B-ACT (Business Agroecology Criteria Tool) is an Excel-based assessment framework developed by Biovision to evaluate how closely businesses align with the 13 agroecological principles established by the High-Level Panel of Experts on Food Security and Nutrition (HLPE). Designed as a complementary tool to conventional business and financial analysis, B-ACT helps investors, donors, entrepreneurs, and development practitioners assess the environmental, social, and systemic contributions of agribusiness enterprises. Rather than focusing solely on financial performance, the tool incorporates ecological health, social equity, resilience, and sustainability considerations into business evaluation. Developed as part of Biovision’s broader suite of agroecology assessment tools, B-ACT complements the Agroecology Criteria Tool (ACT) for projects and Farm-level ACT (F-ACT) for farms.
Tag: assessment
Meta-framework guide resource. Reflection checklist to support holistic agrifood system assessment series. United Nations Committee on World Food Security (CFS) policy tracking tool. Checklist 10
The CFS Policy Tracking Tool, developed by the Transformative Partnership Platform on Agroecology in collaboration with the Research and Innovation Working Group of the Agroecology Coalition, is designed to monitor the extent to which governments implement the agroecology-related policy recommendations adopted by the United Nations Committee on World Food Security (CFS). The tool translates 62 action points from the 2021 CFS policy guidance into 22 priority actions that collectively reflect the intent of the five CFS policy recommendations while aligning with the 13 agroecological principles established by the High-Level Panel of Experts on Food Security and Nutrition (HLPE). Its purpose is to provide a structured framework for assessing policy support for agroecological transitions and food system transformation at national and subnational levels.
Metrics Meta-framework guide. Guidance for developing holistic assessments of agrifood systems: A 10-step approach
There is increasing recognition that we need to measure food and agriculture (agrifood) systems’ performance holistically, including social, environmental and economic aspects. As a result, hundreds of frameworks and tools have been developed, each one for a particular purpose (Crossland et al. 2025). Choosing between the hundreds of available frameworks and tools can be overwhelming, yet it is also likely that none of these assessment approaches will perfectly meet all your specific needs. There is no one tool that will be appropriate for everyone, everywhere. The TRANSITIONS Metrics project developed the Metrics Meta-framework (Box 1) to help you navigate through this diversity of available frameworks and tools and help you design a holistic assessment of agrifood systems that is fit for your specific purposes and needs. The Meta-framework presented in this guide takes you through a 10-step process to design such an assessment tool. If you follow the 10-step process presented in this guide, you will end up with a practical method for a holistic agrifood system assessment that meets clear objectives and user needs. It might be a simple implementation of a standard tool. It might be a modified version of an already existing tool. Or, it might be a completely new and original assessment tool.
Meta-framework guide resource. Reflection checklists to support holistic agrifood system assessment series
The reflection checklists aim to help you think through and reflect on what types of data and output a few commonly used tools produce, helping you select the right tool for your needs. They may validate your choice of tool, lead you in adapting or modifying it, or prompt you to think of an alternative.
Papua New Guinea Community tree nursery management guide
Welcome to the Papua New Guinea Community tree nursery management guide, a practical resource designed to support individuals, groups and communities to establish and manage successful plant nurseries. Whether you are starting from scratch or looking to improve your existing nursery, this guide provides step-by-step information tailored to local conditions and needs. This guide, while providing general rules and advice for nursery setting and management, is focused on the Bismarck Forest Corridor, which is an important high-integrity forest area bridging the provinces of Chimbu, Eastern Highlands, Madang and Jiwaka, a mountain region known as the Bismarck Range that extends upwards into Mount Wilhelm, Papua New Guinea’s highest peak (4 509 m above sea level).
Collecting holistic evidence on agroecology performance to accelerate sustainable food system transitions
A growing body of research shows the potential of agroecology for enabling a shift to planet-friendly and socially just agrifood systems through context-specific transition pathways. We conduct a scoping review to identify and evaluate the potential of 42 existing agroecology adherence and/or agricultural performance assessment tools to generate credible, legitimate, salient and transferable evidence to inform these transitions. Results show that while multiple relevant tools exist, each of them can be strengthened in at least one area. While most tools are transferable (low time and resource requirements) and have legitimacy (open access with transparent methods), tools have variable saliency (holistic scope inclusive of local priorities) and credibility (use scientific design principles and quality assurance processes). For a subset of 11 tools collecting multidimensional performance data, analysis of 263 identified indicators showed there is a bias towards economic measures (notably income, yield, and resilience), while certain social (e.g. land tenure, traditional knowledge retention) and environmental (e.g. climate mitigation) aspects are regularly overlooked. Through a multidisciplinary process engaging experts across 8 countries, we develop a Holistic Localized Performance Assessment for agroecology (HOLPA) framework that integrates and builds on positive features of existing multidimensional agroecology performance assessments tools and overcomes key limitations. The HOLPA framework for analysis, agroecology indicators, key performance indicators, and low-cost localization process can be used to strengthen agroecology performance assessments, empowering landscape actors to identify evidence-based pathways towards agrifood systems where both people and nature can thrive.
