Today, I went to the first Global Business of Biodiversity conference in London. It was a significant, albeit chaotic, event attended by representatives of business, government and civil society.
It was used to launch an important component – aimed at the business community – of The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB), a major international study. TEEB seeks to draw attention to the global economic benefits of biodiversity, to highlight the growing costs of biodiversity loss and ecosystem degradation, and to draw together expertise in science, economics and policy to enable practical actions.
It’s a serious attempt to grapple with the challenges of how to ‘value nature’ – much needed as many of the services we rely on remain largely taken for granted.
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