NATIONAL BIODIVERSITY AND BUSINESS NETWORK
With a significant stake in the sustainability of biodiversity, business has the power and responsibility to act as a powerful lever for change.
With a significant stake in the sustainability of biodiversity, business has the power and responsibility to act as a powerful lever for change. The National Biodiversity and Business Network (NBBN) recognises the importance of biodiversity to business and builds the capacity of business to act as a positive force for the conservation of biodiversity in South Africa.
The natural environment plays an important role in the value chain of any business. We work with innovative business leaders to identify and manage the business risks and opportunities that result from their interactions with the natural world. We provide a platform for businesses to proactively engage with each other and discover solutions that lead to sustainable business growth and many exciting business opportunities such as new sources of revenue and the opportunity to reduce production costs.
Why should companies care about biodiversity?
Business both relies and impacts on biodiversity. Biodiversity provides a wide variety of services on which businesses depend. Examples include raw material supply, crop pollination, genetic resources, water filtration, flood attenuation, erosion control and many others.
Business is critically dependent on ecosystem services to produce the goods and services it sells. Companies would not be able to operate without biodiversity. However, biodiversity is under severe threat globally, including in South Africa, and the private sector is one of the primary drivers of its degradation and loss.
Our Values
At the National Biodiversity and Business Network, we believe in business being a force for good. We focus specifically on biodiversity to catalyse change in all industries – working with some of the world’s biggest companies – having some of the biggest impacts. We believe in working with companies to understand and ultimately improve their relationship with nature. By working together, we reduce business risks, and enhance the protection of habitats and species. We work for real, on-the-ground action.
We are conservationists at heart, as well as realists. We know that sustainable solutions need to be cost-effective, manageable and transparent. We believe in disclosing impacts and that greenwashing is reprehensible. Through science-base targets, we can motivate industries to adopt best-practice. We want to connect companies, big and small, to discover opportunities in nature-positive ways. Because that’s just good business.
What is the Biodiversity crisis?
The biodiversity crisis refers to the rapid loss of species and the rapid degradation of ecosystems. We are in the midst of a great extinction event. Many argue it is a greater threat than global climate change to humankind’s stability and prosperous future on Earth.
What is a Biodiversity impact?
A biodiversity impact can be defined as the change in the state of biodiversity. For an impact on an ecosystem, we typically refer to the change in its extent and condition or integrity. For impact on a species, we assess the change in its population or habitat size. These changes can either be positive (biodiversity gain) or negative (biodiversity loss).
What is a Biodiversity dependency?
A biodiversity dependency refers to the business use or reliance on goods and services derived from biodiversity. We often talk about ecosystem services (e.g., pollination, water supply) in this context.
Join the Network
The National Biodiversity and Business Network (NBBN) recognises the importance of biodiversity to business and builds the capacity of business to act as a positive force for the conservation of biodiversity in South Africa. The natural environment plays an important role in the value chain of any business. We work with innovative business leaders to identify and manage the business risks and opportunities that result from their interactions with the natural world.
We provide a platform for businesses to proactively engage with each other and discover solutions that lead to sustainable business growth and many exciting business opportunities such as new sources of revenue and the opportunity to reduce production costs.
- Add your voice to the business engagement to act as a positive force for the conservation of biodiversity
- Learn from peers and influence thinking in the biodiversity space
- Be seen as a leading business in the support of biodiversity mainstreaming
