Background
Nature’s Diversity – Endangered Foundation of Life and Economy
The term biodiversity is used to describe the variability among living organisms, or more specifically, the diversity within and between species, ecosystems and genetic material. Diversity is the foundation of our biosphere’s stability and can be used as an indicator for what state it is in. Biodiversity is the basis of human existence and yet suffers immensely from human interference. Consequently, the foundation of human life is in danger. Thus, it is a central challenge of our time to protect biological diversity now –for our future.
The international community has taken up this challenge by adopting the 
'Convention on Biological Diversity’ (CBD) at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro in 1992. Today, more than 190 nations are party to the Convention. The CBD has three concrete goals:
- the conservation of biological diversity,
- the sustainable use of its components, and
- the fair and equitable sharing of the benefits arising out of the utilization of genetic resources.
In 2010, the tenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties, held in Nagoya, Japan, adopted a revised and updated Strategic Plan for Biodiversity, including 20 specific targets, for the 2011-2020 period.
The ways in which biodiversity is used are as diverse as the resources it provides. They are invaluable in that they provide food, clean water, clean air, raw materials and genetic resources for medicines. Nature provides countless examples and ideas that inspire innovative technology.
The private sector draws heavily from biological resources, causing significant damage to biodiversity. Yet, being major beneficiaries of biodiversity, business and industry have an important interest in protecting it. Many companies have come to realize, albeit slowly, that biologically-sustainable business is more than a duty with long-term benefits, but it is actually effective and profitable today. The slogan “business and biodiversity” has emerged to describe business strategies that effectively combine economic profit and biodiversity conservation.
Although the international community repeatedly emphasized the private sector’s special responsibility, action by business and industry has been rather limited. In response, the 8th Conference of the Parties to the CBD in Decision VIII/17 a) called for an increase in integration of the private sector into the implementation process of the Convention. In order to substantiate this goal, the business and biodiversity initiative ‘Biodiversity in Good Company’ was founded.
The International Community’s Engagement
Access to Genetic Resources and the Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits: ABS
The International Community’s Engagement
The international community has taken up this challenge and adopted the ‘Convention on Biological Diversity’ (CBD) at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, which took place in Rio de Janeiro in 1992. Today, more than 190 nations are party to the Convention. The CBD puts forward three concrete goals:
- the conservation of biological diversity,
- the sustainable use of its components and
- the fair and equitable sharing of the benefits arising out of the utilization of genetic resources.
Since then, regular Conferences of the Parties to the Convention (COP) have been striving to make advances towards this end, as was symbolically represented in 2010 – the Year of Biodiversity. Eight years prior to this, the United Nations had agreed upon completely stopping biodiversity loss, or at least significantly slowing its degradation. Preliminary results were dismal and the goal was not achieved. At the 2010 COP 10 in Nagoya, Japan, the Aichi Biodiversity Targets were formulated with 20 specific goals to be achieved by 2020. In an effort to create more awareness to further support reaching these goals, the United Nations declared the 2011-2020 period to be the United Nation’s Decade on Biodiversity.
Germany is working towards this goal with its 2007 National Strategy on Biological Diversity.
Access to Genetic Resources and the Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits: ABS
In Nagoya, international biodiversity protection achieved a break through as the COP states approved the Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and the Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits Arising from their Utilization to the Convention on Biological Diversity. Access and benefits sharing (ABS) is an important step towards increased ecological and social sustainability. However there is still much to do before the protocols goal's have been implemented and translated into action.
Naturally, states will maintain sovereignty over their genetic resources, but should also guarantee access to these resources according to mutually agreed upon and transparent conditions. Users, for example from the pharmaceutical industry, who use plant-based raw materials, are obligated to equitably share the benefits arising from the utilization of knowledge, innovations and practices of indigenous and local communities who were instrumental in developing the plant-based raw materials.
The new protocol is beneficial for all as it sets the basis for increased legal security and stable processes in using nature’s resources. Additionally, it guarantees that those who help in supplying methods, information, and access to these resources will benefit from the profits. Enterprises should be prepared to adapt to new legal requirements in the near future that may necessitate a restructuring of resource management departments. In the long run, this will secure resources and strengthen social balance.
Placing a Value on the Invaluable: the TEEB Report
Things that cannot be represented by “hard cash” or where the value cannot be literally defined very often find no place political and economic activity. We have a difficult time integrating such thinking into our economically-programmed logic. For this reason there have been great measures taken to understand and pace a cost on realities such as climate change and biodiversity. Because of increasing populations striving for increasing wealth creation, nature and its resources are becoming precious and scarce commodities. For this reason, it is high time to place an economic value on the free gift nature provides us with and to develop mechanisms that fairly and sustainably utilize the profits we gain. It is only after we understand the economic consequences of damaging our ecosystems that we can understand what it costs to preserve biodiversity and what it costs to do nothing. Only then will it be possible to find new ways to charge a fair price for the use of nature to those who benefit from it.
Under the auspices of the G8 presidency in 2007, Germany together with the European Commission initiated the study “The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity” (TEEB) that was implemented through the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). For more information on the study results visit: www.teebweb.org
The TEEB study shows that the economic value of the ecosystem services is much higher than previously thought. Effective protection of biodiversity is certainly not cheap. Nevertheless, the costs for this are significantly less than the price we will have to pay if we allow the current rate of biodiversity loss to continue unchecked. For this reason, it makes sense to invest in protection now, to avoid being saddled with an unaffordable bill in the future.
TEEB for Business is a report meant to sensitise enterprises about the high risks represented by biodiversity loss and what their options for action are. It is an appeal to businesses to build up a sustainable biodiversity management system as well as analyse and balance out the positive and negative affects this has on their value-added processes. Additionally, businesses should develop management standards and indicators. The ‘Biodiversity in Good Company’ Initiative’s 
Leadership Declaration takes account of these.