Biodiversity protection in transnational value chains

Mankind faces an ongoing loss of biodiversity, which multilateral environmental
agreements have not been able to halt, and which is closely linked to transnational
value chains. e European Union (EU) has been, and is now, adopting a number
of unilateral frameworks, which refer to international agreements, addressing
biodiversity protection in European value chains via business ‘due diligence’
duties. However, as concrete biodiversity-related requirements that could be (directly) applied by private actors are lacking in international law, the challenge is to concretise these requirements. us, this chapter analyses the intersections of due diligence laws with international environmental and trade law, and with transnational private governance instruments, such as standardisation and certification schemes, and explores the resulting challenges and consequences for legitimate and effective biodiversity protection requirements in transnational value chains.