Press release | 27 сен, 2010

Business backs efforts to halt biodiversity loss

Background: Finding ways for businesses to become more involved in helping to halt and reverse the current loss of biodiversity will be the main focus of the International Business and Ecosystems Dialogue, which will take place on Tuesday 26th October in Nagoya, Japan. The dialogue coincides with the 10th Conference of Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in Nagoya, which will set targets for the next ten years to reduce the global rate of biodiversity loss.

Photo: IUCN

Some 100 business leaders, key decision makers from around the world and representatives from governments will explore adaptive business strategies and policy frameworks to reduce and eventually reverse ecosystem degradation and ecosystem service loss. The all-day event is organized by IUCN, the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) and Keidanren Committee on Nature Conservation (KCNC), with support from the CBD Secretariat.

Key Issues:
• “The time has come to make sure that businesses include biodiversity and the natural environment as part of their decision making processes,” says Juan Marco Alvarez, Director of IUCN’s Economy and Environmental Governance Group and Head of IUCN’s Business and Biodiversity Programme. “We hope that the International Business and Ecosystems Dialogue will encourage businesses to make real commitments that will enhance the CBD’s objectives and also help achieve the new biodiversity targets.”

• “The degradation of ecosystems and the services they provide destroys business value and limits future growth opportunities,” says Björn Stigson, president of the WBCSD. “There is a need to account for the full value of ecosystems and their services in order to ensure their sustainable use.”

• “It is time to recognize that biodiversity is an important foundation for a future sustainable society,” says Naotake Okubo, chairman of KCNC. “Determined to take its responsibilities, KCNC will launch its ‘Japan Business and Biodiversity Partnership’ during the International Business and Ecosystems Dialogue. This new multi-stakeholder initiative aims to broaden private sector engagement within the CBD and mainstream biodiversity conservation into Japanese business practices.”

Editor’s notes:
Journalists are invited to attend the Closing Session of the Dialogue from 17h15 to 18h15.
A press conference will be held from 19h00 to 19h45 on Tuesday 26th October in the CBD media centre in Nagoya, Japan.

For more information, contact:
Nicki Chadwick, IUCN Media Relations Officer, t. +41 22 999 0229, e. nicki.chadwick@iucn.org
Jun Hangai, Keidanren Committee on Nature Conservation, t. +81 3 6741 0993, e. hangai-j@keidanren.or.jp
Peter Paul van de Wijs, WBCSD Managing Director, Communication, t. +41 22 839 3141, e. Vandewijs@wbcsd.org

LINKS:

About Keidanren Committee on Nature Conservation