Protecting and restoring biodiversity will require private investment

Article by Ben Caldecott

Ben Caldecott calls for scaling up private investment in the protection of nature by creating a habitat banking system and biodiversity credits.

"Unfortunately and coincidentally, as the UN-led International Year of Biodiversity was coming to its end late last year, it was confirmed that 2010 targets to halt biodiversity loss across Europe and significantly reduce the rate of biodiversity loss internationally had not been reached."

"The failure of these targets to galvanize action at the scale and pace needed to protect and restore biodiversity has not prevented new 2020 targets being created. The EU has again agreed another target to halt biodiversity loss in Europe, but this time by 2020, while the latest international conference on biodiversity held in Nagoya, Japan, agreed various new international targets, including at least halving the rate of loss of natural habitats by 2020."

"These new targets mean that we will continue to have legally binding international targets in place, but this by itself is insufficient to avoid repeating the failures and disappointments of the last decade. To succeed in the present decade and beyond, we must do something for the first time: actually stump up enough cash to deliver our biodiversity objectives..."

To read the full article visit the Guardian Sustainable Business Blog.

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Protecting and restoring biodiversity will require private investment

Ben Caldecott calls for scaling up private investment in the protection of nature by creating a habitat banking system and biodiversity credits.