Almost 50 experts in business and biodiversity issues will meet on November 5 at our headquarters in Madrid, during the 9th annual meeting of the Global Alliance for Business and Biodiversity, which coordinates the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and which brings together business and biodiversity initiatives from around the world every year. The aim of the meeting is to exchange good practices and discuss effective ways of working to encourage companies to take an active part in the negotiations and the post-2020 process, which aims to define a new framework for nature and which must be approved at the next Conference of the Parties (COP) to the CBD at the end of next year in Kunming, China.

This meeting is part of the Natural Capital Week 2019, during which Madrid will be the epicentre of several events related to business and biodiversity, such as the Capitals Collaboration Day, on 6 November, or the European Business and Nature Summit, on 7 and 8 November, among others.

During the meeting, the latest trends in the valuation of natural capital will be shared, documents will be disseminated to support the participation of companies in the post-2020 process and the best practices highlighted by the different business and biodiversity initiatives will be made visible. In addition, several international bodies will be invited to work, synergistically, on defining the new framework for the nature and integration of the business voice into it.

The CBD Secretariat, which organizes this meeting, will publicize the work of the Convention in this area and promote the Action Agenda for Nature and People, an agenda that aims to collect initiatives from all sectors of society, including business, and that will serve as a guide to define the new global strategic plan on biodiversity at the next COP15 in China in 2020.

The Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) promotes business involvement in Convention matters. Specifically, it organises the Global Platform for Business and Biodiversity (GPBB) which represents a network of business and biodiversity platforms in the world, of which the Spanish Business and Biodiversity Initiative (IEEB) of the MITECO Biodiversity Foundation has been part since 2013. The IEEB is an initiative whose objective is 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.

Prior to this meeting, a field visit is being made to the Yepes-Ciruelos quarry of LafargeHolcim, a company of the Spanish Business and Biodiversity Initiative. This quarry is a paradigmatic example of ecological restoration, where different formulas for promoting biodiversity have been tested and a pioneering study has been carried out on the valuation of ecosystem services.

Do you want to know more about IEEB ?

Here you have all the information about this initiative that seeks to include the conservation and management of biodiversity in the business strategies of the different business sectors of the Spanish economy.