Business and Biodiversity

Biodiversity for sustainable development

Mainstreaming biodiversity: best insurance for social and economic sustainable development

Nature and biodiversity is a foundation of sectoral activity that guarantees long-term survival:
• Bio-fuels reduce greenhouse gases, and can be produced locally;
• Nature areas can act as carbon sinks;
• Nature and landscape takes people into the countryside, and has a cultural dimension too;
• Wise use of natural resources reduces costs for materials supply by avoiding waste;
• Recycling avoids pollution in the processing of raw materials and depletion of natural resources;
• Organic farming develops appreciation for good taste, and has an added value for health;
• Certified forestry encourages the protection of fauna and flora, and conserves water resources;
• Pro-biodiversity businesses are an attractive field of investment for banks to support.

Landscape identity can play a role in orienting entrepreneurial strategies, and biodiversity related investments will support economic development while at the same time preserving or enhancing the natural heritage.

Short-term economic thinking and non-ecological spatial planning miss golden opportunities

European society may forego enormous potential rewards when deciding future orientations:
• Investments take place that ignore the added value of working with biodiversity;
• Human activities often have no ecological reference point for defining good practice;
• Indicators to monitor the degree of negative versus positive development are lacking;
• Seeking money for sound development comes up against the lack of financial resources;
• Assessing the value of landscapes and ecological features suffers from penury of methods;
• Targeting multifunctional land use is too often only in reference to the agricultural sector.

ECNC offers human resources geared to integrating biodiversity into sectors

A business plan that offers a robust use of natural resources over the long term? An economic rationale to convince banks to engage available debt and equity capital in biodiversity-related investments? An approach to land use that is compatible with ecological networking principles? The development of indicators to measure and guide the attainment of sustainable development objectives? These all are possible with the collaboration of ECNC.

ECNC has a substantial track record in:
• developing biodiversity indicators for practical application by the European Environment Agency;
• working with European and major commercial banks to promote pro-biodiversity business;
• coordinating networks of regional actors seeking to combine economy and landscape identity;
• training programmes for capacity development in biodiversity-related activities;
• producing guidelines for best sectoral practice and information for entrepreneurial support;
• encouraging multifunctional land use as an integrated concern within a multisectoral landscape.

Saving biodiversity equals saving money.    –    Nature means business … today! 

For more information contact: ECNC–European Centre for Nature Conservation
PO Box 90154, 5000 LG, Tilburg, the Netherlands, Tel.: +31-13-5944944, Fax: +31-13-5944945,
Email: Vineta Goba, WWW: www.ecnc.org

European biodiversity expertise centre for sustainable development