Testing Criteria and Indicators for assessing the sustainability of forest management: genetic criteria and indicators
This working paper contains proposals for specific genetic criteria and indicators (C&I) which are expected to be part of a more general set of biological C&I. These proposals are intended for use in guiding tropical forest management but the indicators and verifiers we describe are not in the form of simple prescriptions where a single measurement can be recommended for a single causal effect. Since genetic dynamics operate at a different time and spatial scale than the events that can be observed at the level of forest stand effects, a single forest stand event can have effects on several genetic processes. In addition, the pattern of genetic diversity that has already evolved is due to a balance of several evolutionary forces that operate at different spatial and temporal scales and forest practices would therefore be expected to affect several genetic factors. To provide guidance on what genetic processes may be affected by forest practices, we therefore first describe the factors that affect genetic processes and then provide a matrix of relationships between types of forest level events and genetically significant factors. Since the intention of the larger project is to steer possible management actions, the report identifies two main concerns of sustainability: first, whether the genetic variation is being maintained, and second, what conservation or enhancement measures can be effective. We state one criterion and for each of these concerns, sets of indicators are defined that would address the issue of sustainability. For each indicator, sets of verifiers are provided which differ in the biologically relevant feature they measure or in the precision and technical facilities they require. Finally, the need for rapid assessment and precision under difficult field conditions requires research and development of efficient direct and surrogate measures of the genetic resource. We therefore include recommendations for short- and medium term research that would improve the scientific value, cost-effectiveness, ease of use, and further development of genetic criteria and indicators.
Ecosystems and human well-being: multiscale assessments: findings of the Sub-global Assessments Working Group of the Millenium Ecosystem Assessment
One of the major innovations of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment is the incorporation of local and regional assessmentsù33 in allùin a global portrait of the planetÆs health. It is the first global assessment of ecosystems to include not only a diversity of ecosystems, but to draw on a wide range of cultural orientations and intellectual traditions, including those of indigenous peoples. The Sub-global Assessments Working Group integrated information from multiple sources and found that biophysical factors such as land-use change, climate change and variability, pollution, and invasive species have a significant effect on human well-being across cultures. For example, in places where there are no other social safety nets, diminished human well-being tends to increase immediate dependence on ecosystem services, which can damage the capacity of those local ecosystems, which in turn appears to increase the probability of natural disaster or conflict. Representing the baseline and framework for ongoing assessments of ecosystem and human well-being on a variety of scales around the world, Multiscale Assessments provides students, researchers, and policy-makers with the most comprehensive methodology for assessing ecosystems at local, national, and regional scales.
Overview of the MA sub-global assessments
Compliance with reduced-impact harvesting guidelines by timber enterprises in terra firme forests of the Brazilian Amazon
The paper presents the results and main conclusions of an assessment of compliance with technical guidelines for Reduced Impact Harvesting (RIH) in terra firme forests of the Brazilian Amazon. The assessment was carried out in two certified timber enterprises in the State of Para, Brazil applying the RIH-guidelines for a period of over three years. From a tool developed for Amazonian forest enterprises to monitor the sustainability of their harvesting operations, which uses a set of criteria and indicators (C&I), a total of 190 verifiers were selected for assessing the 61 RIH-guidelines. The assessment revealed valuable information with regard to the state of implementation and quality of the forest operations in the two enterprises and important insights for improvement of the RIH-guidelines. Two thirds of the RIH-guidelines were fully implemented. Their acceptance, however, differed according to the situation and interest of the enterprises. Among the reasons for incomplete implementation of the RIH-guidelines, the lack of systematic monitoring, insufficient training and qualification, and inadequate equipment appeared to be most important. The study also showed the need for the continuous assessment of the quality and relevance of RIH-guidelines.