month; re-check requirements against it before finalising scope (decision 1).

1. Governance and setup, with Gaia evidence

Set up the programme in the first month. Gaia gives the board something concrete to oversee: dated biodiversity KPIs per site, in one place, instead of a narrative.

Procedure

1. Appoint an executive sponsor (C-level) and a programme lead (sustainability or risk). Week 1.

2. Issue the scoping memo from section 0 as the programme charter, with budget and timeline.

3. Form a working group with one named lead per function in the table below. Meet every two weeks during LEAP.

4. Name a Gaia data owner (programme lead or analyst). That person holds the Gaia account, the parameter sheet (section 8) and the export archive.

5. Brief the board or its sustainability/audit committee. Add nature-related dependencies, impacts, risks and opportunities to the committee's terms of reference and a recurring agenda item. Keep minutes: they are the evidence for Governance A.

6. Present the first Gaia screening (section 2, step L2) to the committee, so the first oversight meeting works from site-level data.

7. Collect existing policies on human rights, Indigenous Peoples, Local Communities and stakeholder engagement. If none exist, record the gap; Governance C asks you to describe them.

Responsibilities (R = does the work, A = accountable, C = consulted, I = informed)

Input inventory

Evidence to retain for the Governance disclosures

2. Locate with Gaia Map and Gaia Layers

Locate produces one deliverable: a register of priority locations (material, sensitive, or both). It feeds Strategy D directly. With Gaia, steps L2 to L4 are one repeatable search per site instead of a manual data hunt across portals. Allow 4 to 6 weeks.

Step L1: scope the business model and value chain

1. List business units, products and production processes in scope (decision 4 in section 0).

2. For each, draw the value chain: upstream inputs and raw materials, direct operations, downstream use and disposal.

3. Record the geographies per stage. Where the origin is unknown, record the country or sourcing region and mark it "estimated".

4. Run a sector screening of dependencies and impacts per production process, for example with ENCORE (Natural Capital Finance Alliance). Gaia does not replace this sector-level screen; it adds the site-level evidence in the next steps.

Output: value chain map per business unit and a sector screening matrix.

Step L2: screen every site in Gaia Map

1. Fix the search parameters once, in the parameter sheet (section 8): radius around each site, time window, taxonomic groups, data sources, minimum record count.

2. For each site, open Gaia Map at the site coordinates and run the search with those parameters. Gaia returns species occurrences and eDNA records with their place and time stamps. The records come from GBIF, and Gaia uses only records licensed for commercial use. Gaia filters and checks them where feasible, so the result is a curated dataset. Note the filters applied in the parameter sheet.

3. Read the biodiversity KPIs Gaia calculates for the area: species richness, Shannon-Wiener index, Berger-Parker index, Simpson dominance index (definitions in section 7).

4. Record, per site: number of records, number of species, the three indexes, date of extraction.

5. Rank sites by the indexes and by the presence of protected, red-listed or invasive species. Use the ranking to choose where Evaluate starts.

Output: site screening table (template below).

Example: a food plant and a warehouse both sit in one municipality. Run both with the same 2 km radius and the same 10-year window. The plant returns 1,900 records, 310 species and a low Berger-Parker value (many species share the records); the warehouse returns 140 records and one species making up half of them. Report both with the record counts, because the warehouse figure rests on little data. All figures in this example are illustrative, not real data.

Step L3: add habitat and protection context in Gaia Layers

1. Open Gaia Layers for each site. Load the WMS and WFS layers for the country: protected areas, nature reserves, Habitats Directive habitat types, and other layers published by the national environmental protection agency.

2. Where a layer is missing, use the Gaia search engine for maps: it crawls organisation websites and structures the GIS layers it finds.

3. For each site, record whether it lies inside a designated area, the distance to the nearest one, the habitat type, and the name and source of every layer used (with date).

4. Screenshot or export the map view for the evidence file.

Output: habitat and designation fields in the location register.

