ABSTRACT
Since the inception of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in 1993, little progress has been achieved in terms of involving the business community in protecting biological diversity worldwide. According to the CBD, biodiversity refers to “the variability among living organisms from all sources including, inter alia, terrestrial, marine and other aquatic ecosystems and the ecological complexes of which they are part; this includes diversity within species, between species and of ecosystems” (Article 2, Convention On Biological Diversity). Even for guiding investment, the biodiversity convention is perhaps the least specifically prescriptive global environmental convention (Moran et al. 1996). A wide gap still exists between the actions inducing climate change and the conservation of ecosystem and biological diversity (Heller and Zavaleta 2009). Thus far, efforts have been made mainly by the non-commercial sector, including non-governmental organizations (NGOs). Most international funding for biodiversity conservation is received from high-income countries’ Overseas Development Assistance (ODA). All marketbased mechanisms, including ecotourism, environmentally friendly products marketing, and payments for ecosystem services (PES), provide approximately 1 to 2 billion USD per annum (Gutman and Davidson 2007), which is profoundly insufficient to meet the current need . Most funds are used for biodiversity and ecosystem service-related academic work and for a few demonstration projects that have limited impact on the ground (Gutman and Davidson 2007).
