Is sport protecting nature and biodiversity?

Preserving nature and biodiversity is a key part of protecting the environment. While measuring the impact of our carbon emissions is a critical part of the fight against climate change, we also need to understand our impact on the nature and environment around us.

The sport industry in particular has a huge role to play in protecting nature. Many sports, from skiing to canoeing to swimming, reap the benefits of the natural world – but can also have huge and damaging impacts.

So how is sport addressing its impacts on nature – and what more does the industry need to do?

Nature and biodiversity

The term biodiversity refers to the huge variety of all life on earth, from bacteria to entire ecosystems.

The biodiversity on earth today has developed over billions of years, and the complex web of species and ecosystems that has flourished is crucial for life on this planet. Humans rely on nature for everything from air to breathe, food to eat and water to drink.

But biodiversity is under threat, and biodiversity loss is closely linked to climate change.

Human behaviours, including using land for food production, over-extracting and exploiting resources through overfishing and overhunting, pollution, and the effects of human-driven climate change, all threaten the planet’s species, habitats, and ecosystems.

Up to one million species are currently threatened with extinction, while 85% of wetlands have disappeared. Together, the UN has named biodiversity loss, climate change and pollution as the ‘triple planetary crisis’.

Reducing biodiversity loss and protecting the natural world is vital if we want to protect life one earth.

The World Economic Forum has estimated that half of global GDP is moderately or highly dependent on nature, and more than one million people rely on forests for their livelihoods. But others argue that protecting nature for its own sake, and not just for human benefit, is equally as important.

Sport and nature

For sport, protecting the natural environment is critical. Many sports rely on lakes, rivers, oceans, forests, and green spaces, while healthy ecosystems and flourishing biodiversity also support health and wellbeing in the wider population.

At the same time, many sports have the opportunity to promote biodiversity in their own facilities – including places like training grounds, golf courses, or cricket pitches – and to educate fans on the biodiversity crisis.

So how is sport stepping up to the challenge?

In December 2022, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), International Olympic Committee (IOC), United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and Sails of Change launched the Sports for Nature Framework.

The aim of the Framework is to bring together the sports and nature conservation communities, and to enable sports organisations to contribute to protecting and restoring the natural environment. Signatories to the Framework – which currently stand at just over 40 – met for the first time last November.

As awareness of the climate and biodiversity crisis grows, even more initiatives are developing across the industry.

Sports organisations can help protect nature by curbing their own impacts on their environment – as well as promoting biodiversity and enabling green spaces to flourish.

“It all starts from understanding each sport’s negative impact on nature and biodiversity, and defining which internal practices can be improved or must be changed to prevent this,” Riika Rakic, Head of Sustainability at IBU, tells Global Sustainable Sport.

The IBU is one of several federations to have included biodiversity protection in their wider sustainability strategy.

IBU’s latest strategy calls for the creation of a biodiversity management framework to be implemented at all event series by 2030.

Governing bodies have a particular role to play in putting biodiversity on the agenda for national federations and local clubs.

Meanwhile, other sports organisations – from grassroots clubs to elite venues – are implementing their own biodiversity protection projects. These often combine community engagement, education, and practical action – but it can be difficult to judge how effective these measures really are.

Last month, Premier League club Sheffield United announced its Nature Based Blades programme, which will educate young people and support them to create their own ‘nature based solution’.

Meanwhile, clubs like EFL Championship side Watford FC have published dedicated biodiversity policies, while organisers of this year’s Olympics in Paris have integrated some measures to promote local biodiversity.

Partnerships with conservation charities and scientists have also helped sports organisations take concrete action. The National Biodiversity Data Centre in Ireland, for example, has published a pollinator-friendly guide to managing sports clubs, and has collaborated with the GAA (Gaelic Athletic Association) on a Green Clubs toolkit.

When it comes to impacting the natural environment, some sports play a larger role than others.

Golf has been particularly criticised for its impact on nature, as courses use huge amounts of land, water, and pesticides, which can destroy local habitats. But the sport is also gradually addressing this problem.

“In Europe in particular, there are clear efforts to reduce the use of pesticides,” Petra Himmel, founder of Golf Sustainable, tells Global Sustainable Sport. “More and more golf associations and golf clubs are working actively with environmental organisations.”

Swiss Golf and the French Golf Federation are working with the WWF, while 64 golf clubs in Germany are taking part in a research project led by the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation.

It’s clear that some sports organisations are attempting to address their impact on nature – but how can the industry make sure that these actions lead to concrete change?

The BENCHES Project

In an attempt to bring sports and academic researchers together to address the biodiversity crisis, and to quantify sports’ impact and create tools to reduce it, a new collaboration was launched in February this year.

The BENCHES Project (Biodiversity, Ecosystems and Nature Conservation Helped and Enhanced by Sports), funded by the EU’s Erasmus+ programme and led by the Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies in Pisa, Italy, will focus on enhancing sports’ understanding of their impacts and creating tools to mitigate them.

“Sports organisations are more and more committed towards climate change. This is good, but with this approach the risk is to “forget” some other environmental pressures that are very important,” Tiberio Daddi, Associate Professor at the Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies and BENCHES Project lead, tells Global Sustainable Sport.

“A project on biodiversity management will allow sports organisations to enrich their sustainability visions and strategies with a new perspective to approach environmental management in a more holistic way.”

The project actively selected partners from across the world of sport.

“In BENCHES, the diversity is everywhere,” says Daddi. “We have five different sports that involve five different ecosystems.”

These include organisations from canoeing and kayaking (Italian Canoe Kayak Federation), sailing (World Sailing), athletics (World Athletics), biathlon (IBU), and football (S.L. Benfica), covering lakes, rivers, oceans, mountains, and urban biodiversity.

Critically, the project emphasises how important it is for sports organisations to clearly understand and measure their impact on nature, just as they would their carbon emissions.

“First of all, they need to understand what their pressures are on biodiversity and what are the main important impacts,” Daddi explains.

The project’s outcomes will include an online assessment tool to help organisations understand the risks that their activities represent for biodiversity, as well as guidelines, webinars, and training sessions to help organisations find operational solutions.

Challenges and opportunities

Through the Sports for Nature Framework, collaborations like the BENCHES Project, and individual actions from federations and clubs, it’s clear that sport has taken some steps to address the biodiversity crisis.

“Biodiversity and nature protection by sports organisations is emerging as another key focus area,” says Rakic of IBU. “We felt that the BENCHES project will enable us to be at the forefront of defining the what, the how and the who.”

But there is still a long way to go before measures to reduce sport’s impact on nature and to protect biodiversity are systematically adopted into sustainability strategies.

Part of the problem could be a lack of awareness of the importance of nature, and the connections between nature and sport.

“Only the constant integration of biodiversity issues into everyday training and tournaments can ultimately raise awareness of the link between sport and biodiversity,” says Himmel of Golf Sustainable.

Building education programmes, identifying clear impacts and mitigation strategies, and working together both within and beyond the industry will be key.

As sport celebrates the 54^th edition of Earth Day next week, the industry has an opportunity to acknowledge the critical importance of protecting nature as part of the wider fight for sustainability.

Images: Pexels/Pexels/Manzoni/NordicFocus/Pexels