Step L4: select priority locations

1. Define your proximity rule and write it down (for example "within 5 km of a protected area"; buffers of 1 to 10 km are common, and the choice must be stated and applied consistently).

2. Define "material location" with a stated rule (for example, sites in the top group by revenue or by footprint, plus all sites screened in at L1).

3. Apply the criteria table below. A location is a priority location if it is material, sensitive, or both.

4. Disclose the count and the criteria applied.

Output: priority-locations list with the reason each was selected.

Site screening table (one row per site, from Gaia Map and Gaia Layers)

TNFD sensitivity criteria and the evidence available in Gaia

3. Evaluate with occurrences, eDNA, bioacoustics and Gaia Nexus

Evaluate converts the priority locations into a ranked register of dependencies and impacts, with measured values where data exist. Gaia supplies the state-of-nature evidence (who lives there, how that changes over time) and the species-level relationships behind each dependency. Run it at priority locations first. Allow 6 to 8 weeks.

Step E1: identify assets, services and impact drivers

1. For each priority location, list the ecosystem assets present (river, forest, wetland, grassland, soil) from the habitat type recorded in Gaia Layers.

2. List the ecosystem services each activity uses (water supply, pollination, pest regulation, flood and storm protection, soil quality).

3. List the impact drivers each activity generates: land, freshwater and sea use change; resource use; climate change; pollution; invasive alien species and other.

Step E2: identify dependencies with Gaia Nexus

1. For each ecosystem service you use, name the species group that delivers it. Example: crop pollination, pest regulation, seed dispersal in forestry.

2. In Gaia Nexus, look up the biotic relationships of those species: who pollinates whom, who preys on whom, which species live in symbiosis. Gaia draws these from Global Biotic Interactions.

3. In Gaia Map, check whether the species that deliver the service occur near the site, and whether their records are stable, rising or falling across time windows.

4. Record each dependency with the species, the relationship and the trend.

Example: a berry grower depends on bumblebee pollination. Gaia Nexus lists the pollinators of the crop species; Gaia Map shows which of them are recorded within 2 km and whether records fall between the two most recent five-year windows.

Step E3: identify and measure impacts

1. Choose a comparison: the same area before and after the activity, or the site area against a reference area with similar habitat (use the habitat layers from Gaia Layers to pick it). Use both where data allow.

2. In Gaia Map, extract records and indexes for each area and window, with identical parameters.

3. Where records are too few, commission an eDNA sampling campaign. Existing eDNA records come from GBIF through Gaia. Add the results of your own campaign with the same fields (place and date) so they are comparable, and keep them separate from the GBIF data.

4. Where the presence of vocal species near the site is in question, use Gaia Bioacoustics: animal sound recordings from iNaturalist, GBIF and xeno-canto, limited to records licensed for commercial use (for example birds heard near the site). These are existing records, not monitoring of your site; for disturbance by noise, light or construction, record at the site yourself and file those recordings separately.

5. Record the change in the state of nature (for example fewer species, higher dominance by one species), plus positive impacts such as restoration.

6. Label every number as measured, modelled or estimated. Never mix them in one total without labelling.

7. Where data are missing, state the gap and the plan to close it. Do not estimate silently.

Step E4: assess impact materiality

1. Score each impact with the scale below, using criteria written down before scoring.

2. Rank and set a cut-off for "material impact". Record the cut-off and who approved it.

3. Keep scoring evidence; the same register supports Assess.

Output: dependency and impact register with scores and data-quality flags.

Gaia evidence by impact driver

Dependency and impact register (one row per activity x location x dependency or impact)

Illustrative impact scoring scale (adapt and document)

4. Assess with Gaia: invasive species, habitats, legal exposure

Assess turns the dependency and impact register into a risk and opportunity register with financial estimates, integrated into your existing enterprise risk process. Gaia supplies the signals that start a risk statement (a spreading invasive species, a protected habitat next to a planned expansion, a falling pollinator record) and the nature-based options that become opportunities. Allow 6 to 8 weeks.

