Global assessment cautions firms: biodiversity decline threatens business continuity

An intergovernmental scientific assessment published this month reframes biodiversity loss as a core commercial hazard rather than a peripheral environmental cause. Drawing on contributions from scientists worldwide and formal approval by 150 governments, the analysis maps how firms in every sector depend on services such as water filtration, soil fertility and natural flood buffers — systems that are eroding under current incentives. The report highlights specific drivers that push firms toward damaging behaviour, including subsidies and market signals that favour short-term extraction over long-term ecosystem health, and a persistent failure to measure or disclose nature-related dependencies. Fewer than one in a hundred publicly reporting companies currently acknowledge their effects on biodiversity, a disclosure gap the authors say leaves boards and investors blind to mounting physical and transition risks. Practical examples in the UK show how shifting land management can provide multiple returns: engineered wetlands and managed grazing have reduced local flood exposure, improved habitat quality and supplied higher-value agricultural products, demonstrating that restoration can be commercially productive. For companies, the immediate implications are clear: supply chains dependent on stable soils, pollinators or clean water will face volatility in yields and costs as ecosystems degrade, while insurers and lenders will reassess exposure to uncaptured nature-risk. Policy and market shifts recommended by the assessment include removing incentives that harm nature, creating standardized biodiversity metrics and integrating natural capital into corporate risk frameworks. Implementing these changes will require new tools, targeted regulation and investor pressure to make protection profitable rather than optional. Failure to act raises the prospect of asset impairment, higher insurance premia, and stranded investments in sectors reliant on fragile ecosystems. Conversely, firms that translate stewardship into operational strategy can reduce vulnerability, access nature-based risk mitigation, and capture value from emerging sustainable markets. The assessment therefore positions biodiversity stewardship as a strategic imperative for resilience and long-term value preservation. It concludes that incremental efforts are insufficient; systemic reforms and corporate adoption of measurable targets are needed to align economic activity with the biophysical limits that sustain it.