Protecting and sustainably using biodiversity and ecosystem services means huge and individual challenges for most business sectors and companies. Some sectors have significant, direct impacts on biodiversity caused by direct use of land that they themselves manage. This is especially true for agriculture or the extractive industries. The pressure to act is also especially high for those businesses that are very much dependent on single natural resources, such as fish, cacao, coffee, other crops. They can focus on these special fields of action. 

Many companies, however, face diverse and indirect dependencies, and their potential for directly influencing biodiversity protection is very limited. They find it difficult to understand what they can do and to set the right priorities in order to behave in a responsible manner. There is a need for joint innovation by cooperating with suppliers, customers and other partners along the value chains in order to develop the solutions for all the problems related to the use of raw materials, natural resources and land use. This means prioritizing the challenges, develop best practices as well as ambitious and feasible standards. 

The link list (see navigation on the left) provide a first overview on initiatives, methods, and instruments that can help companies to understand what biodiversity protection means for them.