Corporate Biodiversity Management
Why does our Chair value Biodiversity?
We are in the age of the 6th species extinction [1]. Since the first signs of species extinction in the 19th century, the decline of biodiversity has continued. During the second half of the 20th century, this process accelerated [15]. Globally, 67 percent of sufficiently studied species of invertebrates show an average decline of 45 percent [15]. The 6th species extinction is one of the greatest challenges of our time because the loss of biodiversity determines not only how but whether we survive in the future. Species variety is a prerequisite for the functioning of our ecosystems [7].
However, ecosystems provide us with valuable services. They clean the air, provide clean drinking water, offer flood protection, provide us with food and medicine, and much more [7]; [15]. A team of researchers put the global annual ecosystem services for human well-being at over 140 trillion U.S. Dollars in 2011. In comparison, according to the World Bank, the global gross domestic product was 73 trillion U.S. Dollars in 2011 - just half of the ecosystem services [7]. Ecosystem services also bring direct economic benefits. For example, the value of flower pollination is estimated at 153 billion Euros per year worldwide, of those, 15 billion Euros within the European Union [15].
How does our Chair define Biodiversity?
Our Chair adopts the definition of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD):
“The variability among living organisms from all sources including, inter alia terrestrial, marine, and other aquatic ecosystems and the ecological complexes of which they are a part; this includes diversity within species, between species and of ecosystems.” (CBD, 2016)
Biodiversity thus refers to the triad of species diversity, genetic diversity, and the diversity of ecosystems. This triad is enormously important for a proper understanding of biodiversity because these components are strongly intertwined and interdependent.
Species diversity with only a few individuals of each species could easily lead to the extinction of such animal species and plant species. With a low genetic diversity within species, this would be an easy game for a pathogen.
In contrast, only a small number of species with many individuals, thus a large genetic diversity, would also not provide a basis for functioning ecosystems. It would be like a university that consists only of professorships and in which there is no administration and no students. Without a functioning administration, the professorship would lack the basic infrastructure for its work, and without students, academic exchange and the generation of new ideas would only be possible to a limited extent. Therefore, there would be too little (species) diversity for a functioning university.
Ecosystems are not interchangeable either. A lugworm cannot exist without the Wadden Sea. Even the species-rich environment of a coral reef is of little use to it. If an ecosystem disappears or the processes within an ecosystem are subject to major change, the species living there would also disappear [7].
Why does our Chair focus our research on corporate biodiversity management?
Biodiversity conservation is not only the issue of the government and society but also the issue of business. The 6th species extinction that we are currently facing is the result of increasing industrial activities and the human population [1]. Most of the business activities and operations depend on nature and ecosystems, especially in forestry, mining, food and beverage, and tourism sectors. In recent years, environmental management, especially biodiversity management, starts to gain attention.
The Convention on Biological Diversity posed Aichi Biodiversity Targets with five focused strategic goals to achieve by 2020 [6]. Guidelines from Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) from the United Nations introduced goals to focus on biodiversity issues. Reports from major consultancy firms pointed out the importance of business response to recent biodiversity issues in order to avoid even greater challenges and financial loss in the future [9]; [10]; [11]. Hence, more and more companies have started to take action and worked with environmental NGOs such as the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), and World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) for nature conservation [4].
Although the increased initiatives for business practice in biodiversity management is discovered [17], most literature found biodiversity reporting underperformed [2]; [8]; [12]; [13]; [16]. As our Chair views biodiversity highly and recognizes the importance it to business, we dedicate our research focus to corporate biodiversity management.
How our Chair defines corporate biodiversity management?
Our Chair adopts the definition from Schaltegger et al. (2010):
“Corporate biodiversity management involves the methodical design of processes, products, and projects to ensure business success while protecting biodiversity. It systematically analyses the impact of business activities on biodiversity as well as its structural and social conditions in order to find strategic measures that lead to sustainable development for both business and society.” (Schaltegger et al., 2010, 10)
Comprehensive measurement tools and perceived external pressures are essential to motivate companies to implement biodiversity management; however, obstacles such as difficulty in valuing biodiversity [1] and lack of stakeholder awareness [3] hinder the implementation of it.
Hence, questions below are raised from our Chair for this research field:
- How can stakeholders motivate businesses to implement biodiversity management?
- Is it possible to have one approach to measuring biodiversity, sector-specific or cross-sector?
- Are there coherent regional biodiversity management concepts?
- How should reporting on biodiversity management be organized?
+++You can find the list of references and further recommended literature under this research field here+++