Step A1: identify risks and opportunities from Gaia signals

1. For each material dependency and impact from Evaluate, ask: what could this cost us, and what could it earn us?

2. Read the signals table below against your site screening table and register.

3. Write each as a cause-event-consequence statement (for example: "Records of an invasive beetle within 2 km of Site 12 rose from 3 to 41 between two five-year windows; spread into our plantation could cut yield by X").

4. Classify each item with the categories table below.

Step A2: adjust existing risk management

1. Take your enterprise risk register and taxonomy.

2. Map each nature item to an existing risk category, or add a category if none fits.

3. Reuse your existing likelihood and impact scales so nature risks are comparable with other risks.

4. List current mitigations and add the missing ones. Gaia Nexus options (section 5) are candidate mitigations.

5. Set a refresh rule: re-run the Gaia searches for risk-relevant sites at each risk review cycle, with unchanged parameters, so trends enter the register.

Step A3: measure and prioritise

1. Fix three time horizons and state them (short, medium, long). Align them with your financial planning cycle.

2. Estimate financial effect per item: revenue, operating cost, asset value, liabilities, capex. Give a range and assumptions. Gaia gives the physical trend, not the money; Finance converts it. Where you cannot quantify, give a qualitative rating and say why.

3. Rank by likelihood and size of effect.

Step A4: assess materiality

1. Apply the same financial materiality threshold used in your financial reporting and enterprise risk process.

2. Record each decision (material / not material) with reasoning. Items judged not material stay in the register.

Scenario analysis (supports Strategy C)

1. Choose two to four scenarios that differ on nature condition (for example invasive species spread unchecked versus controlled) and on policy and market response (for example new designation of protected areas near your sites).

2. Use the Gaia time series per site as the baseline: records, indexes and invasive species counts by window.

3. Use Gaia Layers to state today's designations per site, and flag any layer you expect to change in the policy scenario.

4. Test each material risk and opportunity against each scenario. Record the effect on revenue, cost and assets.

5. Describe how strategy would change. Disclose method, assumptions and limits. Gaia supplies the baseline and the nature-based options; the scenarios themselves are yours.

Output: risk and opportunity register, scenario results, materiality decisions.

Gaia signals and the risks or opportunities they point to

Classification of risks and opportunities

Risk and opportunity register (one row per item)

5. Prepare with Gaia Nexus and Gaia Traits: nature-based solutions

Prepare converts the assessment into actions, targets and the published report. This is where Gaia moves from analysis to design: Gaia Nexus selects species relationships that solve a pest, invasive species or population problem, and Gaia Traits selects the plants that carry the measure. Allow 8 to 12 weeks, overlapping with the end of Assess.

Step P1: strategy and resource allocation

1. For each material risk, opportunity, impact and dependency, choose a response using the action hierarchy below.

2. For responses that involve planting, habitat or biological control, build the measure with the Gaia procedures in the next block.

3. Assign an owner, budget, start date and expected effect to each action.

4. Put the actions into the capex plan and budget cycle. An action without funding is not a response.

5. If you have a transition plan, add the nature items to it; Strategy B asks you to describe plans and analysis in place.

Gaia procedures for nature-based solutions

Combat a pest or invasive alien species

1. In Gaia Nexus, search the target species. Read its recorded predators, parasites and pathogens.

2. In Gaia Map, check which of those natural enemies already occur within your search radius, and where.

3. Prefer measures that strengthen natural enemies already present (food plants, shelter, nesting places) over introducing a new species. Any introduction of a species for biological control needs approval from the competent authority and an ecologist's risk review before any release.

4. Select the supporting plants in Gaia Traits (see below), and position them with Gaia Layers.

5. Set a monitoring plan: repeat the Gaia search each year with unchanged parameters and track the pest records and the enemy records.

