Today, 22 March, we are celebrating the International Day for Biological Diversity. Since 2000 this day has commemorated the signing of the Convention on Biological Diversity and has reminded us that it is our joint responsibility to look after nature and its different ecosystems.
Our way of life and our future depend on using our natural resources well. However, for years we have used them to excess and now this trend has to be reversed. According to the United Nations, the global demand for resources exceeds the Earth’s biological capacity by 20%. Without a doubt, this is more than enough of a reason to worry but, above all, to act and to raise awareness.
The UN has set protecting biodiversity as one of its 17 Sustainable Development Goals, a series of challenges which range from eradicating poverty and famine, to climate change initiatives. Specifically, goal 15 aims to “sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss”. To achieve this, it has a series of objectives such as the integration of the values of ecosystems and biological diversity in national and local planning.
The European Union has also set out its own agenda. The 2020 Biodiversity Strategy has 6 targets, among which are included the maintenance and restoration of ecosystems and their services. With this initiative, the EU hopes to halt biodiversity degradation before 2020, in order to then begin a new stage of protection and restoration before 2050. In this regard, the European Commission has reinforced their actions with a new plan for 2019 and reminds us that the areas of the world under biodiversity protection form a large part of EU territory and contribute between 1.7% and 2.5% of GDP in the region.
The initiatives are not merely institutional. The world of business must also collaborate actively. In fact, many businesses have already integrated biodiversity conservation in their activities and set aside resources for the maintenance and restoration of ecosystems.
This is the case at Enagás, where the adoption of preventive measures for biodiversity conservation in all company activities and fields of action are reflected in their Corporate Directives Regarding Biodiversity.