EcoSystems Market Task Force is an industry-led group that includes Jaguar Land Rover, Kingfisher, Liz Earle and Unilever. The group is urging urging businesses to recognise the benefits of natural capital and to tale appropriate measures to protect it.
The group have recently produced a report, “Realising Nature’s Value: The Final Report of the Ecosystem Markets Task Force,”. This report revealed that often businesses are not fully aware of their dependence on nature and the vital services that it provides. The report also recommends that measures be taken by businesses now to minimise future risks.
The UK government asked the task force to review opportunities for businesses from expanding green goods, services, products, investment vehicles and markets which value and protect the natural environment.
The report recommends biodiversity offsetting. The task force suggest that a system is needed in which impacts on biodiversity are compensated by restoring and creating habitats elsewhere through an efficient market. They also recommend bio-energy and anaerobic digestion on farms; sustainable local wood fuel; nature-based certification and labeling; and water cycle catchment management to integrate nature into water, wastewater and flood management.
A report released last month by BSR found ecosystem services may shape future policy and regulations as well as government expectations of the private sector, particularly on public lands.The report is especially relevant to companies that have, or are in the midst of crafting, internal policies on biodiversity and ecosystem services, BSR said.