ABSTRACT
There has been growing pressure in recent years for firms to behave in more socially responsible and accountable ways. A timely issue concerns the effects of global corporate activities on local ecosystems, and how firms are responding to stakeholder pressures to be more accountable towards protection of the natural environment. A case in point is the global bumblebee trade and biodiversity loss. The global bumblebee trade provides mass-reared hives for the pollination of greenhouse crops
* An earlier version of this paper was published as “CSR, Biodiversity and Japan’s Stakeholder Approach to the Global Bumble Bee Trade” in The Journal of Corporate Citizenship
worldwide. Through this trade, commercial bumblebees are introduced in ecosystems where they are not native and may be considered invasive species. From the standpoint of general systems theory (see Chapter 1), this trade provides an example of how corporate activities aided by global supply chains can have negative effects on local ecosystems worldwide such as biodiversity loss. These effects include a decline in native bumblebee species which can herald longer-term domino effects including declines in other native flora and fauna, ultimately affecting human food supply.1
