Cali Watch Methodology

CaliWatch is a database of publicly listed companies operating in sectors identified under Decision 16/2 of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) as relevant to the use of digital sequence information on genetic resources (DSI). The database supports the Cali Fund, the multilateral mechanism established under that decision. For each company, CaliWatch compiles publicly available information on business activities, sector classification and financial size, together with the sources of this information and an indication of its reliability. The database is intended as a reference resource for researchers, policymakers and other stakeholders working on the implementation of the Cali Fund.

Limitations

When using CaliWatch data, please keep in mind:

  1. CaliWatch is a database of companies operating in sectors identified as potentially benefiting “directly or indirectly from the use of digital sequence information” in Enclosure I of CBD Decision 16/2. It is not a list of companies using DSI data. Sector membership indicates potential, not demonstrated, DSI use.
  2. CaliWatch calculates outstanding contributions (“Cali Debt”) at the corporate level, even if only some subsidiaries engage in Cali Fund-related industries. Some argue that this disproportionately disadvantages companies with only limited involvement in relevant industries (see discussions about ‘proportionality’). However, parties have not adopted any rules on which profits or revenues are or are not included (as of Oct 2026).
  3. CaliWatch only includes public companies, since profit and revenue data is not systematically available for private companies.
  4. CaliWatch likely omits some public listed companies operating in Cali Fund sectors, since the analysis focuses on industries in the underlying database that most closely align with the Cali Fund’s classifications. Differences in sector classifications across countries and databases may cause some relevant companies to be overlooked. Additionally, the base database does not include companies from some countries.
  5. Lexicon weights and classification thresholds are set by expert judgement, as no labelled reference data exist for calibration.
  6. Financial data are currently being audited and corrected where necessary.

Methodology

The methodology comprises four stages.

1. Identification. An initial population of about 40,000 entities is drawn from TradingView and Yahoo Finance, using a deliberately broad selection of industries to minimise false exclusions. Records are consolidated at parent-company level using official identifiers (ISIN, LEI). Name similarity alone is not considered sufficient grounds for merging, and ambiguous cases are referred for manual review.

2. Evidence collection. Data are obtained exclusively from public sources: company websites, annual reports and filings, Wikipedia, and public registries including GLEIF, Wikidata, SEC EDGAR and Companies House. Registry-based industry classification codes provide an objective basis for subsequent classification.

3. Sector classification. Each company is assessed against the seven sectors defined by the Fund: Pharmaceuticals; Nutraceuticals; Cosmetics; Animal & Plant Breeding; Biotechnology; Laboratory Equipment & Supplies; and DSI Information, Scientific & Technical Services. Three independent classifiers are applied: (i) mapping of official activity codes to sectors using published concordance tables; (ii) a weighted, sector-specific lexicon scored using a certainty-factor approach; and (iii) a natural language inference (NLI) model assessing whether company text supports defined sector hypotheses. Classifier outputs are not aggregated into a single score, as agreement and disagreement between methods are themselves informative for review.

4. Financial screening. Companies are screened against the interim thresholds of Decision 16/2. An entity is considered in scope if it meets at least two of three criteria, each averaged over three years: total assets above USD 20 million, revenue above USD 50 million, or profit above USD 5 million. Missing values are recorded as unknown rather than zero. An indicative contribution, calculated as the lower of 1% of profit or 0.1% of revenue, is reported for scale only and does not constitute an assessed liability.

Human review

All automated outputs are treated as suggestions. Companies with an estimated contribution above USD 1 million and a joint classifier confidence above 98% undergo detailed manual verification before publication. The remaining population is assessed through random sampling. Where a reviewer's assessment differs from the automated result, the reviewer's assessment is retained.

Feedback and corrections

CaliWatch is under continuous development, and we welcome input from companies, researchers, policymakers and other stakeholders. If you identify an error in a company record, a misclassification, inaccurate financial data, or a source we may have overlooked, please let us know. Please send feedback to shreya.mehra@plant-for-the-planet.org