‘Valuing Biodiversity: A Business Case’

Today, a major transformation is being witnessed as businesses worldwide are realising that conservation of biodiversity is an economic imperative. In Sri Lanka too, businesses stand to gain from a better understanding of the value of biodiversity. 

But questions remain – how can businesses mainstream biodiversity considerations into business practice? What are some of the good practices being explored to financially incentivise biodiversity protection and restoration? 

The webinar titled ‘Valuing Biodiversity: A Business Case’ organised on 9 2021 opened a discussion on these questions and identified actionable strategies for businesses to accelerate progress towards biodiversity conservation and regeneration.

The webinar was hosted within the framework of the Community Livelihood and Biodiversity Recovery (COLIBRI) project and funded by the Delegation of the European Union in Sri Lanka and the Maldives. It was organised by ACTED and Biodiversity Sri Lanka (BSL) and the European Chamber of Commerce in Sri Lanka (ECCSL) in partnership with the Blue Resources Trust (BRT), Environmental Foundation Ltd. (EFL), and Green Movement Sri Lanka (GMSL). The webinar also took place within the ambit of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Sri Lanka’s Colombo Development Dialogues (CDD) on Green Development.

The discussion was opened by Thorsten Bargfrede, Head of Political Section at the Delegation of the European Union to Sri Lanka and the Maldives, who highlighted the European Union’s (EU) international commitments under its Biodiversity Strategy for 2030 and other EU global initiatives, including the new global coalition called “#UnitedforBiodiversity”. 

All national, regional, and local authorities, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), businesses, scientists and individual citizens were encouraged to join the same. It was also reiterated that the EU will increasingly support biodiversity protection projects and initiatives in Sri Lanka in the next three years. 

The keynote speaker, Anna Karamat, Policy Officer at DG Environment, European Commission spoke about how under the EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030, the EU intends to engage with businesses to find ways to economically and financially value biodiversity. For this, she presented a set of initiatives such as the EU Business@Biodiversity Platform and other investments, pricing and tax incentives. An invitation was extended to all relevant stakeholders in EU partner countries to join the Global Partnership on Business and Biodiversity launched under the COP 15 Convention on Biological Diversity in October 2021.

Guest speaker, Dr. Buddika Hapuarachchi, Team Lead and Policy Specialist of Climate and Environment Team from UNDP in Sri Lanka, highlighted that the island nation is also gearing up to enhance biodiversity actions by implementing and complying with the relevant international conventions. According to Dr. Hapuarachchi, the webinar provided a platform to discuss how private actors can mainstream biodiversity activities into the core business strategy of private organisations, and ultimately contribute more purposively to the “Green Development” agenda.

A series of inspiring and creative business cases were presented by Diesel & Motor Engineering (DIMO), Jetwing Vil Uyana and Tokyo Cement Group (Lanka), demonstrating how private sector businesses have implanted biodiversity activities into their core business strategies.

After the presentations there was a fruitful and engaging panel discussion moderated by Arjuna Seneviratne from GMSL.

The panel focused on the importance of a shift in perspective whereby biodiversity conservation goes from being a peripheral “nice to do” activity for businesses to becoming part of the core strategy. Subramaniam Eassuwaren, Director, Biodiversity Sri Lanka and Deputy Chairman, Eswaran Brothers Exports said that it has been identified that business models are changing fast, as are consumer preferences, and businesses can now place a financial value on their biodiversity activities and no longer consider them as CSR. 

Building on this, Adheesha Perera, Senior Manager Sustainable Banking, SDB Bank explained that “in fact, some companies in the financial sector have identified that the stability of the sector is dependent on the health of the ecosystem. Accordingly, many financial organisations have therefore integrated social, biodiversity and environmental risk concerns into their corporate decision making process.

According to Prof. Sevvandi Jayakody of EFL the private sector should use current research findings and the existing evidence base to mainstream biodiversity considerations in their business activities. It is critical not just for scientists, but for NGOs, the government and all stakeholders generally to step out of their comfort zone to inspire action. For business practices to be “smart”, in this day and age, integration of scientific knowledge in business strategies is central.

It was stressed by Suraj A. Vanniarachchy that taking a multi-stakeholder approach is essential for bridging the gap between the biodiversity policies already in place and the actual practices. To achieve the best chance of success, the tripartite entities in Sri Lanka, i.e., the Government, private sector and local implementers, should work together.

Adheesha Perera highlighted that there are many opportunities emerging as a result of Sri Lanka moving from a “brown” economy towards a “green” economy, especially in agriculture. Carbon offsetting and biodiversity credits schemes have already been incorporated into private sector activities. Work is underway with the assistance of the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the UNDP and the EU to highlight the main sectors of the economy that require funding. A novel approach to funding currently emerging is “blended financing” which allows organisations working for biodiversity to support projects that will benefit this objective.

In conclusion, the participants and speakers reflected on the implications of biodiversity loss and prevention of that loss for businesses and financial organisations, including the importance of valuing biodiversity, the economic and business dependencies on biodiversity and ecosystem services as well as options for scaling up business action and finance for biodiversity. The assessment and valuation of biodiversity impacts remain limited although investors and businesses depend on biodiversity and ecosystems services for the production of goods and services. 

Awareness of and commitment to biodiversity action are scanty, despite growing awareness of some forward-thinking companies on the importance of biodiversity. It was stressed that transformative changes are needed by policy makers, businesses, financial institutions, and civil society to improve co-operation to strengthen the business case for biodiversity and ecosystem services via a multi-disciplinary, multi-stakeholder approach that enables national and international action.