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Work Streams

 

Biodiversity

 

Biodiversity & Ecosystem Services

Biodiversity, defined as the wealth of genes, species, ecosystems and landscapes on Earth, provides businesses with a range of goods and services collectively termed ecosystem services. All sectors ultimately rely on common services such as the provision of clean water, the maintenance of fertile soils, and the regulation of climate, all of which are delivered by healthy ecosystems. Yet businesses contribute to ecosystem change.

Recent evidence reveals the dramatic loss of our natural assets and the degradation of the services they provide. For the private sector, these changes implicate complex new challenges. Operational, regulatory, and public risks are matched by opportunities emerging from the development of new technologies, new markets, and new business models.

Under the UN Convention on Biological Diversity, governments worldwide have recently stepped up their commitment to involve the private sector in the development of the appropriate enabling regulatory framework to harness the power of markets in designing and implementing innovative solutions to the issue of the loss of biodiversity. The recognition that human, economic and natural well-being are inextricably linked aligns the objectives of financial institutions and their stakeholders and provides a constructive framework for action.

UNEP FI's Work

Aim

To assist the financial services sector in addressing the challenges arising from the loss of biodiversity and the degradation of ecosystem services.

The development of UNEP FI's work on biodiversity and ecosystem services comes partly as a response to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) CoP 8 decisions on private sector engagement which states that parties: "Invites businesses and relevant organizations and partnerships, such as the Finance Initiative of the United Nations Environment Programme, to develop and promote the business case for biodiversity……."

Objectives

Driven by a range of financial institutions and other key partners, including international environmental NGO Fauna & Flora International, the Workstream objectives are the following:

  • Raise awareness on the business implications of loss or degradation of ecosystems and the services they provide
  • Strengthen the business case for action and provide the financial sector with information and analysis tools for adequate management of ecosystem services
  • Open dialogue between financial institutions (both public and private) and policy makers for identifying and acting on areas where the framework conditions under which business operates can be better aligned with ecosystems stewardship

Projects

  • NEW! – Bloom or Bust Report & CEO Briefing Bloom or Bust, a financial sector briefing on biodiversity & ecosystem services, analyses a wide array of financial linkages between banks and investors and various industry sectors by exploring the risks faced by financial institutions that as well as opportunities for financial products and services that support sustainable use of biodiversity & ecosystem services.
  • The Natural Value Initiative
  • Environmental & Social Responsibility Observatory (Coming Soon!)

Members

ABN AMRO Nikko Asset Management
Citigroup Rabobank
Development Bank of South Africa Royal Bank of Canada
F&C Asset Management Sustainable Asset Management (SAM) Group
Insight Investment West LB
KfW (German Development Bank) Westpac Banking Corporation
Nedbank VicSuper

Associate Members

Association Française pour Entreprises Privées KMPG
Business for Social Responsibility Rio Tinto
Convention on Biological Diversity The Katoomba Group
Fauna and Flora International UNEP - World Conservation Monitoring Centre
Forest Trends World Resources Institute
Industrial Development Corporation of South Africa

Chair

ABN AMRO

Events

Contact

Susan Steinhagen
biodiversity@unepfi.org

 


Biodiversity Publications
  PDF Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services - Bloom or Bust?
(1.2 MB | 39 pages)
 
    
  Ecological balance is one of the key pillars of sustainable development.  
     
  PDF CEO Briefing - Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, Bloom or Bust?
(930 KB | 12 pages)
 
    
  Biodiversity and business opportunity  
     
  MoreAll Publications  
Biodiversity Events
  Integrating Biodiversity into Investment Decisions
29 May, 2008
Bonn, Germany
 
     
  Second Workshop on the Natural Value Initiative
3 September, 2007
Sao Paulo, Brazil
 
     
  Workshop on the Natural Value Initiative
8 August, 2007
London, UK
 
     
  First Workshop of Biodiversity & Ecosystem Services Work Stream
5 April, 2007
London, UK
 
     
  MoreAll Events