Sustainability and corporate social responsibility (CSR) receive more attention from business, also in the Netherlands. However, biodiversity is still given little attention.

Three types of sustainability aspects can be distinguished: social, economic and environmental, or Triple P – people, profit, planet. Biodiversity is about the variety in plants, animals, micro-organisms and ecosystems.

A core element of sustainability
Biodiversity is an indicator for the health of our planet. It is a major condition for ecosystems to function and for providing ecosystem services, such as food, wood, fibres or climate control. Besides its ecological value, biodiversity also has great economic and social values and is thus a core element of sustainability and sustainable entrepreneurship. Yet, for many companies and industries biodiversity is still a vague concept that is given little attention.

Through its Business and Biodiversity Programme, IUCN aims at making the biodiversity concept more tangible for companies and industries, clarifying the interaction between business operations and biodiversity (consequences, risks, opportunities), reducing the adverse impact on biodiversity and enhancing the positive consequences.

What does IUCN NL do?
IUCN NL performs activities and projects in various sectors and trade chains, including fish, shrimps, wood, soy, tourism, oil, mining, biomass and the financial sector. In 2006, IUCN NL published Business & Biodiversity: A Guide for Netherlands-Based Enterprises Operating Internationally

IUCN NL also initiated the Leaders for Nature programme in the Netherlands. Leaders for Nature is a learning and action oriented network of national initiatives for professionals and executives in companies and multinationals around the themes: ecosystems, sustainable developpment and leadership. The goal of Leaders for Nature is to integrate 'ecosystem thinking' into the core business.

• The IUCN Business and Biodiversity Programme
• Publication: Business and Biodiversity
• Leaders for Nature