Side Event
Mainstreaming Biodiversity in Business in Brazil: The TEEB for Business Brazil Project
Organizer
Conservation International
Date and Time
12 October 2012 13:15 - 14:45
Meeting
Eleventh meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP 11)
We live in a world transformed by business activities. Companies have prospered by providing products and services to people everywhere, and play a key role in economic development. For nature, however, the price of development and business success has been very high. Demonstrating the economic value of biodiversity and ecosystems services can be a powerful tool to help business leaders to become more aware of the risks of biodiversity loss and the need to respect ecological limits generally. The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB), a global study carried out from 2007-2010, focused on ‘the global economic benefit of biological diversity, the costs of the loss of biodiversity and the failure to take protective measures versus the costs of effective conservation’. By highlighting the opportunities that arise from the sustainable use of biodiversity, as well as the costs of its loss, both in terms of real costs and potential lost opportunities, the global TEEB study has been the a very important tool to demonstrate to governments, private sector and society their links and dependencies to this natural capital. Concerned about biodiversity loss as a threat to their business growth prospects, the Brazilian private sector has called for the development of a TEEB-like assessment focusing specifically on their Brazilian business context. This side event will celebrate the international launch of the TEEB for Business Brazil interim report, by presenting the project´s preliminary results. Sponsoring companies and partner institutions will present their strategies for incorporating biodiversity into their strategic management and discuss risks and opportunities associated to the natural capital. The TEEB for Business Brasil Project is coordinated by Conservation International Brazil, sponsored by Vale, Monsanto, Natura and Santander and counts with institutional support from the United Nations Environmental Programme World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC) and the Brazilian National Industry Confederation