Support a struggling endemic or protected species

1. In Gaia Nexus, read the species' relationships: food plants, pollinators, hosts, prey, predators.

2. In Gaia Map, locate current records and the trend by time window.

3. In Gaia Layers, find nearby habitat patches and designated areas the measure can connect to.

4. In Gaia Traits, choose plants that supply what the species needs and that suit the site conditions.

5. Agree the measure with the competent authority or a conservation organisation before implementation.

Select plants for forestry or landscape design with Gaia Traits

1. Read the Ellenberg indicator values of candidate plants (their needs for light, moisture, soil reaction, nutrients) and match them to the site conditions. Open the Sources tab in Gaia Traits and check where each value comes from. As listed on 12 October 2026: LEDA Traitbase (vascular plants, north-west Europe), USDA PLANTS Database (vascular plants, North America), BROT Plant Trait Database (Mediterranean vascular plants) and Pignatti Flora d'Italia (Ellenberg indicator values, Italy). Use the source that covers your region, and record its name, licence and citation in the evidence file. Three of the four are listed as free for scientific use, so confirm that commercial use is permitted before publishing the values.

2. Compare blooming and fruiting periods across the candidates and combine plants so that nectar, pollen and fruit are available through the whole season, to support pollinators.

3. Check growth cycle, aesthetics and plant structure with the 3D models and videos in Gaia Traits.

4. Record the final plant list with the Gaia export date.

5. Use Gaia Gallery to show clients and stakeholders the species the measure supports, pictured with their partners and predators.

Step P2: targets and performance management

1. Set targets for each material impact and dependency, and for each risk and opportunity you manage with a target. Each needs a baseline year, a metric with unit, a value, a deadline and an owner.

2. Use Gaia indexes and record counts as state-of-nature metrics, with the baseline window, radius and data sources written into the target. Example: "Shannon-Wiener index for birds within 2 km of Site 12, five-year window ending 2031, not below the 2026 baseline."

3. Because indexes depend on sampling effort, back the target with a monitoring design you control (an annual eDNA campaign or your own sound recorders at fixed points, kept separate from the iNaturalist, GBIF and xeno-canto records in Gaia Bioacoustics) rather than public records alone.

4. Check alignment with the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework goals and, where relevant, Science Based Targets for Nature methods. State how your target relates to them.

5. Add the metrics to management reporting at the cadence the board reviews them.

6. Decide whether any target links to remuneration; disclose it if so.

Step P3: reporting

1. Select the data for each site in Gaia and use the AI reporting assistant to draft the narrative and tables from it.

2. A named reviewer checks every number in the draft against the Gaia export and every claim against the evidence file. Keep the prompt, the draft and the reviewed version.

3. Apply the six general requirements:

   • Application of materiality: state the approach.

   • Scope of disclosures: entities, value chain and locations covered.

   • Geographical location of nature-related issues: link issues to locations.

   • Integration with other sustainability disclosures: cross-reference climate and other topics.

   • Time horizons: state short, medium and long definitions.

   • Engagement with Indigenous Peoples, Local Communities and affected stakeholders: describe how it was done.

4. Gaia works in ten interface languages; produce summaries in the language of the people you engage and of your investors.

5. State limits plainly: what is out of scope, which data are estimated, which gaps you will close and when.

Step P4: presentation

1. Publish in the same cycle and place as your financial and other sustainability reporting, or cross-reference clearly.

2. Keep a disclosure index mapping each of the 14 disclosures to its page or table.

3. Keep the working papers (registers, scoring, Gaia exports) under version control for later assurance.

Action hierarchy for responses (P1)

Target template

6. The 14 recommended disclosures: gap table with Gaia support

The 14 TNFD recommended disclosures are grouped in four pillars: Governance (3), Strategy (4), Risk and impact management (4), Metrics and targets (3). Use this table as the working gap analysis. Update the Status column, and write each disclosure only once the listed inputs exist. The Gaia column shows which module produces the evidence; where it says "you", Gaia does not cover the item.

Procedure for each row

1. Mark status as Done only when the disclosure text, the evidence file and a reviewer sign-off all exist.

2. Where the content is partial, disclose what you have and state the gap and the date it closes. Partial disclosure with stated limits is better than silence.

