What's at stake for business?

For millennia, humans have relied on the ability of ecosystems to provide services like protection from floods, regulation of diseases and pests, sequestration and regulation of carbon, maintenance of habitats, and provision of food and water.

In recent years, scientists have begun ringing warning bells as they observe declines in intact ecosystem extent and condition, as well as increasing rates of species extinctions throughout the regions of the world (IPBES 2019a). These indications of the degradation and loss of nature entail a direct risk for human well-being and global economic activities.

Business leaders know that the activities associated with “business as usual” are fueling the loss of nature, and that our way of doing business must change.

Nature

All non-human living entities and their interaction with other living or non-living physical entities and processes (IPBES Global Assessment 2019).

This definition recognizes that interactions bind humans to nature, and its subcomponents (e.g. species, soils, rivers, nutrients), to one another.

This definition also recognizes that air pollution, climate regulation, and carbon are part of ‘nature’ more broadly, and therefore, when we talk about acting for nature, we are talking about acting on issues related to climate change as well.

Watch video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gqUgQJ_WHJ0

Each year, ecosystems provide services estimated to be worth more than US$40 trillion (around half of global GDP) (WEF 2020).

Specifically, PricewaterhouseCoopers found that industries that are highly dependent on nature (like agriculture, fishing, mining, and tourism) generate 15% of global GDP (US$13 trillion), while moderately dependent industries generate 37% (US$31 trillion) (Herweijer, Mariam and Evison 2020).

The loss of nature poses a direct threat to economic activities currently responsible for generating over half of gross domestic product, or GDP.

_{Figure: Some of the services and benefits nature provide human societies and economies. Adapted from: Dasgupta et al. 2020.}

Claire Lund, Vice President of Sustainability, GSK; Watch video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mFoaOgpjApk

Local and global pressures on nature are decreasing ecosystems’ ability to function and their ability to provide contributions to the well-being of human and nonhuman life.

Trends like increased nutrient imbalance and increased toxicity of ecosystems threaten water and food security. This can lead to greater vulnerability in the face of disease, shortfalls in the labor force, and economic losses at all levels (with impacts on consumption patterns) and can bring knock-on effects to human health over generations to come.

Decreases in biological diversity alongside increases in the severity and frequency of natural hazards will bring further economic disruptions and job insecurity in globally significant sectors like agriculture, aquaculture, fishing, and tourism (one in three people are employed in agriculture, aquaculture, or fishing, and one in ten people are employed in tourism).

Biodiversity loss is increasingly being recognized as one of the most important risks in terms of impact and likelihood, as are climate change and water crises (WEF 2020a)

Focusing on biodiversity, scientists have found that the rate of species extinctions—of plants, mammals, fish, and others—is approximately 1,000 times higher than background extinction rates (Pimm et al. 2014).

Compared to historical records, total numbers of wild mammals, measured in biomass, have declined by 82% (IPBES 2019). Around the world, vertebrate and insect pollinators are observed to be under threat of extinction—with exceptions where their populations are managed (IPBES 2017).

The loss of pollinators alone could cost the global economy upward of US$500 billion per year (Paulson 2020).

The rate and extent of species extinction have been widely acknowledged in the media and scientific literature. But until recently, the disruption and deterioration of the world’s ecosystems—upon which our lives and businesses rely—have received far less attention.

Trends in ecosystem decline pose immediate and complex risks to human life. While species loss is more abstract and less directly connected to human well-being and corporate operations, the degradation of ecosystems as a whole, with its repercussions for nature’s contributions (i.e., ecosystem services), has more tangible, material, and all-encompassing significance for business.

Furthermore, biodiversity loss relates to and may exacerbate existing and anticipated risks, like extreme heat waves, health impacts due to pollution, and uncontrolled fires, which are already unfolding around the world (WEF 2020).

Given the rate of nature’s loss, and the limited window of time to reverse this, change must be immediate and extensive.

The longer we wait to act, the more likely we are to face higher costs and irreversible losses. Human activities like trade, consumption, and production have created these existential threats.

Businesses have a key role to play—and much to gain—by helping to reduce them. Collaboration will be essential given the diverse connections between actors in landscapes and seascapes where economic activities take place.

To meet this challenge, we call on leaders from throughout the business world to join us.

As a company committed to sustainable and responsible business practices, we recognize that protecting and restoring nature is of critical importance to the world, and to our business.

Olivier Rigaud, CEO, Corbion