Biodiversity is a broad and diverse subject area, selecting an audit topic can be challenging for SAIs. Once the topic has been selected, it may be difficult to know where to start, because there are many factors to consider
- scopes (for example: genetics, species, and ecosystems)
- threats (for example: habitat loss, pollution, and urbanization), and
- government responses to these threats (for example, international conventions, national parks, and environmental impact assessments).
The document Auditing Biodiversity: Guidance for Supreme Audit Institutions is an indispensable resource for audit practitioners, describing
- what biodiversity means and its scope,
- why it is important,
- what threatens it, and
- how can biodiversity be protected.
The following four-step process gives an approach for choosing and designing audits of biodiversity
Further information and useful case studies can be found in the guidance document Auditing Biodiversity: Guidance for Supreme Audit Institutions available in four different languages.