3. Check the wording against the TNFD recommendations text before publication; this table paraphrases it.

7. Metrics: biodiversity indexes from Gaia

TNFD asks for core global metrics (all sectors), core sector metrics (from TNFD sector guidance), and additional metrics you choose for your own material issues. Gaia takes occurrence and eDNA records from GBIF, uses only those licensed for commercial use, filters and checks them where feasible, and turns the curated records, each with a place and time stamp, into biodiversity indexes automatically, so state-of-nature metrics can be added for every priority location with one method. The ISSB has proposed allowing TNFD metrics to be used to meet its nature-related requirements, so building on them is a safe basis.

The three Gaia biodiversity indexes

Let S be the number of species, n_i the records of species i, N the total records, p_i = n_i / N.

Shannon-Wiener index (higher = more diverse):

H' = -\sum_{i=1}^{S} p_i \ln p_i

Simpson dominance index (higher = more dominated by a few species):

D = \sum_{i=1}^{S} p_i^2

Berger-Parker dominance index (share of the most frequent species):

d = \frac{n_{\max}}{N}

Always check which form Gaia displays for Simpson: D as above, or its diversity form 1 - D. Write the form you use in the metric definition sheet.

Worked example (illustrative numbers): four species with 50, 30, 15 and 5 records, N = 100. Then p = 0.50, 0.30, 0.15, 0.05, H' = 1.14, D = 0.365, d = 0.50. If the most frequent species grows to 70 records and the others shrink, D and d rise and H' falls: the community is becoming more dominated.

How to read a change between two windows

Limits to state next to every index

1. Occurrence records are observations, not a census: they reflect where people and sensors look. Gaia filters and checks the GBIF records where feasible, which reduces errors but does not remove sampling bias. Only commercially licensed records are used, so counts can be lower than the full GBIF holdings for the area. State the number of records and the sources behind each index.

2. Compare only like with like: same radius, time window, taxonomic group and data sources.

3. Do not compare an area with 40 records to one with 4,000 without saying so.

4. eDNA detections are not individual counts. Confirm in Gaia's documentation how eDNA records enter the indexes, and say so in the methodology note.

5. Read the indexes as indicators to be interpreted by an ecologist, not as a verdict on a site.

Gaia-derived metrics to add to your set

Core global metrics: where the data come from

Take the exact definitions and numbering from the current TNFD metrics guidance before publishing. This table is a working list by theme.

Procedure

1. For each material item in your registers, choose at least one metric that measures it. Add sector metrics from TNFD sector guidance for your sector.

2. Add the Gaia-derived state-of-nature metrics for each priority location, so you disclose change in nature and not only pressure on it.

3. For each metric, write a definition sheet (template below) before collecting data.

4. Collect values for the baseline window and the reporting window. Report both.

5. Disclose methodology, boundary and data quality beside each number.

6. Reuse existing climate and environmental data rather than building new sets; check the boundary matches the nature scope.

Metric definition sheet

8. Gaia workflow and data governance

Run all biodiversity data work through one Gaia workflow, so every site is treated the same way and every number can be traced. Gaia replaces a hand-built pipeline of repository downloads, spreadsheets and GIS scripts with four steps.

What Gaia replaces

The four-step workflow

1. Search and discover. Query biodiversity data and media across the tree of life for each site. Set species in context. Use the parameters from the parameter sheet below.

2. Calculate KPIs. Read the indexes, richness and invasive species counts for each site and window. Enter them in the site screening table (section 2) and the metric definition sheets (section 7).

3. Add context and solutions. Open Gaia Layers for designations and habitats, Gaia Nexus for relationships, Gaia Traits for plants, Gaia Bioacoustics for sound records of species. Enter findings in the Evaluate, Assess and Prepare registers.

4. Report with the AI assistant, then filter, analyse and download. Draft the narrative with the assistant, filter and export the data behind every statement, and file the exports (below). A reviewer checks the draft against the exports.

