"Businesses have a responsibility to the environment. They have the potential to conserve the environment which can bring promising results. Markets can aid conservation. Conservation and profits are not mutually conclusive but entail trade offs," Ms. Shiranee Yasaratne, Head of Business and Biodiversity Programme, IUCN Asia said.
"There are hundreds of statutes on conservation but are they being implemented?" she asked addressing the private sector at the Sri Lanka Economic Summit.
The answer is obvious.
Yasaratne said that Sri Lanka, with an annual loss of 33,000 ha of forest cover, was one of the eight hottest hotspots in terms of habitat loss in the world.
Sri Lanka is home to rich natural wealth in abundant fauna and flora. Approximately 40 percent of the indigenous inland vertebrates are endemic to the island and 30 percent of the indigenous flowering plant species are endemic too. Change in climatic conditions directly effect the distribution, abundance and life cycles of most species.
According to the 2007 Red List of Threatened Fauna and Flora of Sri Lanka, Ms. Yasaratne sited that 72 flowering plant species were extinct. Sixty percent of them had been endemic species.
Twenty one amphibians found their way to the extinct list as well, and these species were all endemic to Sri Lanka’s wet zones.
She pointed out that 33 percent of vertebrate species are nationally threatened.
"One in three species of fish and reptile and one in two species of amphibians are nationally threatened."
In a survey of 45 companies carried out by the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce and IUCN in 2007 it was found that 53 percent of them had environmental components in their operations.
While there was considerable interest in conservation many companies did not have the technical know-how on how conservation could be incorporated to into their operations.
Diversified companies such as John Keells Holdings and Hayleys PLC had more environmental inputs while many multinational companies paid scant attention to the environment and portrayed negligence despite having global policies on going green.
Many of them were slow to adopt Corporate Social and Environment Responsibility in triple bottom line reporting.
"IUCN can help businesses make informed choices about carrying out their corporate, social and environmental responsibilities and have several strategies to help harness their potential for conservation,"
Encourage and support environmental responsibility in business and harness its potential for conservation with several engagement strategies, Ms. Yasaratne said.
IUCN could engage businesses to help reduce their environment footprint, enable them to positively contribute to conservation, support economic value addition on natural capital, leverage financial sector influence for conservation and create synergy between conservation and development.
"We have the necessary economic tools to gauge the value of eco systems and IUCN can assist companies implement projects and in shaping policies," she said.
Ms. Yasaratne pointed out several companies such as Dilmah, Aitken Spence Hotels and Hayleys who had adopted environmental conservation into their operations.
She pointed out to many companies the environment was rich source for ‘free’ raw materials and viewed conservation as a liability with permits and approvals.
And many in developing countries are prone to think that development is better than conserving the environment.
But with perceptions on climatic and environmental conditions galvanising the global regulatory landscape, access to global markets will depend on how environmental friendly a business is. Many ‘green’ indices are coming up as a result.
"Morgan Stanley Capital International is in the process of developing Sustainability and Green Indices and would only consider companies shifting towards triple bottom line as constituents," she said.
Listing on the Dow Jones Sustainability Index is expected to enhance profiles of companies seeking to trade in the capital market thus forcing companies to go green.
Carbon trading will also require companies to be more visible in their conservation efforts.
"And biodiversity credits will be introduced soon as well," she said.
