About

Dr. Benis N. Egoh is an Associate Professor in the Department of Earth System Science at the University of California, Irvine (UCI). She holds a Master's degree in Conservation Biology from the University of Cape Town and a PhD in Zoology from Stellenbosch University. Prior to joining UCI, Dr. Egoh worked as a principal scientist at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) in South Africa and as a scientific officer for the European Commission. Her research focuses on generating outputs related to biodiversity and ecosystem services that are directly relevant for policy implementation. This includes understanding the benefits of ecological restoration and quantifying these benefits in monetary terms, working with smallholder farmers in Cameroon to promote sustainability in the oil palm sector, and applying new tools such as Big Data and Machine Learning to map and model ecosystem services. Dr. Egoh serves as the coordinating lead author for the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) Business and Biodiversity Assessment and is a member of the executive committee of the IUCN Task Force for Oils and the Ecosystem Services Partnership (ESP).

Research topics

• Natural resource economics
• Ecology
• Economics
• Business
• Geography
• Environmental science
• Engineering
• Biology
• Agricultural economics
• Demography
• Environmental resource management
• Environmental protection
• Economic growth

Selected publications

• IPBES Business and Biodiversity Assessment: Summary for Policymakers

  Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research) · 2026-02-08

  reportOpen access

  The Summary for Policymakers of the Methodological assessment of the impact and dependence of business on biodiversity and nature’s contributions to people will strengthen the knowledge base to support efforts by business to achieve the 2050 Vision for Biodiversity and the objectives of the Convention on Biological Diversity, which are the conservation of biological diversity, the sustainable use of its components, and the fair and equitable sharing of the benefits arising out of the utilization of genetic resources. The assessment will support the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its Sustainable Development Goals, and inform other relevant multilateral environmental agreements, processes and efforts. At IPBES 9 (July 2023), the IPBES Plenary approved the undertaking of a methodological assessment of the impact and dependence of business on biodiversity and nature’s contributions to people. The assessment is being conducted using a fast track approach, and will be completed in 2025 and considered by the Plenary at its 12th session. IPBES is an independent intergovernmental body established by Governments in 2012, IPBES provides policymakers with objective scientific assessments about the state of knowledge regarding the planet’s biodiversity, ecosystems and the contributions they make to people, as well as options and actions to protect and sustainably use these vital natural asset

  PublisherDOI

• 关于企业对生物多样性和自然对人类贡献的影响和依赖的方法评估(企业与生物多样性评估)的决策者摘要

  Open MIND · 2026-02-27

  report

  Chinese translation of the summary for policymakers of the methodological assessment of the impact and dependency of business on biodiversity and nature’s contributions to people (business and biodiversity assessment)

  DOI

• IPBES Business and biodiversity assessment Chapter 2: How does business depend on biodiversity?

  Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research) · 2026-02-09

  reportOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  These documents correspond to Chapter 2 of the IPBES methodological assessment of the impact and dependence of business on biodiversity and nature’s contributions to people (business and biodiversity assessment), along with its supplementary materials.

  PublisherDOI

• IPBES Business and biodiversity assessment Chapter 2: How does business depend on biodiversity?

  Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research) · 2026-02-09

  reportOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  These documents correspond to Chapter 2 of the IPBES methodological assessment of the impact and dependence of business on biodiversity and nature’s contributions to people (business and biodiversity assessment), along with its supplementary materials.

  PublisherDOI

• IPBES Business and Biodiversity Assessment: Summary for Policymakers, figures, tables and captions

  Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research) · 2026-02-09

  otherOpen access

  Figures, tables and captions from the Summary for Policymakers of the IPBES Methodological Assessment of the Impact and Dependence of Business on Biodiversity and Nature’s Contributions to People.This record contains two sets of files related to the figures and tables from the Summary for Policymakers. One set includes JPG files. The other set includes editable files in Adobe Illustrator (.ai) and Adobe InDesign (.indd).

  PublisherDOI

• Резюме для директивных органов методологической оценки по вопросам о воздействии хозяйственной деятельности на биоразнообразие и обеспечиваемый природой вклад на благо человека и ее зависимости от них (оценка по вопросам хозяйственной деятельности и биоразнообразия)

  Open MIND · 2026-02-27

  report

  Russian translation of the summary for policymakers of the methodological assessment of the impact and dependency of business on biodiversity and nature’s contributions to people (business and biodiversity assessment)

