More than half of the world’s GDP is moderately or heavily dependent on nature and its services. Indeed, everything from the supply of food, fibre or fuel are natural resources.

An attempt to put a monetary value on ecosystem services estimates the value of biodiversity at $33 trillion per year, roughly the GDP of the world’s two richest countries combined: the US and China.

However, unprecedented biodiversity loss is putting this global value at risk. Biodiversity, which is the diversity within species, between species and of ecosystems, is declining faster than at any time in human history.

Why should investors act in favour of biodiversity?

Ecosystem services

The survival of all species, including humans, depends on the delicate balance of life in nature. The ecosystem services that nature provides are grouped into four categories.

• Provisioning services are the products that are extracted directly from ecosystems, such as food, fuel, medicinal plants, etc. ;
• Regulating services are less tangible but are provided by ecosystems in equilibrium, such as pollination, climate and flood regulation, and reducing the risk of epidemics and diseases;
• Cultural services are contributions that result from the relationship between humans and their environment, and are more recreational, educational, spiritual, etc. ;
• Finally, support services are those that are essential to the proper functioning of the three services described above, and are perceptible over the longer term, such as soil formation, the water cycle, the carbon cycle, etc.

While biodiversity and its contributions to humans seem to many people to be far removed from their daily lives, these ecosystem services demonstrate that nothing could be further from the truth.

Risks to society and business

Biodiversity loss has significant negative social and economic consequences. Its critical implications for humanity range from food and health security, to natural disasters, to the disruption of entire supply chains and thus the overall health of the economy. It is important that companies start to take environmental risks into account in their operations, but still too few do. Nature-related risks are underestimated in business decisions. However, preserving or regenerating biodiversity makes economic sense. According to the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), the costs of restoration outweigh the benefits to communities by a factor of ten. Stemming the impacts of biodiversity loss requires a fundamental shift in the way we think about the economic value of nature.