The Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, Food and the Environment promotes and supports the commitment of Spanish companies working to achieve economic development compatible with natural capital. In this framework, it has organized the conference “Responsible Companies Leaders in Biodiversity”, which has brought together more than 100 people today in Madrid, including companies, entrepreneurs, conservationist entities and experts related to the subject of business and biodiversity.
The Ministry’s Director General for Environmental Quality and Assessment and the Natural Environment, Javier Cachón, inaugurated this conference, organised through the Biodiversity Foundation, in which the first results report of the Spanish Business and Biodiversity Initiative was presented.
Cachón stressed that “companies play a key role in the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity and ecosystem services in the face of their loss and degradation”.
The Director General also pointed out that “collaboration between the business sector and the public administration is essential to face these challenges, and it is being developed with particular intensity in our country”.
Throughout the day, pioneering and innovative experiences of business platforms and companies were presented, which have shown how the path towards sustainable development is possible.
SPANISH INITIATIVE BUSINESS AND BIODIVERSITY
The Spanish Business and Biodiversity Initiative, which is Launched in May 2013, it brings together 22 large companies whose challenge is to include the conservation and management of biodiversity in their business strategies. The Initiative gives visibility to good business practices and allows the channeling of private funds to protect our natural capital. Its objective is to promote economic development compatible with the conservation of biodiversity; supporting the private business sector in its contribution to the objectives of the Convention on Biological Diversity and to international and national biodiversity conservation plans and strategies.
During its four years of existence, the Spanish Business and Biodiversity Initiative has helped to develop and publicize practical cases in biodiversity management, has supported the integration of biodiversity protection in the DNA of companies, has linked companies with conservationist entities, has sought synergies to develop joint projects and has helped to disseminate the commitment of the Spanish private sector in this area in the main international forums.
The companies that adhere to this Initiative sign a Pact for Biodiversity, with which they support their commitment to the conservation and sustainable use of natural heritage.
During the conference “Responsible Companies Leaders in Biodiversity”, the first report of the results of the Initiative was presented, where the actions carried out in the field of biodiversity by these companies in Spain from 2013 to 2015 are presented. Actions related to the reduction of the impact of their activity, research and biodiversity conservation, environmental volunteering and awareness-raising are included. Likewise, the public-private collaboration projects and the training and support actions for companies carried out by the strategic partners of the Spanish Business and Biodiversity Initiative in the aforementioned period are shown. This report is available at http://ieeb.fundacion-biodiversidad.es/
