Chair’s Opening Remarks

Chair: Michael Kelly, Head of Corporate Social Responsibility, KPMG, UK

Why is this Important to the Banking Sector?

• The big picture – why is this important?
• What lies ahead for the banking sector?
• What have we learnt from other environmental markets?
• What is happening in the Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) world?

Hans Biemans, Head of CSR Business Development, Rabobank, Netherlands

Understanding the Biodiversity & Ecosystem Challenge

• What are biodiversity and ecosystem services?
• Why is it important?
• What business needs to know?

A series of brief 10-15 minute case studies followed by interactive discussion.

Dr Julio C Tresierra, Global Coordinator, WWF, Netherlands
Prof Christopher J Humphries, Botanist, Natural History Museum, UK
Paul Morling, Economist, RSPB, UK

Panel Discussion – What Policy Action is Required to Safeguard Biodiversity & Ecosystems?

• Providing an overview of international, regional and national legislation as well as the perspectives of regulators
• Does the market require a global treaty?
• Stimulating a reduction in biodiversity loss by putting a price on ecosystem degradation
• Providing a framework for company management to see the business case
• The role of regulators in the market
• Lessons from other markets
• European initiatives – European business & biodiversity initiative, Lisbon business & biodiversity conference, German business and biodiversity initiative

Ravi Sharma, Director for Implementation & Technical Support, Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), Canada
Keimpe Wieringa, Head of Biodiversity, Environmental Assessment Agency, Netherlands
Jochen Flasbarth, General Director, German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety, Germany

From Environmental Issue to Business Issue - Understanding the Business Case for Biodiversity

What is the business case?  Do investors really consider biodiversity & ecosystems?  Unraveling the business case in different sectors and presenting efforts by the financial sector to assess biodiversity and ecosystem performance in investment portfolios.

Session Chair: Elizabeth Jaskulke, President, Biodiversity Group, MEDEF & Vice President, Environment Department, GDF Suez, France

Business Opportunities from Biodiversity Challenges

• Creating opportunities
• Which sectors is this most relevant to?
• Assessing companies biodiversity performance

Catherine Cruveillier Cassagne, Programme Manager, Biodiversity, Environment and Social Development Department, IFC, USA

Biodiversity Business Opportunities and the Different Roles of Stakeholders

• Moving from philanthropy to business focus – an overview of emerging biodiversity business opportunities
• Role of different stakeholders
  1. Financial institutions
  2. Governments
  3. Non-governmental organizations
• Perspective on how the market may further develop

Corporate Case Studies - Opportunities and Developments in Industry

• What sectors and business models can generate benefits for biodiversity through the conservation of biological diversity, sustainable use of biological resources and equitable sharing of the benefits of using biodiversity?  What specific biodiversity benefits or services can be supplied?
• Potential sectors to be reviewed include; agriculture, forestry, non-timber forest products, fisheries, biocarbon, watershed protection, bioprospecting, biodiversity offsets and ecotourism.  The ability to identify, prioritise and value biodiversity and ecosystem services must become standard practice for all businesses, especially those who seek to distinguish themselves on the basis of their biodiversity performance.
• Can biodiversity and ecosystem finance enhance the competitive position and profitability of a business?  How can corporations take a lead in biodiversity & ecosystem conservation?

Case Study – Direct Impact Company

• Holcim and IUCN signed a 3 strategic cooperation agreement to contribute to establish new standards for the building materials industry
• How can the financial sector help the extractive and other industries value or get rewarded for biodiversity conservation efforts?

Gerard Bos, IUCN Relationship Manager, Corporate Environmental Relations, Holcim, Switzerland

Generating Revenue through Bundling Ecosystem Services

• Land-based company operating in the Brazilian Amazon
• Aims to reforest part of its land holdings, while trying to maintain forest cover on the bigger remaining land
• Selling CERs, REDD and biodiversity credits rather than timber
• Understanding the commercial viability of the operation
• Can this business model be reapplied in other areas and circumstances?

Chan Lap Tak, Director, Bio Assets, Brazil

Macquarie Group and Fauna & Flora International – Generating Conservation and Commercial Returns from Forest Conservation

• How biodiversity protection, carbon sequestration and commercial interests can all go together:  a groundbreaking collaboration between an NGO and a global provider of banking and investment services that is tapping the carbon markets to invest in forest conservation
• Developing tools for investors to evaluate ecosystem service risk and opportunity – the Natural Value Initiative: a practical approach to evaluating investments in the food, beverage and tobacco sectors

Annelisa Grigg, Director of Environmental Markets, Fauna & Flora International, UK

From Value to Values – The Economics of Biodiversity

• How can we assess the value of biodiversity and ecosystem services?
• The impact of Sir Nicholas Stern’s report on the economics of climate change

How the Economics of Biodiversity & Ecosystem Finance Should Work

Mark Campanale, Sustainable Investment Advisor, UK

The Need for Biodiversity & Ecosystem Data - Standards & Measurements
One major barrier facing this sector is developing practical indicators for measuring negative impacts and positive contributions to biodiversity.  The world lacks agreed standards, methods and indicators for valuing ecological assets and ecosystem services.

