Closing Roundtable: Next steps for business and biodiversity in Europe
On Tuesday afternoon, Francisco Nunes Correia, Minister for Environment, Spatial Planning and Regional Development, Portugal, chaired the closing roundtable on the next steps for business and biodiversity in Europe.
Julia Marton-Lefèvre, IUCN Director General, summed up the outcomes of the conference, noting that delegates had taken stock of the seriousness of the issue at hand and realized it is time for action. She highlighted the conference demonstrated willingness of the business and biodiversity sectors to work together.
“This conference has outlined that biodiversity counts,” said Janez Kaspelic, on behalf of Janez Podobnik, Minister of Environment and Spatial Planning, Slovenia, noting the critical role of conventions and the ecosystem approach in preserving nature. Underscoring the importance of the EU agenda and the upcoming Slovenian Presidency, he presented national biodiversity initiatives involving business and suggested furthering forestry partnerships.
Jochen Flasbarth, on behalf of Sigmar Gabriel, Minister for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety, Germany, announced that Germany is currently preparing a package of some forty laws to address climate change. He noted progress towards the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) Conference of the Parties (COP) to be held in Bonn in 2008, saying it would build on this Lisbon Conference, other similar initiatives and the outcomes of the Curitiba CBD COP 8.
Providing an overview of changing business models since the last world war, Belmiro de Azevedo, President Sonae SGPS SA, said that biodiversity needed a business case. He noted that the road to 2010 and later depends on combing the regulation power of governments with the financial power of businesses and the support of NGOs. He called for the development of standards to account for biodiversity in business decisions.
Reminding delegates of the objective of this conference: to create a genuine partnership between business and biodiversity that delivers tangible results, Sir Brian Unwin, President of the European Centre for Nature Conservation and President of the European Task Force on Banking, Business and Biodiversity, called for practical actions to follow the Lisbon Message and for the momentum created by the conference not to be lost. “Acorns grow into large oak trees,” he noted and proposed as a slogan: “there is a business case for biodiversity and there is a biodiversity case for business”.
Ahmed Djoghlaf, Executive Secretary, Convention on Biological Diversity, commended the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Al Gore and all those involved in putting climate change centre stage globally and noted that 2008 would be a landmark year for biodiversity. He offered the services of the CBD Secretariat, emphasizing the focus put on business and biodiversity and on the role played by cities and city administrations in conserving biodiversity.
Minister Correia delivered the closing speech, acknowledging outcomes of the meeting, assuring they would be brought to COP 9 and to the IUCN World Conservation Congress. He thanked all meeting stakeholders and delegates, and closed the meeting.
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This summary of the closing session held on Tuesday 13 November 2007 during the High Level Conference on Business and Biodiversity taking place at Lisbon’s Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, is produced by the Countdown 2010 Secretariat.