  DOI

• Assessing the risk of a fire-driven tipping point in the Congo Basin 

  2026-03-13

  articleOpen access

  Fires have long played an important role in social-ecological and agricultural systems across the tropics, but until the early 1990s, these fires rarely posed a threat to surrounding forests. Since then, the size, intensity, and frequency of fires in tropical forests in the Amazon and South East Asia have increased, particularly during periods of drought. This increase in fire activity is fueled by a combination of changing climate conditions and land-use practices and poses a significant threat to biodiversity and carbon storage. In the Congo Basin, home to Earth’s second-largest tropical forest and the largest tropical peatland complex, fire activity has increased in recent decades according to the satellite record. However, current fire regimes and drivers, as well as the long-term response of Congo Basin forests to fire, remain poorly understood. This is in part due to limitations the of current satellite-based datasets to detect fire in the region. We 1) synthesize what is known about fire in the Congo Basin, 2) examine trends in existing remotely sensing fire datasets, 3) discuss difficulties detecting fire in the Congo Basin to highlight why current methods are likely under-detecting fire, 4) explore possible social-ecological drivers of fire by highlighting changes in forest disturbances and climate, and 5) report research needs to advance understanding of changing fire dynamics in the Congo Basin. This work highlights a key knowledge gap and provides a roadmap for improving the ability to detect and monitor fire in the Congo Basin, to improve understanding of tropical carbon flux dynamics, and support local fire adaptation and management plans for communities across the Congo Basin.

  PublisherDOI

• IPBES Business and Biodiversity Assessment: Summary for Policymakers

  Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research) · 2026-02-08

  reportOpen access

  The Summary for Policymakers of the Methodological assessment of the impact and dependence of business on biodiversity and nature’s contributions to people will strengthen the knowledge base to support efforts by business to achieve the 2050 Vision for Biodiversity and the objectives of the Convention on Biological Diversity, which are the conservation of biological diversity, the sustainable use of its components, and the fair and equitable sharing of the benefits arising out of the utilization of genetic resources. The assessment will support the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its Sustainable Development Goals, and inform other relevant multilateral environmental agreements, processes and efforts. At IPBES 9 (July 2023), the IPBES Plenary approved the undertaking of a methodological assessment of the impact and dependence of business on biodiversity and nature’s contributions to people. The assessment is being conducted using a fast track approach, and will be completed in 2025 and considered by the Plenary at its 12th session. IPBES is an independent intergovernmental body established by Governments in 2012, IPBES provides policymakers with objective scientific assessments about the state of knowledge regarding the planet’s biodiversity, ecosystems and the contributions they make to people, as well as options and actions to protect and sustainably use these vital natural asset

  PublisherDOI

• Résumé à l'intention des décideur(se)s de l'évaluation méthodologique des conséquences de l'activité des entreprises sur la biodiversité et sur les contributions de la nature aux populations et de la dépendance des entreprises à leur égard (évaluation des entreprises et de la biodiversité)

  Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research) · 2026-02-27

  reportOpen access

  French translation of the summary for policymakers of the methodological assessment of the impact and dependency of business on biodiversity and nature’s contributions to people (business and biodiversity assessment)

  PublisherDOI

• IPBES Business and Biodiversity Assessment. Chapter 2: How does Business depend on biodiversity?

  2026-03-10

  articleOpen access1st author

  Businesses across sectors and scales are fundamentally dependent on biodiversity and nature’s contributions to people, yet these dependencies remain unevenly understood, measured, and incorporated into decision-making. This paper synthesizes emerging methods and approaches used to identify, characterize, and assess business dependencies on biodiversity, drawing on the analytical framework developed for Chapter 2 of the Intergovernmental Panel on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services assessment (IPBES) on business and biodiversity. We review a diverse set of existing qualitative and quantitative approaches, including natural capital accounting, ecosystem service assessments, supply-chain mapping, risk screening tools, and corporate disclosure frameworks, and compare their underlying assumptions, data requirements, and conceptual framings of nature–business relationships. We conducted a literature review of papers covering a wide variety of sectors including agriculture, fisheries, and forestry.Building on this review, we develop a typology of business dependencies that accounts for differences across sectors, business sizes, and positions within value chains. The typology highlights dependencies on biodiversity and ecosystem functions, as well as interdependencies mediated through social, economic, and institutional contexts. Particular attention is given to how dependencies vary spatially and temporally, and how they intersect with other societal objectives such as climate mitigation, food security, and livelihoods, giving rise to synergies and trade-offs.The analysis further examines methodological and practical challenges in characterizing dependencies, including data gaps, scale mismatches, uncertainties, and the risk of oversimplification in decision-support tools. The chapter examines challenges associated with characterizing dependencies, including data gaps, scale mismatches, and uncertainty in linking ecological change to business risk. Finally, we discuss the implications of different approaches for decision-making by businesses, financial institutions, governments, consumers, and civil society, emphasizing how improved understanding of biodiversity dependencies can inform risk management, strategic planning, and policy design. By clarifying commonalities and differences across existing approaches, this paper contributes to a more coherent and actionable foundation for integrating biodiversity considerations into business and financial decisions.

  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Mathieu Rouget

  Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement

  40 shared

• Belinda Reyers

  University of Pretoria

  19 shared

• David M. Richardson

  Stellenbosch University

  19 shared

• L.M. Ayompe

  University of California, Irvine

  16 shared

• Joachim Maes

  European Commission

  15 shared

• Patrick O’Farrell

  13 shared

• Maria Luisa Paracchini

  Joint Research Centre

  12 shared

• Charity Nyelele

  University of California, Irvine

  11 shared

Labs

• Egoh's Ecosystem Services LabPI

Awards & honors

• Intergovernmental Platform for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Se…
• African Assessment (involved)