• The pressing need to develop better monitoring and evaluation systems to demonstrate impacts
• Developing practical indicators for measuring negative impacts and positive contributions
• Finding agreed standards, methods and indicators

Prof Jon Hutton, Director, UNEP World Conservation Monitoring Centre and Secretariat, Conservation Commons, UK

Chair’s Opening Remarks

Chair:Elizabeth Jaskulke, President, Biodiversity Group, MEDEF & Vice President, Environment Department, GDF Suez, France

Practical Tools for Helping Clients Assess and Manage Biodiversity and Creating New Markets

Recent developments for helping individual companies assess and manage biodiversity.

The Role of the Carbon Markets - Linkages and Parallels to Biodiversity & Ecosystem Finance

• Similarities and differences
• Bundling biodiversity and carbon
• Lessons from carbon markets for biodiversity and ecosystem services

Joshua Bishop, Chief Economist, IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature), Switzerland

• Microfinance (MF) schemes have been used since the late 1990s as a community development tool at several protected areas in both Tanzania and Kenya
• Microfinance can support biodiversity and ecosystem conservation
• MF schemes need to work financially as well as socially to derive environmental benefits – suitable models are emerging to achieve this
• The role of ‘Green Microfinance’
• Working with the banking community

Robert Wild, Associate Director, LTS International, UK

Update on the Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity Study

Pavan Sukhdev, Managing Director & Head – Global Markets, Deutsche Bank and Director, Green Accounting for Indian States Project (GAISP), Green Indian States Trust, India

Bringing the Finance – Banking Case Studies – An Overview of What the Financial Services Sector is Doing

• How do we stimulate the involvement of the finance community? 
• What would a severe worsening in biodiversity do to specific businesses? 
• What would be the knock on affect for banks and financiers?
• Understanding the risk to the financial institution. This session will include ‘hands-on’ case studies to build the biodiversity and ecosystem finance investment case from projects that have generated/aim to generate a return on investment, apart from delivering ecosystem services.

A series of brief 15 minute case studies followed by interactive discussion.

The Need for an Industry Platform

• An overview of the business case for biodiversity in the financial services sector
• UNEP FI CEO Briefing

Susan Steinhagen, Programme Manager – Biodiversity & Ecosystem Services, United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative (UNEP FI), Switzerland

Linking Biodiversity Standards with REDD

• Aceh case study

Abyd Karmali, Global Head of Carbon Emissions, Merrill Lynch, UK

Case Study – Asset Management
Sagarika Chatterjee, Associate Director, Governance & Sustainable Investment, F&C Management, UK

Bringing the Finance – Biodiversity & Ecosystem Funds

How do we ensure environmental, economic and social benefits from investments?  Leveraging private capital for conservation purposes.

Understanding Regional to Global Scale Forest Ecosystem Services

Andrew Mitchell, Executive Director, Canopy Capital, UK

Sustainability Finance in Practice

Storm Le Roux, Partner & Strategy Advisor, ISD Consultancy, South Africa

Break Out Discussion Sessions
Following the finance case studies the conference will offer 3 facilitated break out discussions where participants can choose the topic they are most interested in.  Session moderators will lead the discussions and also feedback briefly on the key points raised.  The discussion topics will be:

1. Reputation Risks & Opportunities – moderated by David Boomer, Head of Energy Efficiency & Climate Change, Institute of Directors (IoD), UK
2. Attracting the Interest of Investment Banks & Pension Funds to Ecosystem Services – moderated by Mark Campanale, Sustainable Investment Advisor, UK
3. Social & Legal License to Operate and Forthcoming Regulation- Moderated by James Spurgeon, Technical Director – Environmental Economics, Environmental Resources Management, UK

Investor Showcase - Investing in Biodiversity Businesses
This session will showcase some investment opportunities in the sector with companies or projects having the opportunity to make a 5 minute ‘investor pitch’ after which the audience will have the opportunity to ask questions and offer feedback.  It will assist and support investors looking for pro-biodiversity businesses and projects to invest in and also provide potential capital for biodiversity businesses and project based activities that seek capital.  There is very much a ‘North South’ relationship in this market at present with the bulk of the capital in the ‘North’ while the most precious biological diversity is situated in the ‘South’.  Investors in the ‘North’ are seeking to make investments in businesses and project based activities in the ‘South’ that generate positive returns for the environment and a decent investment return in the long term.

If you would like to take advantage of this unique opportunity and introduce your company to the conference attendees please email nigel.yeates@greenpowerconferences.com with a brief profile of your project.

Closing Discussion - How Will the Market Develop?
Key ways forward and conclusion.  Based on the discussions from the two days the chairs and moderators will lead this session and will explore the key challenges for bringing biodiversity and ecosystem services to mainstream finance.

• How can we get other actors involved (stock exchanges, rating agencies etc)? 
• What are the needs in terms of data, platforms and policies?
• What can we do as individual players to get things going?