Deploying an ambitious biodiversity strategy
Hadrien Gaudin-Hamama, Impact & ESG specialist at Mirova, explains the challenges investors are facing regarding biodiversity, and the crucial role they play in acceleration actions.
What is behind the need to increase funding for biodiversity?
‘Our planet’s natural heritage is the result of the living world’s gradual evolution since the first organisms appeared more than 3 billion years ago. Biodiversity, the living fabric of the Earth, is an extremely complex assembly of parts. As fragile as it is varied, the balance of the world’s biodiversity is now under serious threat. Nearly 70% of wild vertebrate species have disappeared over the last 50 years1 and 1 million animal and plant species are now endangered.2 Through deforestation, urbanisation, pollution, overexploitation3 and other pressure drivers, human activities are endangering the natural wealth of our planet.’
Why should biodiversity be a focus for investors? ‘Like climate change, the decline in biodiversity is threatening our activities, lifestyles and, ultimately, our very survival. Food production is currently on an unsustainable pathway and current agriculture practices, which are the main pressure drivers on biodiversity, are jeopardizing the capacity of agriculture to sustainably feed the world. Degradation of soil threatens essential ecosystem services such as water regulation and filtration, which reduces resilience to climate change.
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