TNFD (Task Force on Nature-related Financial Disclosures)

The Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) is a global framework that helps businesses and financial institutions identify, assess, manage and disclose their nature-related risks and opportunities. Inspired by the climate-focused TCFD, it extends the same logic to biodiversity and ecosystems, recognising that nature loss is both an environmental and a financial issue.

What is the TNFD?

The TNFD was launched in 2021 to develop a standardised, market-led framework for reporting on how organisations depend on and affect nature. After a period of consultation and pilot testing, it published its final recommendations in September 2023. The framework deliberately mirrors the structure of the former TCFD so that companies already familiar with climate disclosure can extend their reporting to nature.

At its core, the TNFD helps organisations evaluate how their activities impact and depend on nature, and report these aspects transparently. This covers physical risks (such as biodiversity loss or water scarcity), transition risks (such as new regulation) and opportunities (such as investing in nature-based solutions).

The four pillars and the LEAP approach

The TNFD is organised around the same four pillars as climate disclosure: Governance, Strategy, Risk and impact management, and Metrics and targets. To put these into practice, the TNFD recommends the LEAP approach (Locate, Evaluate, Assess, Prepare), a structured process for organisations to locate their interface with nature, evaluate their dependencies and impacts, assess their risks and opportunities, and prepare to respond and report.

Governance

How the organisation oversees nature-related risks and opportunities, including board and senior management responsibilities.

Strategy

How nature-related issues affect the business over the short, medium and long term, including dependencies on ecosystem services such as water availability, pollination and soil health.

Risk and impact management

The processes used to identify, assess and manage nature-related risks, both physical (such as deforestation or biodiversity loss) and transition (such as new environmental regulation).

Metrics and targets

The indicators and targets used to measure and manage nature-related performance, which often connect with the carbon footprint and the water footprint.

From TNFD to the ISSB

The TNFD is a voluntary framework, and adoption has grown quickly: by late 2025 more than 700 organisations, representing trillions of dollars in assets under management, had committed to TNFD-aligned reporting. An important shift is now under way. The ISSB, which already maintains the global baseline of sustainability disclosure standards, has decided to take over nature-related standard-setting, drawing directly on the TNFD framework, its metrics and the LEAP approach. As a result, the TNFD is completing its remaining technical work and pausing new guidance during 2026 to support the ISSB, which is preparing nature-related disclosure requirements building on this foundation.

TNFD and climate change

Climate change and biodiversity loss are deeply connected. Degraded ecosystems store and absorb less carbon, while healthy ecosystems act as carbon sinks. Land-use change and deforestation are a major source of emissions: international bodies such as the FAO and the IPCC attribute roughly a tenth of global greenhouse gas emissions to deforestation and land-use change. By addressing nature alongside climate, the TNFD supports a more complete view of environmental risk.

Benefits of adopting the TNFD

• Better risk management: helps anticipate supply chain disruptions and nature-related operational issues.
• Access to sustainable finance: investors increasingly favour companies that manage nature-related risks.
• Readiness for regulation: aligns with emerging rules and with EU standards such as ESRS E4 on biodiversity.
• Stronger reputation: a credible nature strategy builds trust with stakeholders.

Challenges in implementing the TNFD

• Data availability: reliable biodiversity and ecosystem data can be limited, especially in some regions.
• Technical expertise: many companies lack in-house capacity to assess nature-related risks.
• Implementation effort: locating and evaluating dependencies across the value chain takes time and resources.

How Manglai can help you align with the TNFD

Nature-related reporting, like climate reporting, depends on solid environmental data. At Manglai we help companies measure and manage that data, calculate their carbon footprint and prepare transparent sustainability reporting that supports frameworks such as the TNFD and the ESRS. Discover how Manglai can help you.