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The importance of biodiversity for us
Biodiversity describes the extraordinary variety of life, from microscopic algae to the tigers that roam the jungles of Asia. We depend on it for almost every aspect of our lives; from the air we breathe, to our housing and food, to the raw materials for our medicines. Shell is finding ways to reduce the impacts of our operations and make positive contributions to biodiversity conservation.
Growing human population and rising wealth are putting many biodiversity-rich ecosystems under threat.
Growing human population and rising wealth are putting many sensitive and biodiversity-rich ecosystems under threat. This is fuelling an unprecedented decline in animal and plant species. For example, the number of species threatened with extinction rose to more than 17,000 in 2008 up from about 11 thousand in 2000. Twenty percent of tropical forests and 50% of global wetlands have been destroyed in the past 50 years.
As the 2005 Millennium Ecosystem Assessment made clear, governments urgently need to find the right balance between development and nature conservation. The biggest problem is encroachment by farming and housing. However, energy production also plays a role, from the search for oil and gas in sensitive areas, to the extra land needed for energy infrastructure and, increasingly, for energy crops.
Why should Shell care about biodiversity?
We recognise that helping protect biodiversity makes business sense for us. There are legal and regulatory requirements we need to meet. There are also strategic, operational and financial reasons for Shell to take an active interest in protecting biodiversity.
It helps us:
- build trust with regulators and key stakeholders, so our projects can win approval and acceptance;
- reduce our operational and financial risk by ensuring we get our projects right;
- make us the first choice for those who we do business with; and
- attract and motivates staff.
Building Biodiversity Business
We are convinced that the business case for protecting biodiversity is strong and getting stronger. We recently published a report, with the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), which describes the benefits for business of biodiversity conservation. It also describes ways for business to increase investment in biodiversity conservation.
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This report was published with the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). It describes the benefits of biodiversity conservation for business and ways to increase investment in it.