11 November 2013, Montreal/Oxford – The Natural Capital Declaration (NCD) has been declared a Biodiversity Champion by the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in recognition of its important contribution to the implementation of the Convention’s Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011 - 2020.
The NCD is a finance-led and CEO-endorsed initiative committing financial institutions to integrating natural capital considerations into financial products and services, accounting and reporting. More than 40 financial institutions, and over 30 supporter organizations, are signatories to the Declaration, bringing with them a range of expertise and capabilities. The NCD is convened by the Global Canopy Programme and the United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative. Braulio Ferreira de Souza Dias, CBD Executive Secretary, said “The NCD and its activities provide an important and strategic platform for the CBD to engage with the financial sector in order to help address the critically important issues of biodiversity conservation and its sustainable use. We are delighted to declare them a Biodiversity Champion and look forward to actively engaging with them on several key issues with respect to natural capital and biodiversity-related considerations.”
Adopted in 2010, the CBD’s Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020 aims to address the underlying causes of biodiversity loss by mainstreaming biodiversity considerations across government, society and business. The strategic plan includes a series of goals and targets (the “Aichi Biodiversity Targets”) which include:
- Raising awareness of the multiple values of biodiversity;
- Integrating these values into national and local development and poverty reduction strategies and
planning processes, reporting systems, and, as appropriate, national accounting and other
frameworks;
- Reforming incentive measures towards biodiversity conservation and sustainable use, and
eliminating or phasing out those which are harmful to biodiversity; and
- Taking steps or implementing plans for sustainable consumption and production plans, including
by business, and keeping the impacts of the use of natural resources within safe ecological limits.
Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity
United Nations Environment Programme
413 Saint-Jacques Street, Suite 800, Montreal, QC, H2Y 1N9, Canada
Tel: +1 514 288 2220; Fax: +1 514 288 6588
secretariat@cbd.int
Ivo Mulder, Programme Officer with UNEP FI and founder of the Natural Capital Declaration states, “We are extremely pleased to consider the Convention on Biological Diversity as our newest official supporter of the NCD. The Aichi Targets are an important roadmap to advance conservation of biodiversity. Aichi Target 2 is especially relevant, as it calls upon governments to integrate biodiversity values into national accounting, as appropriate, and reporting systems.”
The Biodiversity Champions campaign, launched at the Eleventh meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP 11) to the CBD held in Hyderabad, India, in 2012, an initiative of the Government of India and the CBD Secretariat, allows countries and organizations to make pledges to support one or more of the Aichi Biodiversity Targets. Biodiversity Champions: www.cbd.int/champions/list/
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