Message from the Executive Director
Facing our most critical decade.
The current coronavirus pandemic, which we have been suffering from for more than a year and a half, has clearly proved that if we hurt the equilibrium between nature and human society, we will surely face a severe retaliation from nature.
On top of this, the recent surge in extreme natural disasters, most probably caused by global climate change, is starting to have serious impacts on both our society and natural ecosystems. As ecosystems have the important role of stabilizing and moderating local climates, if they deteriorate, a vicious cycle will result and accelerate the progress of climate change.
That is the reason why we need to work harder to mitigate both the climate crisis and the biodiversity crisis.
CBD-COP15 has been greatly postponed due to the pandemic, and the adoption of the post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework is similarly being delayed. However, this delay in the GBF is, rather, allowing businesses and finance to raise expectations for the development of a more ambitious framework.
It seems to me that we will be able to agree upon a truly game-changing framework that contains 21 ambitious targets for 2030, just as we agreed upon in the Paris Agreement in 2015 to set an ambitious target for the climate crisis.
Furthermore, as it is apparent that we are losing natural capitals on which all businesses are based, we businesses are aware of the need to work for these ambitious targets, including reversing biodiversity loss in this decade to secure our businesses, irrespective of whether the GBF is adopted intact or not.
Not only will these targets be pursued among us, the JBIB members, but we need to work harder to convince and lead other businesses to work together to achieve these targets.
Regarding how we will achieve the targets in practice, we have started to explore some new approaches including OECMs (other effective area-based conservation measures) for conservation and Nature-based Solutions (NbS) for both mitigation and adaptation to climate change.
We are also recruiting new members especially in industries that have direct relationships with biodiversity and ecosystem services. More extensive networking with local businesses and governments is another task we are currently focusing on.
All these ongoing practices are based on our reflections on the past decade. We JBIB members have somehow achieved mainstreaming biodiversity in our own businesses and we are confident that we are heading in the right direction.
However, it is not enough to stop and reverse the loss of biodiversity. I believe it is our responsibility as a leading initiative to identify what we need to do and how we can make contributions to more essential matters in a more strategic and efficient manner, and to spearhead their implementation.
Considering our relationships with business partners abroad, including the procurement processes, we will, of course, need to extend our collaboration beyond national boundaries. As we have many similarities in biodiversity and ecosystems with the countries of monsoon Asia, we are more than happy to work with countries in the same ecological region and are always welcoming such collaboration.
The next decade to 2030 will definitely be critical for both our businesses and humanity; we are committed to doing everything necessary to reverse biodiversity loss and achieve all the other targets that will be set out in the GBF. We may even need to make a big transformation of business itself, but I am sure that we will have more sustainable businesses and nature after such a transformation.
