On Thursday, July 13, 2010 the first Global Business of Biodiversity (GBOB) Symposium took place in London. The conference focussed explicitly on the corporate world and their interest in preserving biodiversity. Acting as a platform for networking and exchanging ideas, the nearly 400 delegates from the political, economic and NGO sectors were able to discuss the latest topics and methods in corporate biodiversity preservation.

TEEB- Report for Business (D3)

One of the main events at the GBOB was the introduction of the “The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB) Report for Business” findings. Pavan Sikhdev, head of the study, presented the results from this extensive report in the morning on July 13. TEEB is the long-awaited equivalent to the Stern Report for the field of Biodiversity. It provides and economic evaluation of the use of ecosystem services. With the help of over 200 individual analyses the study denominates the value the various services nature provides humans with and suggests how these can be accounted for in political and corporate decision making processes.

The part of the TEEB study, which was introduced in London, was specifically orientated towards businesses and highlighted not only the role they play, but also the chances the corporate world profits from by integrating biodiversity into daily business activities.

A summary of the report (<link http: www.teebweb.org _blank external-link-new-window external link in new>PDF) as well as additional information on the TEEB Study can be found on the <link http: www.teebweb.org forbusiness tabid language en-us default.aspx _blank external-link-new-window external link in new>TEEB-Homepage.

Tools for a practical biodiversity management system

The ‘Biodiversity in Good Company’ Initiative also actively participated in the discussion on practical biodiversity management systems. In the thematic session ‘Biodiversity Tools’ the Initiative introduced its new “Corporate Biodiversity Management Handbook” to a large, international group of industry experts. The handbook is the first publication to consistently approach business and biodiversity from a corporate perspective, while presenting possible fields of action for a corporate biodiversity management. With its clear and practical orientation, the handbook offers a direct introduction into the topic and enables intuitive implementation in business practice of the concrete recommendations. Because of its direct approach and practical orientation the delegates and business representatives showed a strong interest in the handbook.

For more information about the conference visit the GBOB website:
www.businessofbiodiversity.co.uk

A PDF version of the Corporate Biodiversity Management Handbook can be found <link http: www.bmu.de english nature downloads doc _blank external-link-new-window external link in new>here.