The Secretary of State for the Environment, Federico Ramos, accompanied by the director of the Biodiversity Foundation, Sonia Castañeda, today highlighted “the contribution of Spanish companies to the conservation of natural capital in Spain“, during a meeting held in Madrid with the 19 companies that are part of the Spanish Business and Biodiversity Initiative (IEEB), a project coordinated by the Biodiversity Foundation of the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and the Environment.
 
During the meeting, Ramos thanked all the companies present for their efforts “when it comes to incorporating environmental values into their business plans“. He also expressed his satisfaction with the role of the project partners, Biodiversity In Good Company, the Club for Excellence in Sustainability, Forética and the Global Nature Foundation, in charge of facilitating the exchange of experiences, and disseminating actions and good practices among the Spanish business sector.
 
Ramos explained that “the IEEB seeks to integrate natural capital into business policy and management, to value the contribution of large companies to the conservation of natural heritage and to channel private financing to conserve biodiversity”.
 
The IEEB will celebrate its second anniversary this May, and its objective is to include the conservation and management of biodiversity in the business strategies of the different business sectors of the Spanish economy and to identify opportunities and alternative and innovative projects in which the protection of natural capital is a fundamental pillar.

To date, 19 companies have already signed the Biodiversity Pact, which recognizes and supports the three objectives of the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity: to promote the conservation of biodiversity; the sustainable use of its components;
 
In addition The signatory companies assume seven commitments: assess the impact of their activity on biodiversity and natural capital; include biodiversity protection in their management manuals; define realistic and measurable targets for conserving biodiversity, which will be reviewed at least every three years;  publish the activities and achievements obtained in the conservation of biodiversity in their annual reports; inform suppliers of the company’s biodiversity objectives and support them to progressively integrate these objectives; explore the possibilities of cooperation in this area with scientific institutions, NGOs or government institutions in order to deepen dialogue, establish collaborations and continuously improve business and environmental management; designate in the company an interlocutor responsible for achieving the objectives of the Pact for Biodiversity.
 
Within the framework of the IEEB, and with the support of the Ministry, after the publication of the Catalogue of Good Business Practices in Biodiversity Management, the Club for Excellence in Sustainability created the Observatory of Business Management of Biodiversity.
 
The creation of this Observatory aims to advance in the design of conceptual and methodological frameworks that can be used by the business fabric, in order to collect the necessary information to stop the loss of biodiversity, showing the economic value that this and ecosystem services represent for companies and for the economy.
 
Likewise, the “Responsible with Biodiversity” project has been launched, with the aim of bringing this concept to companies and highlighting the importance of its management when it comes to mitigating risks and taking advantage of opportunities. To this end, Forética, as a partner of the Initiative, has designed a work itinerary to be able to provide interested companies with practical elements when it comes to integrating biodiversity into their sustainability and Corporate Social Responsibility strategies.
 
For its part, the Global Nature Foundation has been developing the project “Training companies for biodiversity management” for the past year, through which maps of actors belonging to key sectors and areas in the field of business and biodiversity, such as the agricultural or tourism sector, have been drawn up, and consultation workshops have been organised with key organisations to promote business commitment to biodiversity.