The Business and Biodiversity Programme seeks to enhance IUCN interface with business. The purpose is to engage the corporate world in the pursuit of biodiversity nature conservation. We do so by increasing businesses’ understanding of the conservation imperative and of the business opportunities in nature conservation.
We help businesses contain their environmental footprint and enhance their positive contribution to the environment, notably to sustaining ecosystems, the biodiversity they contain, and the values and services they provide. To this end, we encourage and support businesses to develop and follow good practice in biodiversity management, we work for raising biodiversity performance standards across the different sectors of the economy, and we catalyze productive relationships among members of the business and conservation communities based on trust derived from the delivery of measurable outcomes.
We also help finding solutions for specific conservation problems in a development context, drawing on IUCN's convening role and backed by high quality conservation science. In this way, we help companies to avoid or effectively manage biodiversity risks associated with their operations as a measure of reducing costs and sustaining profitable operations.
Globally the private sector is growing in size and influence. This is paralleled by calls from across society for business to contain its effects on the environment and to mainstream sustainability principles. The conservation community is increasingly engaging business and IUCN is a leading organization in this effort. The private sector demand for IUCN support is growing.
The Regional and Country Offices of IUCN also increasingly work with business. Most of them have dedicated business and biodiversity focal points. If you would like to contact a particular office please refer to the section “Contact us”.
