International Day for Biological Diversity: Russian businesses ready to do their bit

The species diversity of plants, animals and microorganisms results from evolution that has been going on for billions of years under the pressure of natural events and under an increasing impact of anthropogenic factors. Currently, around 1.75 million biological species have been described, but scientists believe that their real number is approximately 13 million.

Despite the growing recognition of biological diversity as global commons having an immense value for the present and future generations, the number of wild flora and fauna species continues to decrease at a rapid pace due to human activities.

Every year since 2001, 22 May is celebrated globally as the International Day for Biological Diversity. On that day, the UN House hosted a roundtable on the "Progress in Developing Corporate Programmes for Biodiversity Conservation in Russia”. The forum was held in a hybrid format and was associated with the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration – all its activities are coordinated by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).

“Among the array of 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) the environmental ones – namely number 13, 14 and 15 – are, in my view, unjustly placed at the end of the list”, said Oleg Kobiakov, Director of the FAO Liaison Office with the Russian Federation. “The first four SDGs that are fundamental for human well-being – poverty reduction, eliminating hunger, ensuring healthy life and quality education – are impossible to achieve without being in harmony with nature.

Humans are also a biological species, and virtually all the resources that we need for a fulfilling, fruitful and productive life we take from nature. The International Day for Biological Diversity provides humanity with an opportunity to put its civilizational race on pause, look around and ask itself: aren’t we turning the surrounding environment into a scorched desert?

FAO is mainly reproached for that kind of problems. For deforestation. For taking land from the wild to use it for mass production of food and industrial crops, and feed for intensive cattle and poultry farming. For disproportionally large amounts of greenhouse gas emissions compared with other economic sectors. However, thousands of years have lapsed since the era of "great hunts”. Today humanity cannot feed itself by hunting, perhaps just partially, by fishing in the world’s ocean. Therefore, we need to continue developing sustainable, environmentally friendly agrifood systems.

At the same time, all the commitments agreed upon at international fora must be fulfilled at the national level. Otherwise, they will remain on paper. Russia has been lucky in this sense, as the state has been providing large-scale, steady, and targeted support to the environmental protection efforts and, in particular, to biodiversity conservation.

UNEP and FAO, their offices in Moscow believe that their task is to maintain dialogue with partners, executive authorities, parliaments, societal organizations, and private sector, and to provide their platforms for discussions among stakeholders on these issues. Furthermore, we open access to all the information, analytical and practical resources that we have at our own disposal.

A graphic example of such collaboration is the establishment of a national dialogue platform with the support from UNEP and FAO to implement the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration in Russia in 2021–2030. We are ready to continue this fruitful joint work.”

In his turn, Aleksey Knizhnikov, expert of the Nature and People Fund, emphasized that to achieve the declared goals of the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration programme, we need a “multisectoral collaboration”. This explains the presence of Russian businesses’ representatives at the roundtable, namely those of companies from two leading sectors of Russian economy – oil and gas and mining industries. Current trends and advanced approaches of businesses to biodiversity conservation were announced as the cross-cutting topic of the forum.

Darya Matsuk, head of the Information and Analysis Centre for Nature Reserve Management Support under the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment of Russia, delivered welcome remarks to the participants in the forum. “We attach great importance to biodiversity conservation because Russia possesses an enormous and rich natural potential. Today we are working towards the continuation of our national project on Ecology.”

Within that mission, as noted Darya Matsuk, for each of the 13 rare animal species, including bear, Amur tiger, Amur leopard, etc., special strategies, programmes, and measures are being developed, necessary to preserve their population.

“This is a rather costly process, that is why we put forward the “Business and Biodiversity” initiative to ensure cooperation between the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment and for-profit entities that are ready to take part in it following the principle of social responsibility of businesses. Such cooperation, according to Darya Matsuk, makes it possible to raise extrabudgetary funds for the purpose of biodiversity conservation in our country.”

Sergey Rybakov, director-general of the Nature and People Fund, founder and Programme Director of the ECUMENE Global Forum and discussion club, told the audience that the Fund had begun preparation for the 16th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity that will take place in October 2024 in Columbia. This forum will consider the first results of implementation of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework.

The head of the Nature and People Fund also expressed his gratitude to FAO and UNEP for supporting the Fund’s work with “advice and consultations”.

“We are at the third stage of urbanization. For example, we have the Republic of Altai where over 29% of land is included in the special protected nature areas (SPNR), said Yevgeny Shvarts, head of the Responsible Wildlife Management Centre at the Institute of Geography of RAS and an independent board member at AO Nornikel, in his report on the Ecosystem Approach to the Implementation of Corporate Initiatives on Biodiversity.

“Here Russia has an advantage over Western Europe, where urbanization has reached its fourth or fifth stage. When uninterrupted streaks of human inhabitation along the Moscow – Saint Petersburg motorway will begin to close up, we will approach these stages. So far this is not the case, therefore we can ensure spatial separation of intensive wildlife management and protected nature areas without any harm to economic development.

Previously, there was a particularly acute problem of environmental protection: we had unconventional engineering linear structures that were not linked to usual transport infrastructure. For example, this has to do with main oil pipelines. However, after the much-talked-of story about Baikal it was no longer a sore point since the Power of Siberia gas pipeline followed the existing section of transport infrastructure. We won, which lead to a more responsible development of all perpendicular infrastructure.” 

Victoria Elias, director of environment programmes at the Nature and People Fund, stressed the willingness of businesses to assess the efficiency of their efforts to ensure biodiversity conservation:

“Today during our discussions, we have seen once again that large Russian mining and oil and gas companies are already disclosing their target indicators used for assessment of their environmental impact, risks and their management, and opportunities. In addition, many programmes for biodiversity conservation implemented by businesses demonstrate specific results.

I would like to specially highlight the interest expressed by companies themselves in evaluating the efficiency of the programmes presented and their readiness to adjust them to achieve better outcomes. This is a real contribution both to the conservation of Russia’s biodiversity and to successful implementation of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework adopted by parties to the UN Convention on Biological diversity.”

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The other speakers at the roundtable were: Vladimir Moshkalo,  head of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) Office in Russia; Liudmila Ametistova, expert of the Nature and People Fund; Vladimir Gorchakov, head of Sustainable development risk assessment group at AKRA; Elena Bakun, MKPAO OK Rusal, director of Department for environment at RUSAL; Darya Grigoryeva, PAO Polius, director of Sustainable development department; Olga Kalashnikova, PAO Severstal, director of the Department for environment; Zakhar Azarov, PAO Severstal, adviser to the director-general on sustainable development; Anton Serzhanin, OOO Sakhalinskaya Energiya, director of the Department for environmental protection.

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On the same day, the UN House hosted a meeting between the leadership of FAO Moscow Office and representatives of the National Network of the UN Global Compact.

During the event Oleg Kobiakov, Director of FAO Liaison Office with the Russian Federation, said, inter alia, that “the problem of biodiversity conservation is important both for FAO and for all organizations that are members of the National Network of the UN Global Compact, and for private sector companies that are active and steadfast in their pursuit of ESG agenda.

Biodiversity plays a key role in biogeocenosis. We can see with the naked eye the diversity of plant and animal species, and to appreciate the abundance of our flora and fauna. Apart from that, there is soil biodiversity that counts tens of thousands of microorganisms, and aquatic biodiversity in the form of plankton and phytoplankton.

We should not forget that humans are also a biological species. Our genetic, physical, anthropometric diversity is no less rich. The accumulated gene pool of humanity along with its experience, practice and evolving intelligence are key for our planet to achieve recovery and sustainable development after and despite travelling the turbulent path through natural cataclisms, armed conflicts, and distortions of industrial consumption.”

Vladimir Moshkalo, head of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) Office in Russia, said that “climate change and its impact lead to the destruction of biodiversity. It is gratifying to know that Russian corporate sector places sufficient emphasis on biodiversity conservation and contributes to the response to global environmental challenges.

The UN and its member states often set themselves ambitious goals. Unfortunately, in many cases they are difficult to achieve and remain on paper. One way or another, we need not only to preserve our planet, but also to pass it on to future generations in good condition.”

BACKGROUND

In December 2022, the 15th Conference of the Parties (COP 15) to the Convention on Biological Diversity adopted the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework.

Each part of an ecosystem depends on other parts. For example, the rise of temperature in an ecosystem will have an impact on the species of plants and animals that will be able to grow and live there. With the growth of the population, we began to encroach upon ecosystems and even take them over, to the detriment of their rich biodiversity.

Conservation and restoration of natural spaces both on land and in water are important for limiting carbon emissions and adapting to the already changing climate. Climate change and biodiversity loss (as well as environmental pollution) are elements of the planetwide crisis that the world is facing today. We need to overcome them together if we want to ensure a viable future for our planet.

The International Day for Biological Diversity is an opportunity to enlighten the general public on matters of concern, to mobilize political will and resources necessary to solve global problems, and to popularize the achievements of humanity.