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Why International Biodiversity Consultants?

Posted 16th January 2020


bamboo forest

Introduction

Raising global awareness on the importance of biodiversity is now entering it’s fourth decade since 1992 and the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro where the adoption of the Convention on Biological Diversity occurred.

Ten years ago, the United Nations launched The International Year of Biodiversity in 2010 and The Decade of Biodiversity from 2011 to 2020 (UN Resolution 65/161).  The purpose, to raise public awareness of the threats to biodiversity and act to halt biodiversity loss. But it was also to start discussions between stakeholders, focus on accomplishments led by communities and governments and promote developments in innovations to reduce threats and biodiversity losses.

But as we wave goodbye to the last decade and the Decade of Biodiversity, the goal was to significantly reduce biodiversity loss during this time. But it hasn’t worked out so well. Instead, nearly 1 million species are threatened with extinction within the decades ahead caused by five key drivers (IPBES 2019):

  • Land and sea use changes
  • Exploitation of organisms
  • Global warming
  • Pollution
  • Alien species invasions

These key drivers occur as a result of a multitude of indirect drivers, often leading back to human activities (societal values and behaviours) such as production and consumption, human population increases, technological innovation and governance (local to global).

There is no arguing that this is depressing, but it has also inspired action across the world. 2019 will be remembered as the year the public, especially younger generations were galvanised into demanding change.

It’s time for the private sector to play its part

Over the last 50 years, the global economy has grown nearly four times with global trade increasing ten times. In turn, these require increasing demands for energy and materials (IPBES, 2019). For too long now, governments and the private sector have been integral to these demands on the natural world in order to supply the ever-increasing need for resources.  However, business as usual must change if we are to live sustainably and respect the needs of future generations. It’s time for the private sector to step up and lead this need for positive change.

Leading the solutions

There is now a recognition that through understanding the role that biodiversity plays in underpinning our economies and societies also means the private sector is better prepared, more robust and resilient to negative environmental change.

This is starting to happen, the private sector has the resource and financial power to make a significant difference. The rise of Environmental, Social and Governance (ESGs) focused lending and in-flows into developing nations are now greater than official development assistance (ODI, 2018). The emergence of ‘green finance’, investments that provide environmental benefits have also been increasing and if a more sustainable global economy is desired, these inflows will almost certainly need to increase rapidly and significantly.

The private sector will also need to provide resources to focus on restoring ecosystems and enhancing protection for biodiversity (Wildlife Habitat Council, 2019).  In 2017, the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were adopted to provide a blueprint driving towards a more peaceful, prosperous society and planet. There are two SDGs which aim to protect biodiversity, SDG 14 ‘Life Below Water’ and SDG 15 ‘Life on Land’.  The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) will also launch its Nature-based Solutions (NbS) which aim to upscale our efforts to protect, sustainably manage and restore natural and/or modified ecosystems as well as address the challenges we face and in turn increase ours and our planets well-being.

Combining SDGs and NbS provide the link to seeking a greater vision of scale which has not been provided by the private sector to date.

It’s the right time for bigger, better and more joined up!

It’s International Biodiversity Consultants vision that we help and assist the private sector and our clients to ‘scale-up’ their ambition for ecological mitigation and aim for ‘bigger, better and more joined up’ improvements in landscape restoration and integration, significantly increasing our efforts to mitigate at a larger scale than has been previously attempted.

We are able to meet this challenge through our technical know-how and experience of environmental and ecological processes, habitats, ecosystems and biodiversity and the problems and challenges our clients face with project developments.

We have the experience of impact assessment, mitigation, ecological restoration and biodiversity through design including the development of nationally protected areas (both terrestrial and marine).

It is these opportunities International Biodiversity Consultants aims to address and this is why we need to make a difference.

Author

About the Author: Dr. Phil Rogers is an international environmental and biodiversity specialist and is Director and Lead Ecologist for International Biodiversity Consultants Ltd. He is currently working in South East Asia and is based in Jakarta, Indonesia.

About International Biodiversity Consultants Ltd: International Biodiversity Consultants Ltd was formed in 2019 and is focused on global solutions for nature. Find out more here or link up with our social media: linktr.ee/ibioconsultant1

References

IPBES (2019)

IFC (No Date) Green Finance – A bottom-up approach to track existing flows
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IUCN (2019) Commission on Ecosystem Management – Nature-based solutions
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Overseas Development Institute (2018) Private infrastructure financing in developing countries, five challenges, five solutions
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Wildlife Habitat Council (2019) SDGs and Biodiversity – The Private Sector Impact
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United Nations (2019) Sustainable Development Goals.
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