Biodiversity and business - natural bedfellows?

Timing can be everything.

Last Monday, on the eve of the autumn economic statement, a new report, Pricing the priceless, was released alongside the second Global Business and Biodiversity Conference.  If only the Chancellor had chosen this as his bedtime reading that night, how things would be different.

The report starts with a wonderful quote from Anton Chekhov's, Uncle Vanya (a play I remember watching my wife perform nearly twenty years ago).

"You can burn peat in your stove and build  your sheds of stone. Well I grant you can cut down forests out of need, but why destroy them? One has to be a mindless barbarian  to burn such beauty in a stove, to destroy  what we cannot create. Man is endowed  with reason and creative power in order to increase what he is given. "

The report is written by the Aldersgate Group an alliance of leaders from business, politics and civil society (including the RSPB) that drives action for a sustainable economy.   The businesses that support this group's work include Marks and Spencers, BT and Microsoft - engines of growth in their own right.  Yet, they all understand the role that smart regulation can play in driving the economy.

The report emphasises:

• the importance of biodiversity and ecosystem services (BES) to the economy, and the need to raise BES within the carbon and environmental policy agendas
• the importance of reflecting the value of BES in prices and policy appraisal, whilst also recognising that valuation is not a panacea and there are environmental limits and tipping points which simply must not be exceeded
• that regulation can drive growth
• the Government must clarify how natural capital will be included in the national accounts, ensure BES is taken into account across all departments, and by the end of this parliament include a natural capital budget alongside fiscal budget announcements
• businesses must take the lead to establish their impacts and dependencies on BES

While this is not meant to be the definitive report into the subject, it does complement earlier economic tomes, most notably the Stern Report on the Economics of Climate Change and the Pavan Sukdhev report on the Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity.  Both conclude that it makes economic sense to take action today (to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and stop the destruction of the natural world) rather than wait to deal with the consequences of the future.

The five organisations that signed yesterday's letter are not lone voices.  There are many businesses out there who would also, I am sure, be prepared to make this case to the Prime Minister, his Chancellor or any member of the Cabinet.  

Over the next few days and weeks, we shall be doing everything we can to try to ensure our voices are heard.

Finally, the news isn't fabulous at the moment.  So, to give myself a little cheer and to remind me of my excellent family frolic in Wandlebury Park yesterday, here is an image of a treecreeper.  The kids and I spent a lovely quiet moment watching it scamper up trees hunting for food - a welcome breather from our core task of stick-fighting.  I hope you too get to see one soon.