Intro of Biodiversity

Trends and Importance of Biodiversity Issues

Corporate operations depend on natural resources and ecosystem services—collectively referred to as natural capital. The Natural Capital Protocol clearly underscores the importance of biodiversity to the health and stability of natural capital¹. For example, rich biodiversity can help mitigate the impacts of extreme weather events such as floods and droughts, accelerate ecosystem recovery, and support fundamental processes such as carbon cycling, water cycling, and soil formation. Thus, biodiversity is not only an integral part of natural capital but also the very foundation of ecosystem services.

With rapid economic growth, the heavy consumption of resources is placing mounting pressure on the natural and ecological environment. In 2024, the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) released the Nexus Assessment Report on the Interlinkages among Biodiversity, Water, Food and Health under Climate Change. The report indicates that biodiversity in every region of the world is declining by 2% to 6% per decade. More than half of the global population currently lives in areas experiencing biodiversity loss, water scarcity or declining water quality, food insecurity, heightened health risks, and severe impacts from climate change. If current economic activities and the drivers of biodiversity loss are not effectively managed, they will significantly undermine humanity’s food security, access to clean water and water quality, public health, and capacity to adapt to climate change.

In 1992, at the United Nations Earth Summit, the UN adopted the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), establishing three primary biodiversity objectives: (1) Conservation of biodiversity—protecting rare species and ecological environments; (2) Sustainable use of biodiversity resources—utilizing natural resources responsibly without damaging ecosystems; and (3) Fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from the use of genetic resources—ensuring that the benefits from developing natural resources (e.g., medicinal plants, genetic resources) are fairly distributed to relevant countries and communities. Unfortunately, the convention lacked concrete standards and detailed implementation guidelines, leading to significant divergence in national practices and allowing global biodiversity and natural environment challenges to continue to worsen.

In 2022, the United Nations Biodiversity Conference (CBD COP15) held in Montreal, Canada, adopted the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF), setting out key pathways and targets for biodiversity action through 2030. A central goal of the framework is to “ensure that by 2030, at least 30% of degraded terrestrial, inland water, marine, and coastal ecosystems are effectively restored to enhance biodiversity, ecosystem functions and services, ecological integrity, and connectivity².”The framework also calls for companies to regularly monitor species richness and environmental quality to assess and manage biodiversity risks, thereby reducing impacts on business operations. At COP16, which concluded in 2024, discussions on biodiversity targets continued, resulting in the adoption of the Planning, Monitoring, Reporting, and Review (PMRR) mechanism for national biodiversity targets under the GBF. This mechanism aims to support countries in setting and implementing biodiversity targets to achieve the long-term vision of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework.