New fund is the missing link between the private sector and a healthy biodiversity
Last updated 11/4/2010 4:33:32 PM
New fund is the missing link between the private sector and a healthy biodiversity
Businesses are being called to help build the biggest global species conservation fund by 2015 to bring together financial support from private business with international conservation expertise and cooperation from countries facing species extinction.
Save Our Species (SOS) has been set-up by the Global Environment Facility, the World Bank and International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), with more than $10m in financing commitments.
"Species extinction is a global phenomenon that will take global understanding, global efforts and global resources to overcome," says World Bank Group president Robert B. Zoellick.
"Our new partners from the private sector are showing a leadership role in the effort to address this crisis and we hope their efforts will inspire other companies, foundations, individuals and governments to join us".
The initiative - launched last week in Nagoya on the sidelines of the Conference on Biological Diversity meeting, a global response to the challenge of biodiversity loss.
IUCN will manage the initiative by using the findings of its Red List of Threatened Species™ and the expertise of its thousands of experts around the world.
SOS will provide grants for conservation action on the ground, focusing on specific threatened species and their habitats and coordination between many different key players.
Mobile phone supplier and telecom networks provider Nokia became the first company to join SOS. Kirsi Sormunen, vice president and head of sustainability at Nokia says that business has a role in safeguarding the rich variety of life on Earth.
"We believe mobile technology can help us all to diminish our ecological footprint and play a key role in engaging people and raising awareness about biodiversity and the ecosystem that supports all life on our planet," added Sormunen.
Currently species are disappearing at a rate of up to 1,000 times higher than normal. One in four mammals, one in eight birds, one in three amphibians and one in three corals assessed for the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species™ are at risk of extinction in the wild.
A few grants have already been selected during the preparation phase, covering more than 30 species, for example to help recover populations of the critically endangered Saiga antelope following the death of nearly 12,000 Saiga in western Kazakhstan last May or the critically endangered Chinese Giant Salamander. The funding has recently helped the discovery of the Chocó harlequin toad in Colombia, a new amphibian species, belonging to highly threatened group.
Monique Barbut, the ceo and chairperson of the Global Environment Facility, added: "the private sector has been the missing link, but the SOS Fund is providing the right opportunity for business to act decisively on this agenda while attending to their corporate bottom line."