Business and Biodiversity

The third main priority of the Portuguese Presidency pertains to incorporating biodiversity onto business decisions. This issue began to be discussed informally at the 8th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity.

Portugal will take this issue up at EU level aiming to involve corporations on the protection of biodiversity. This will allow the market place to conciliate the needs for short-term consumption with long-term sustainability, so the crucial question here is to create consumer-demand incorporating the intrinsic and extrinsic biodiversity value as a product or a service to offer.

The initiative’s background is based on the EC Biodiversity Communication of May 2006 and the Environment Council conclusions of December 2006. It aims at producing a non-binding list of best practices for business identifying positive actions for Biodiversity and Nature. This may take the form of a Charter, or a Code of Conduct for Business.

The initiative’s kick-off took place on 9 November 2006 in Brussels; its development continued through the German Presidency and will continue through an international high level Conference, which will take place in Lisbon next November.