For a long time, the focus of environmental action has been on the challenges of climate change, but biodiversity issues are gradually gaining ground. In 2019, the IPBES (Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services) global assessment report declared one million plant and animal species threatened with extinction out of an estimated total of 8 million. This unprecedented decline is compounded each year by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) biodiversity census and the release of its red list of endangered species. 

Countless scientific reports and the recent pandemic have highlighted the dependence of our health, economy, livelihoods and quality of life on life and ecosystem services. In food, 80% of the world's crops depend on pollination. In medicine, natural products make up, for example, 70% of the drugs used to treat cancer. In terms of climate, marine and terrestrial ecosystems are huge storage sinks for carbon emissions from human activity. Scientists speak of a gross sequestration of nearly 60% of global anthropogenic emissions. 

The future of future generations and the building of a sustainable society depend intrinsically on the preservation of the world's natural heritage. Nevertheless, IPBES finds that the current state of ecosystems and the scenarios that are emerging are jeopardising progress towards achieving 80% of the assessed targets of the UN Sustainable Development Goals related to poverty, hunger, health, water, cities, climate, oceans and land. In economic terms, this translates into heavy losses. Land degradation, for example, has already reduced the productivity of 23% of the world's land surface. 14.2 billion in economic value from insect pollination. 

The main factors responsible for the erosion of biodiversity are the destruction of habitats, overexploitation of natural resources, climate change, various types of pollution (air, water, soil, etc.) and invasive alien species. These phenomena are part of the response to population growth and global consumption to the detriment of green spaces, marine environments (with two thirds of all seas altered and only 3% of oceans free of human pressure) and wetlands, 85% of whose surface area has already disappeared. 

In 2021, the World Economic Forum ranks the loss of biodiversity and the depletion of natural resources as one of the five greatest risks to humanity. On a global scale, this is an unprecedented awareness by the private sector of the deterioration of nature and its impact on business. Dasgupta's report on the economics of biodiversity, published in February 2021, shows that since the industrial boom, demands have far outstripped nature's capacity to provide the goods and services on which developed countries depend. Ecosystems no longer have time to regenerate. Resources are dwindling. And the biosphere of which we are a part is being degraded. Also in 2021, the NGO Action Forum held as part of the first part of COP15 in October, also mentions the private sector to be engaged to leverage green finance and environmental, social and governance systems.

CONTACT the PROJECT MANAGER