ESRS E4: a site-by-site record of biodiversity-sensitive areas
ESRS E4, the CSRD standard on biodiversity and ecosystems, asks an undertaking to say whether its sites are located in or near biodiversity-sensitive areas and to describe its policies for those sites. The term is the EU Taxonomy's: Natura 2000 sites, World Heritage sites, Key Biodiversity Areas and other protected areas. ERWAY Legality Assessment produces the site-level record that disclosure rests on — one outcome per site, the designations it overlaps, the hectares and the dates.
The simplified ESRS published after the 2025 review kept the site question and clarified what 'near' means; the metrics moved toward where material impacts occur and whether biodiversity-sensitive areas are affected. Whatever the final wording of a datapoint, the underlying fact is the same: for every own site, and for the value-chain sites that matter, is it in or near a designated area, and which one? The product answers that from international protected-area records, heritage and wetland designations and land-tenure records. The EU Taxonomy DNSH page follows the same definition into the Taxonomy assessment.
What the standard asks
Whether the undertaking has sites in or near biodiversity-sensitive areas; what its policies say about those sites; and, where biodiversity is material, the metrics that describe the impacts. 'Biodiversity-sensitive area' points at Appendix D of the Taxonomy Climate Delegated Act — Natura 2000, World Heritage, Key Biodiversity Areas and other protected areas. The disclosure is per site, which means the work is per polygon.
What the product produces
For each site: overlap with protected areas in hectares and as a share, with the category and class; the relation to heritage and wetland designations, with the footprint's confidence; tenure status where the site lies on Indigenous or community land; a species context kept apart. Natura 2000 sites appear where the international records carry them as an international designation; Key Biodiversity Areas are not a layer in the product, and this is stated clearly. The export is the site register with every finding dated.
What remains yours
The impact and dependency assessment, the targets, the transition plan and the disclosure text. The product does not judge materiality and does not draft a policy. It gives the sustainability team a record it can defend when the auditor asks how 'in or near' was determined for each site — the same record the TNFD Locate phase and the supplier-site screening for the value chain draw on.