The IEEB addresses in its annual meeting the progress made and the keys to incorporating nature in business management

The Spanish Business and Biodiversity Initiative (IEEB) held its 2024 Annual Meeting on 25 June, bringing together more than 80 entities in person and nearly 500 via streaming from the public sector, the private sector, academia and the third sector, to discuss how to promote the incorporation of biodiversity in the decision-making of the business fabric.

The event was attended by the Secretary of State for the Environment, Hugo Morán, who opened the day by highlighting the need for more educational and awareness-raising efforts, so that society and economic actors acquire “a greater awareness of the interrelationship between the development and protection of nature”.

Elena Pita, director of the MITECO Biodiversity Foundation, highlighted during her speech the progress of the IEEB in the last year, in a context “in which the risks associated with the loss of biodiversity are increasingly known and pioneering companies are beginning to perceive the opportunities”. He highlighted the great growth in the number of member entities, which are now close to 100 organizations, and the high degree of follow-up of the activities organized, with more than 2000 participants.

Representatives of the Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge (MITECO) and the strategic partners of the IEEB discussed the main challenges and measures to promote corporate strategies with a positive impact on nature. The complexity of regulation, the availability of data on biodiversity, the difficulty of monetizing ecosystem services or the lack of sensitivity and knowledge about the importance of nature for our economies and societies were the most significant challenges.

Among the measures indicated, the application of pedagogy to make citizens and small investors understand the importance of healthy ecosystems emerged as a priority. In terms of data, María Jesús Rodríguez de Sancho, general director of Biodiversity, Forests and Desertification at MITECO, announced the publication in September of a new web platform for knowledge on biodiversity developed within the framework of the Nature Data Bank. He proposed a possible voluntary registration of ecosystem services , noting that “the challenges have always been with the private sector” and invited companies to participate in the participatory process for the design of national restoration plans. For her part, Cristina Rivero, director of the Department of Industry, Energy, Environment and Climate of the CEOE, pointed out the need for “alliances in the face of difficulties”; and Eduardo de Miguel, CEO of the Global Nature Foundation, clarified that, within the framework of the future European LIFE CUSTODIA project to be coordinated by the Biodiversity Foundation, they will work directly with companies to publicize the advantages of the land stewardship instrument and promote biodiversity credits, water footprint compensation and other voluntary market mechanisms.

To understandexposure to nature-related risks, we were able to learn about the updates implemented in the ENCORE knowledge base within the framework of the EU HORIZON SUSTAIN project. It is a web tool designed to help companies and financial institutions identify and analyze the materiality of nature’s impacts and dependencies, whose online update will be ready in September. We also have a business practice table in which Redeia, NTT Data, SACYR and Grupo Cooperativo Cajamar shared their experience in this area.

At the end of the day, the proposed Action Plan for the IEEB 2024-2025 was presented. Useful resources will continue to be generated and shared, spaces for dialogue between the public and private sectors will be set up and companies and financial institutions will be guided in the integration of nature in decision-making.

Tools such as ENCORE or the case studies generated in the EU HORIZON SUSTAIN project will serve to guide the design of strategies with a positive impact on nature, in addition to covering the requirements of accountability.

The participation of the private sector in the design of restoration plans, alliances in the framework of land stewardship and the transfer of knowledge in ecological restoration will guide and promote private investments in favor of nature.

Finally, spaces will be identified where to continue dialogue and highlight the actions of Spanish companies in the upcoming conventions of both the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP16 CBD, 21 October to 1 November, Cali-Colombia) and Climate Change (COP29 CC, 11-22 November, Baku-Azerbaijan).

All the details in the recording of the IEEB Annual Meeting 2024: https://www.youtube.com/live/DB-W3vMraZA?feature=share