Over the past few years, I have been steadily finding my way through the emerging and often complex biodiversity and business space. As someone rooted in biodiversity planning, I have been trying to understand how evolving frameworks natural capital accounting, nature‑related disclosures, spatial prioritisation, and sustainability reporting interconnect to support better decision‑making for the natural environment. Attending the TNFD Africa Train‑the‑Trainer Programme at the Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) earlier this year formed an important part of this ongoing journey.

Within the Biodiversity & Business Unit at the Endangered Wildlife Trust (EWT), our mandate is to strengthen the integration of nature into business strategies, governance processes, and operational decisions. We work to build the capacity, evidence base, and partnerships needed to ensure that the private sector understands its dependencies and impacts on nature—and is empowered to act. Against this backdrop, the TNFD training could not have been more relevant.

Coming into the programme with experience from the Natural Capital for Business Decision Making Train‑the‑Trainer course delivered by the Capitals Coalition and Social Value International, I was able to connect the dots between natural capital measurement and the disclosure‑oriented structure of TNFD’s LEAP (Locate, Evaluate, Assess and Prepare) approach. While natural capital thinking provides the “what” and “why,” TNFD offers a framework for operationalising these insights within business risk, strategy, and governance systems.

Still, I am navigating how these frameworks collectively advance truly nature‑positive outcomes. The Africa‑focused case studies and peer exchanges highlighted both the complexity of our socio‑ecological context and the urgent need for practical, localised solutions. As a GIS Specialist, I found the emphasis on spatially explicit risk and dependency assessment especially resonant.

Overall, the programme deepened my technical grounding, strengthened alignment with our EWT mandate, and reinforced my commitment to continue learning, piece by piece, toward more effective stewardship of our natural environment.