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Changing business perceptions regarding biodiversity: from impact mitigation towards new strategies and practices

Author

Listed:
  • Joël Houdet

    (Orée)

  • Michel Trommetter

    (GAEL - Laboratoire d'Economie Appliquée = Grenoble Applied Economics Laboratory - UPMF - Université Pierre Mendès France - Grenoble 2 - INRA - Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique, X-DEP-ECO - Département d'Économie de l'École Polytechnique - X - École polytechnique - IP Paris - Institut Polytechnique de Paris)

  • Jacques Weber

    (UPR Ressources forestières - Ressources forestières et politiques publiques - Cirad - Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement)

Abstract

Business activities play a major role in biodiversity loss and, as a result, firms are under increasing pressures from stakeholders to reduce their negative impacts on living systems. In response, business attitudes, behaviors and strategies regarding biodiversity are progressively changing, suggesting that interactions between business and biodiversity could go beyond the search of a compromise between development and conservation. This paper proposes an analysis of business perceptions regarding biodiversity. In its first part, we discuss how biodiversity is usually perceived as an external environmental constraint on business activities, and how economic tools may be used for arbitrages in that context. Building upon our work on the Business and Biodiversity Interdependence Indicator (BBII), we then discuss how assessing a firm's interdependences with biodiversity may bring about new business strategies and practices. We propose a typology of firm behavior regarding biodiversity and ecosystem services (BES), discuss business opportunities and property rights issues pertaining to markets for ecosystem services and propose preliminary conceptual foundations of new business standards needed to reverse current biodiversity trends.

Suggested Citation

  • Joël Houdet & Michel Trommetter & Jacques Weber, 2009. "Changing business perceptions regarding biodiversity: from impact mitigation towards new strategies and practices," Working Papers hal-00412875, HAL.
    • Handle: RePEc:hal:wpaper:hal-00412875
    Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://hal.science/hal-00412875v1
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    Cited by:

    1. Joël Houdet & Charlotte Pavageau & Michel Trommetter & Jacques Weber, 2009. "Accounting for changes in biodiversity and ecosystem services from a business perspective," Working Papers hal-00434450, HAL.
    2. repec:dau:papers:123456789/14276 is not listed on IDEAS

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    Keywords

    standards; biodiversity; business; strategy; payments for ecosystem services; impact mitigation; standards.;
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