Parameter sheet (fill once, apply to every site)

Filing the evidence

1. For each site and window, export the data from Gaia and name the file: site ID, module, window, extraction date.

2. Save a screenshot or export of each Gaia Layers map view used in the report.

3. Store the AI assistant's prompt, draft and the reviewed text together.

4. Freeze a snapshot of all exports when the report is approved, and keep it for assurance.

5. Exports can be loaded into your existing GIS, statistics or reporting tools when you need analysis beyond the Gaia KPIs, for example joining results to revenue by site ID.

Data governance rules

• One owner per dataset (the Gaia data owner); one version per reporting cycle.

• Never change parameters between baseline and reporting windows without restating the baseline.

• Before uploading confidential site or supplier data, read the Gaia terms and privacy policy (Terms of Service, Gaia; Data Privacy Policy) and confirm with Illuminum where uploaded data are stored.

• Do not publish exact coordinates of sensitive species records (nests, roosts, rare plants). Generalise them in the report; keep the exact data in the archive.

• Record who approved each estimate and its basis.

• Use the Gaia plan appropriate to commercial and client work; confirm the licence terms before using results in a published report. Gaia uses only occurrence, eDNA and sound records licensed for commercial use; many such licences still require attribution, so credit the source when you reproduce a record or recording. For plant traits, record the source database and licence shown in the Sources tab of Gaia Traits; three of the four listed sources are free for scientific use, so confirm commercial use first.

9. Timeline and deliverables

Plan about 36 weeks from kickoff to approved report for a first cycle at full scope; phases overlap by design. This is a planning assumption, not a TNFD requirement: shorten it by narrowing scope (section 0, decision 4). Do not start a phase until the gate of the phase it depends on is met.

Recurring cadence

• Working group: every two weeks.

• Steering committee with sponsor: monthly.

• Board or committee update: at least once during LEAP and once before approval.

• Data refresh: annually, aligned with the financial reporting calendar; re-run every Gaia search with unchanged parameters.

10. Quality control checklist and common errors

Run this checklist before the board or committee sees the draft. Every box needs a named reviewer and an evidence file.

Completeness

• All 14 disclosures have text, or a stated gap with a closing date

• Disclosure index maps each disclosure to a page or table

• Six general requirements addressed (section 5, step P3)

• Priority-location criteria and counts stated

Gaia data and traceability

• Parameter sheet complete and identical for every site and window

• Every number links to a metric definition sheet and a Gaia export file

• Record count and data sources stated beside every index

• Sites below the minimum record count are flagged as low confidence

• Index form (for example Simpson D or 1 - D) stated

• Gaia Layers layers listed with publisher and date

• AI assistant draft checked line by line against the exports; prompt and reviewed text archived

• Pipeline re-runs from the parameter sheet without manual edits

• Plant trait sources and licences recorded from the Sources tab in Gaia Traits

Consistency

• Boundary matches the financial statements, or differences are stated

• Time horizons match those used in financial planning and enterprise risk

• Climate and nature disclosures cross-reference and do not contradict each other

• Financial effects use the same assumptions as the financial statements

Governance and sign-off

• Board or committee minutes evidence oversight (Governance A)

• Ecologist has reviewed index interpretations and nature-based solution designs

• Legal review of forward-looking and stakeholder statements

• Finance review of financial effect figures

• Exact coordinates of sensitive species generalised in the published text

• Snapshot of all inputs and Gaia exports frozen and archived

Common errors

Sources and status checks

Status statements about the ISSB and TNFD in this manual come from search results as of 12 October 2026. Gaia module descriptions come from gaia.eco and from Illuminum. Re-check against the primary sources before finalising scope.

• Gaia, professional biodiversity studio

• Illuminum AB

• Global Biotic Interactions

• TNFD: recommendations, LEAP guidance, metrics and sector guidance

• IFRS Foundation, ISSB nature-related disclosures (staff paper, October 2026)

• ISSB to advance nature-related disclosure standards using TNFD framework (BDO)

• ISSB moves to formalise nature disclosure guidance under IFRS framework (ESG News)