Biodiversity awareness in 2015

A month without an article!! Much too long.

Let me correct this now with few insights from my trip to Paris to attend the 2015 ‘Beauty of Sourcing with respect’ Conference, starting with the Biodiversity Barometer.

Since 2009, the Union for Ethical BioTrade publishes with IPSOS an international biodiversity barometer. This tool is used by the Convention on Biological Diversity to measure biodiversity awareness, one of the CBD Aichi targets.

As mentioned in the 2015 Barometer, biodiversity awareness is increasing while responding to the question: “Have you heard about Biodiversity?” but the correct definition rate is still quite low in some countries such as India and Peru and it remains mainly under 50% of the respondents. For sure we can say that it could be an issue of translation or interpretation but it is true that consumers are more aware of big mediated notions as shown above.

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However, it overall shows that we need to continue to spread the word and understanding that WE are part of biodiversity. The following video confirms the work we still need to do towards biodiversity awareness.

On another hand, as we continuously promote it, businesses are more and more targeted to show their commitments towards biodiversity. David Ainsworth, from the UN Convention on Biological Diversity, explains that the private sector would have a great role in achieving the Post-2015 Sustainable Development Goals of the UN. Actually, he explains that businesses are key partners in this work and that as they use innovation based on biodiversity, they should work all together on this path. However, it is never easy to move forward while it means investments.

Though we need to look into opportunities, David Ainsworth, explained that looking at sustainable development and biodiversity sustainable use make business sense as through these efforts you secure your supplies and supply chains, you create jobs and get employee loyalty among other opportunities.

After these presentations, a roundtable took place with people from The Body Shop, Yves Rocher, NutriMarketing and Pomarium. They all agreed that biodiversity is their source of innovations and for this matter they will always look into it. As well, they confirm that due to the consumers interest in natural ingredients, they will always seek to source natural ingredients despite the challenges that could appear from their use.