The headquarters of the Biodiversity Foundation today hosted the annual meeting of the Spanish Business and Biodiversity Initiative (IEEB) with member companies and partners. A meeting with the companies that are part of the Initiative, coordinated by the Biodiversity Foundation of the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and the Environment, which has just celebrated its third anniversary.
 
During the meeting, the deputy director of the Biodiversity Foundation, Ignacio Torres, highlighted as a great value for the Foundation to be able to help the signatory companies to incorporate more and better the consideration of biodiversity in their business management. In addition, he pointed out the commitment to start reporting progress on biodiversity, which will help to better understand what large Spanish companies are doing to take biodiversity into account in their business strategy and will be a platform that gives visibility to this effort and the Initiative itself.
 
The IEEB seeks to integrate natural capital into business policy and management, to highlight the contribution of large companies to the conservation of natural heritage and to channel private financing to conserve biodiversity. Coinciding with Biological Diversity Day, the IEEB has just celebrated its third anniversary 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. Thanks to the IEEB, companies integrate biodiversity into business policy and management, value its contribution to the conservation of natural heritage and channel private financing in defence of biodiversity. It is aimed at companies committed to sustainable development, whose objective is to position themselves as leaders in responsible and innovative business management.
 
To date, 23 companies have already signed the Pact for Biodiversity, with which they recognize and support the three objectives of the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity: to promote the conservation of biodiversity; the sustainable use of its components; The Biodiversity Pact includes a commitment to define realistic and measurable targets, and to review them every three years, as well as to assess the impact of business activity on biodiversity and natural capital and to include biodiversity in management manuals.
 
In the last year , Balearia, OHL, Unilever, Suez Spain and Mapfre have joined the Initiative. In addition, three lines of work have been launched: habitat banks (companies met to convey a business position regarding conservation banks on the occasion of the legislative development in this regard); power lines (several electricity companies are developing a project to assess the positive environmental potentialities and externalities of the underground lines in the lines); and eco-restoration (work is underway on a practical guide for companies and administrations to help incorporate biodiversity and sustainability criteria in habitat restoration).