The Brazilian Business Council for Sustainable Development (CEBDS), also representing the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), and its member companies represented a significant and enthusiastic segment of the business participants in Curitiba. CEBDS member companies, including Companhia Vale do Rio Doce (CVRD), Natura Cosméticos S.A. and Petróleo Brasileiro S.A. (PETROBRAS) arranged elaborate booths and actively participated in side events. They also attended the Business and Biodiversity Breakfast, where I had the pleasure of making introductory comments. Many other companies were also present in Curitiba to showcase recent conservation initiatives and get a better understanding of the business and biodiversity interface.

Biodiversity fails = business fails
Business cannot succeed on a society that fails – be it on social, economic or environmental grounds. The present and the future of companies will be shaped by sustainable development issues like water, poverty and, of course, biodiversity. As highlighted by the statement of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA) Board -- which I used to belong to -- we are living beyond our means. The trends and signals from nature are clear. The MA identified that 15 of the 24 ecosystem services are degraded or used in an unsustainable way. CEBDS was also involved in the preparation of the MA synthesis for business, which spelt out the relevance of biodiversity for large and small companies. I believe that there is a real sense of urgency. There is a need to speed up the negotiations among Parties, companies’ decision making processes and getting actions now and results in 2010. CEBDS responded positively to the invitation of the government of Brazil and the Secretariat of the Convention, to co-organise the London and São Paulo ‘Business and 2010 Biodiversity Challenge’ meetings which took place in 2005.

Meeting the 2010 challenge
Many of our member companies contributed to the successful outcome of these meetings. These discussions helped pave the road towards consensus and a common understanding on biodiversity. This commitment was demonstrated again, when many company executives participated in the Curitiba meetings. As part of the preparation to the London meeting, CEBDS commissioned a survey on business and biodiversity in Brazil. This recommends actions for fostering the engagement of business towards the 2010 target to significantly reduce the rate of loss of biodiversity. The report, which was also distributed at COP-8, showed that, in a range of segments, companies associated with CEBDS have demonstrated, in practice, how investment in conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity can offer economic and institutional gains. Ethical and transparent management guarantees not only business efficiency, but its very survival in more demanding markets, contributing this way to the 2010 target. We need to better communicate the message that biodiversity conservation should be recognized as a major business success. In the run up to the Curitiba meetings, CEBDS also featured a special report on business and biodiversity in its flagship magazine Brasil Sustentável.

Partnering for biodiversity
During the COP, CEBDS -- in partnership with WWF-Brazil, The Nature Conservancy and Instituto Internacional de Educação do Brasil (IEB) -- launched What on earth is biodiversity? Sponsored by CVRD, Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ) GmbH, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the World Bank, the book assembles a series of articles from civil society, media and business, showing their experience on contributing to the implementation of the Convention. A statement was also delivered on behalf of CEBDS and WBCSD during the negotiations on business engagement. We are sometimes faced with a dilemma. While business has to assume its role on the historical degradation of biodiversity, it is, at the same time, increasingly seen as part of the solution. I think there is a need to get past the historical bias that envelopes the three major actors in the biodiversity scenario – business, governments and organized civil society. I believe we shall get nowhere without the effective, democratic and transparent articulation between these three major actors. To this effect, CEBDS organized in Curitiba a side event on partnerships for biodiversity. More generally, CEBDS is open to deeper action and results with government, NGOs, civil society and stakeholders as a whole. These efforts have been recognized by CBD Executive Secretary Ahmed Djoghlaf who, in a recent letter, congratulated the organization’s “continued support to the Business and 2010 Biodiversity Challenge initiative”.

The way forward
CEBDS fully supports the decision on business engagement which was approved at the COP and is now firmly committed to help in its implementation. This includes, for us, the sharing of good biodiversity practice, encouraging Brazilian companies to align their policies and practices with the 2010 target, and exploring ways to better measure company biodiversity impacts. Although the MA Board statement painted a dire picture of the world’s ecosystems, it also concluded that we still have time. I trust that leaders in the business community will use it wisely!

Fernando Almeida, Executive President of the Brazilian Business Council for Sustainable Development

The Brazilian Business Council for Sustainable Development (CEBDS) is the Brazilian chapter of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD).