Preserving biodiversity: a major issue for the planet and a challenge for our societies

"It is every man's duty to give back to the world at least as much as he has received," said Albert Einstein.

Industrialization, urbanization, modern agriculture, deforestation: over the last 50 years, biodiversity has been damaged in ways never before seen in human history. Nevertheless, if industrialized countries have freed themselves from nature in order to develop their economies, the resulting disorders are now forcing them to take a clear-sighted look at the situation and act to limit the effects.

While the need to contain global warming is widely publicized and taken on board by many companies, this is not yet the case for the challenges posed by the loss of biodiversity on Earth. This eminently important subject is less well known to the general public and less supported by business players. Nevertheless, awareness is now very real. Some 20 years after negotiations began, the Nagoya Protocol, which aims to halt the unprecedented loss of biological diversity on the planet's surface, was signed by 193 countries on October 29, 2010. This international treaty will gradually be transposed into the laws of the countries concerned, reinforcing legislation that is still lacking in this area.

Our societies are therefore on the verge of major changes in the way they approach their relationship with the living world. Ecosystems provide services (supply, regulation, enjoyment, etc.) on which humanity is extremely dependent. To deprive ourselves of these services by degrading the environment is to jeopardize the future of human beings themselves. So, if we wish to maintain a balance on Earth and offer a liveable world to future generations, we need to place a value on the natural resources we extract, and internalize these costs in our production processes. We also need to rethink development and technical progress in line with nature's regenerative capacity, not by dominating it. In the same way as CO ₂ , biodiversity must have a value, whether qualitative or quantitative.

Consequently, from the international to the local level, the preservation of biodiversity must now have a place in the strategies of both public and private partners, and be applied operationally in their day-to-day activities. This "revolution" is possible, provided we change the way we look at our environment.