A growing agenda
Since COP-8, the business and biodiversity agenda has been receiving an increasing amount of attention. It has been included, for instance, in the
Potsdam initiative (March 2007), the
Biodiversity Communication of the European Commission (May 2006) and the
Biodiversity Agenda of the EU Presidencies of Germany, Portugal and Slovenia (November 2007).
The
Lisbon Declaration was also adopted in November 2007, as an outcome of the
High Level Conference on Business and Biodiversity, organised by the Portuguese Presidency of the European Union (EU) Council. In preparation to COP-9, Germany also hosted, in April 2008, a
conference on business and biodiversity.
G8 Environment Ministers adopted, in May 2008, the
Kobe Call for Action for Biodiversity to call upon all countries to work together to promote, in the area of private sector engagement, the following actions: Strengthen global initiatives and fora promoting dialogue, cooperation and joint activities among various stakeholders including the business sector, NGOs and researchers, such as the World Business Council for Sustainable Development and the Global Biodiversity Forum; Work to mainstream the concept of biodiversity in society through, where appropriate, developing partnership with the private sector and extending exchanges of information about successful experiences and practice; Encourage corporate social responsibility, with a view to making the private sector a full partner in biodiversity conservation, and promote enabling environments for private investment in sustainable management of biodiversity.
Pursuant to Decision VIII/17, the Secretariat has, in particular,
compiled information on the 'business case' for biodiversity as well as good practice guidance in a range of sectors. Since October 2006, the Secretariat has also published a
newsletter on business and biodiversity to accompany the implementation of decision VIII/17.
For a more detailed overview of business and biodiversity since COP-8, see
document UNEP/CBD/COP/9/21/Add.1.