Oji and Pivotal join forces to power natural capital accounting and best-in-class TNFD disclosure metrics.
Oji, one of the world's largest forestry and paper product companies, began a partnership with Pivotal in 2024. Together, we are generating high-integrity nature intelligence to enhance decision-making for biodiversity impact and forest value creation.
"We are at the beginning of an exciting era. We see the connection between nature and economic value, and Oji definitely sees that as the future. The first step towards that future is the evaluation of the state of nature, and that’s what we’re doing with Pivotal now.”
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Pilot site in Hokkaido, Japan
With a diverse mix of forest, marshland, and river habitats.
Species detected across 7 taxonomic groups
Including the iconic Red-Crowned Crane, a bird species threatened with global extinction.
Primary data capture protocols used
A suite of TNFD- and NPI-aligned state of nature metrics
Habitat classification
Habitat structure
Species composition
Extinction risk
Our pilot in Hokkaido has proven the scalability, affordability, and accuracy of tech-powered primary biodiversity data.
About Oji
Oji is one of the oldest companies in Japan, with over 150 years of leadership in the pulp, paper, and forestry industry. It manages 640,000+ hectares of forests across the world. Oji has set public goals to protect, conserve and restore ecosystems through its management practices. As a TNFD early adopter, Oji has been working to quantify its nature-related material issues through the 'LEAP' process, in order to set targets, take positive actions, and measure progress with state-of-nature disclosure metrics.
The Ambition
In 2024 Oji asserted its commitment to a nature positive future, and its ambition to implement natural capital accounting across the group. To do this, they need a scalable and globally applicable capability for assessing the state of nature and tracking changes over time. Oji sees an opportunity to generate high-integrity, auditable primary biodiversity data, to enhance nature-related decisions at every scale of the organisation - from best-in-class TNFD disclosures at the group level, to highly localised decisions on forestry management practices and ecological interventions.
The Partnership
Oji partnered with Pivotal in 2023 to begin generating primary biodiversity data and actionable state of nature intelligence. We began with a pilot site - Sarufutsu forest in Hokkaido, Japan. Sarufutsu was identified by Oji as a site of biodiversity significance, as it was believed to host a diverse mix of important habitats and species, including endangered fish and bird species. Oji has implemented sustainable forest management practices including selective thinning and buffering, alongside conservation and community engagement programmes.
Pivotal's Field Technicians sampled the site in 5 days of on-site activity, using multiple data capture methods: drones, acoustic sensors, high-res cameras and camera traps, and eDNA. This produced geolocated, traceable primary species data, which was combined with habitat analysis from remote sensing.
The combined dataset was organised and analysed with Pivotal's proprietary software and AI, and quality controlled by a remote community of ecological experts, all of whom have passed extensive testing to assure their knowledge of the specific ecosystem. The result was a set of highly accurate, auditable data on species and habitats, which Pivotal then transformed into a set of TNFD-aligned state of nature metrics, which together form Oji's baseline for this site. Pivotal's proprietary software, AI and community of experts made it possible to complete this analysis with unprecedented speed and statistical confidence.
The results of the Sarufutsu sampling were presented in Pivotal's web-based data portal. The site is sampled annually to generate insights of change over time. Oji will use the portal to access their TNFD-aligned metrics, interactive spatial mapping and analytics tools, and straightforward data extracts for further analysis, decision making or reporting.
The Impact
The pilot project at Sarufutsu has validated the ecological significance of the site, including detections of threatened species including the Ito salmon and the iconic Red-Crowned Crane. Pivotal's high-resolution species and habitat data will support Oji to enhance both forestry management and ecological interventions, to drive positive outcomes for local biodiversity, and to communicate transparently with local stakeholders and communities.
Equally important, our pilot in Hokkaido has proven the scalability, affordability, and accuracy of tech-powered primary biodiversity data. The initiative was included in Oji's 2024 TNFD disclosure report, and will enable them to disclose auditable state of nature metrics showing change over time, as the site is sampled each year.
Pivotal and Oji jointly presented the results of the pilot at Bloom 24, alongside the CBD COP16 biodiversity conference in Cali, Colombia. The objective is now to develop and scale the partnership so that Oji can benefit from this data more widely across its land holdings and operations.
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