Business of Biodiversity

This week, Green Thing saw the launch of the third report to come from The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity research team, at the first ever Business of Biodiversity Symposium. TEEB is a global initiative aimed at increasing awareness and facilitating discussions around the economics of biodiversity loss and ecosystem damage. It's about placing a value on nature, rather than nature be seen as something humans are far removed from.

In the opening session, emphasis was placed on identifying the impacts and dependencies of businesses on biodiversity and what risks and opportunities could come from this. Setting sector specific targets and pricing were two opportunities that policy makers identified. Also, Hon. Caroline Spelman MP encouraged businesses to become early adopters of ecosystem restoration as they would end up on top because they'd have first mover advantage.

Over the past few years, when companies were forced to adopt carbon reduction targets as set out in UK government policy, industry had to find ways to comply. In a similar fashion, the TEEB report calls for policy makers and industry to cooperate to ensure that biodiversity is not just protected, but restored. Inherently linked, biodiversity restoration is the new carbon. It's the next step towards looking at the larger picture and working to restore the damage we've caused.

There is a growing realisation that conservation efforts are in the best interest of businesses. It's a viscous cycle: Businesses damage biodiversity and all the ecosystem services it provides. Biodiversity loss gets worse. Ecosystem degradation gets worse. Businesses get stuck as they are dependent on the ecosystems services.

Often, some businesses don't even recognise the importance of biodiversity. One of the best lines of the day came from Gavin Neath of Unilever who said "What do these little chaps [rare animals and plants] have to do with by business?" illustrating his point that companies may not yet know the impact of their actions or realise how it could affect their future revenue.

Pricing was another issue to come up often. Sometimes things can get a bit tricky when value is placed on ecology and the environment. For example seas otters. If populations of sea otters can be restored, their value is $700 million in carbon credits on the European carbon trading market because of the value they have in removing CO2. If they are capable of storing such an amount of carbon, does this mean its ok to then use this currency to alter or damage other ecosystems? Will the carbon trade at some stage merge with the biodiversity business to create on mega, unbalanced and potentially dangerous currency?

TEEB have made significant progress in facilitating discussions and debates around policy and implementation of the business side of biodiversity. It's about time that people are recognising the value and importance of biodiversity. Let's hope that in valuting biodiversity, we don't end up devaluing its real worth or protecting just enough of it to get by.

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