AN organization of international nature conservancy groups recently unveiled a road map for businesses operating in key biodiversity areas (KBAs) which represent some of the most biologically significant places on the planet.
The report titled, “Guidelines on Business and KBAs: Managing Risk to Biodiversity” launched on April 17 in Gland, Switzerland, outlined steps that businesses can take to actively safeguard biodiversity and avoid contributing to its loss.
The Guidelines on Business and KBAs launched by the KBA Partnership recommends businesses of all sizes and across all sectors to adopt 15 guidelines to better manage their direct, indirect and cumulative impacts on places deemed critical for the conservation of species and ecosystems worldwide, known as KBAs, says a statement released by the International Union for Nature Conservation (IUNC), one of the organizations comprising the KBA Partnership.
The KBA is made up of 12 of the world’s leading international nature conservation organizations. In addition to IUCN and Birdlife International, this includes Amphibian Survival Alliance, Conservation International, Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund, Global Environment Facility, Global Wildlife Conservation, NatureServe, Rainforest Trust, Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, Wildlife Conservation Society and WWF.
The KBA Partnership aims to enhance global conservation efforts by systematically mapping internationally important sites and ensuring that scarce resources are directed to the most important places for nature. The impact of this vital conservation work will be enhanced by promoting targeted investment in conservation action at priority sites.
The report addresses issues such as avoidance of impacts, limits to biodiversity offsets, as well as financial guarantees and corporate reporting. It guides businesses in managing the potential losses and other risks associated with their negative impact on biodiversity, including potential impacts on access to financing and increased company exposure to negative press.
“These new guidelines will help businesses protect the most important natural places on our planet, and so preserve the natural resources they so strongly depend on,” says Inger Andersen, IUCN director general. “By managing their impacts on nature, businesses deliver positive conservation results, helping address the escalating crisis of biodiversity loss.”
The report and associated web site aim to help businesses demonstrate good environmental practice and compliance with voluntary sustainability standards or certification schemes. It also explains how companies operating in KBAs can make a positive contribution to biodiversity by investing in conservation actions and sharing relevant information about the KBAs, including data collected in Environmental Impact Assessments, baseline studies and monitoring activities, with the KBA Partners. Its aim is to assist governments in authorization decisions related to business operations.
“It is our hope that companies and governments will embed these guidelines into their environmental policies, voluntary sustainable standards, financial safeguards and regulations,” says Patricia Zurtita, CEO of Birdlife International. “But we also need other actors—local communities and policy-makers, civil society and scientists —to hold business accountable and ensure that the unique biodiversity that defines Key Biodiversity Areas is safeguarded for all.”
Following the adoption in 2016 of a global standard for the identification of KBAs, the KBA Partnership was created to map, monitor and conserve the areas. More than 15,000 KBAs have been identified so far, many of which currently support commercial activities, such as farming, fisheries, forestry, and mining. Although the global KBA network does not yet cover all geographical regions or species groups, the KBA Partnership is working to fill these gaps.
“For the first time the conservation community has come together to use standard criteria to identify the most important sites for conservation of species and habitats on the planet,” said Dr. Andrew Plumptre, head of the Key Biodiversity Areas Secretariat. “Ideally, businesses and governments should avoid any harmful activities at these sites. However, if developments are to go ahead, then this report provides crucial advice on how to minimize negative impacts on the species and habitats for which KBAs are important.”
“The Tiffany & Co. Foundation is proud to support IUCN in this important effort to protect some of the world’s most biologically rich and diverse places,” said Anisa Kamadoli Costa, chairman and president of The Tiffany & Co. Foundation, which funded the project. “These guidelines provide an important road map for businesses committed to advancing the long-term preservation and stewardship of the Earth’s natural resources, which all of society depends on.”
The Guidelines on Business and KBAs builds on input provided at an end user consultation workshop held in Gland, Switzerland, on July 4 and 5, 2016, and during a public consultation from December 2, 2016 to March 17, 2017.
The Philippines, one of the 17 mega-biodiverse countries in the world but is also faced with the challenge of protecting and conserving its threatened terrestrial and marine ecosystems because of habitat loss triggered by the unbridled development facilitated by the government.
The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) through its Biodiversity Management Bureau (BMB) is promoting biodiversity-friendly business enterprises and is mainstreaming biodiversity conservation in businesses sustainability.
Recently, environmental advocates belonging to the Bayay Sibuyanon Inc. and the Climate Reality Project launched a petition to stop a road project that will pass through the Mount Guiting-Guiting Natural Park on Sibuyan Island, which is being referred to as the Galapagos Island of the Philippines because of the richness of its animal and plant biodiversity. The Galapagos Island in Ecuador was visited by Charles Darwin who was inspired by the island’s rich biodiversity and came up with the Theory of Evolution.
One of the many threatened KBAs in the Philippines, Mount Guiting-Guiting, has a dense forest cover, which will be impacted by the 3.8-kilometer concrete road called the Magdiwang-San Fernando Cross Country Road. The P95-million funding of the road project is included in the General Appropriations Act of 2018.
Rodne Galicha, country manager of the Climate Reality Project-Philippines and a leader of Bayay Sibuyanon said while the proponents may argue on its trade and economic benefits, the road project will traverse Mount Guiting-Guiting Natural Park, a Protected Area by virtue of Presidential Proclamation 746 signed by former President Fidel V. Ramos in 1996.
Opponents of the road project believe it will eventually lead to business activities threatening the Sibuyan’s fragile island ecosystem. Sought for reaction, Galicha said ultimately, ecosystem integrity needs to be “sensitively considered.”
“Conservation cobenefits may be relevant in a fast-changing societies responding to the needs of growing population. However, it is more important to give strict protection zones proper breathing space for other species to survive and thrive. There has been imbalance since the beginning of industrial revolution and regeneration of ecosystems has been very slow,” he added.
“Corporate conservation interventions must not be mistaken as mere social responsibility; carbon and environmental deficits offsets but also accountability and moral responsibilities,” he said.