Biodiversity and Water... Two Sides of the Same Coin

Why does biodiversity matter and what role does water play?

By Arnaud Bisschop

With a range of government and non government entities sounding the alarm on the need for agreater focus on biodiversity, it is clear that considered investments in the water value chain can provide a solution to one of the greatest challenges faced by the human race. As is so often the case, we can see from the evidence presented in this paper that the cost of action is far outweighed by the cost of inaction and believe that water’s intrinsic importance in creating a sustainable biodiverse world is as critical to global health as drinking the resource itself.

We believe it is too narrow a goal to simply pursue a low carbon future and view, as we have stated, the combined crises of climate change and nature loss as being intrinsically interlinked. To this end, we would urge any and all sustainability focused investors to broaden the scope of their investments into those that cover both topics with climate change a direct threat to biodiversity, and with biodiversity a hugely important sink for carbon. Can we afford one without the other?

Highlights

  • Since 1970, according to the OECD, the world has lost 60% of its global vertebrate population, while in parallel more than 40% of insect species are declining rapidly. The planet is possibly facing its sixth mass extinction, arguably one of the most significant threats to society.
  • Natural capital is the stock of both renewable and non renewable resources (e.g. plants, animals, air, water, land, minerals) that combine to yield a flow of benefits to people. Natural capital assets can be divided into 4 main groups or “realms”: land, ocean, freshwater and atmosphere.
  • Water is a major component of natural capital assets. These natural resources provide services, known as ecosystem services, which benefit industry and are essential to our wellbeing.
  • Water funds can play a role as a critical plank in the broader mandate of biodiversity investments.

Resources

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