Water and biodiversity play a significant role in sustaining human life and ensuring welfare. They are essential for securing food, medicines, energy and building materials.

Water and biodiversity are mutually dependent; one cannot be sustained without the other. Any impact on the water sector will affect biodiversity and vice versa. Biodiversity provides important services such as natural pest control, water recycling and climate regulation.

Water and biodiversity play a vital role in sustaining and promoting business. In the manufacture of many products (such as food, medicines, fertilisers, pesticides, fibres, textiles, cosmetics) bio-resources play a significant role. Sometimes, water itself is an input in industries such as textiles, leather, paper and pulp, and sugar.

Impact on business

Every business depends on water and biodiversity, and also impacts on them. On an average, agriculture accounts for 70 per cent of the water withdrawals.

After agriculture, the major users of water are industries and energy (20 per cent of total withdrawal), and the domestic and urban (10 per cent of total withdrawal) sectors. Industrial water uses include processing of raw materials, cooling, cleaning, and as central ingredients in the goods produced. Sometimes water is required to use industrial products, such as cement. In the domestic sector too, water plays an important role in businesses such as desalination plants and packaged water supply.

Biodiversity refers to the variety of plants, animals and micro-organisms, and the ecosystems in which they occur, and is inherently valuable to humanity. Crops, livestock, forest products and fish are part of biodiversity and are also sources of food. A wide variety of plants, animals and fungi are used for manufacturing medicines and over 60 per cent of the world’s population depends on plant medicines for their primary health care.

At present, many chemical formulae and about 45 per cent of drugs are based on biodiversity. According to a study, over 70 per cent of the promising anti-cancer drugs come from plants in the tropical rainforests. It is estimated that of the 2,50,000 known plant species, only 5,000 have been researched for possible medical applications. Therefore, there is huge scope for identifying more drugs from nature.

Industrial products such as oils, lubricants, perfumes, dyes, paper, wax, rubber, latex, resins, poisons and cork are derived from various plant species. Animals origin products include wool, silk, fur, leather, lubricants and wax. In farming, bio-pest control and application of bio-fertilisers are environment friendly methods, and are growing industries.

Nowadays various animals are nurtured privately for display and as pets. Ornamental fish culture is a booming business. Biodiversity hotspots (nature reserves, parks and forests with wildlife and plants) are tourist centres, attracting millions of people. Eco-tourism is a growing outdoor recreational activity and business.

Emerging Challenges

Population growth and changing life-styles demand more food, energy and other consumer products that encourage mega irrigation, hydropower projects and industrial establishments.

Urban growth and industrial development have pushed cities to look increasingly farther for water and other resources they need. The modifications to water-related development (dams, irrigation schemes, urban extension, aquaculture) are at the cost of biodiversity.

According to a recent study, the biodiversity (number of species) in freshwater has declined by half since 1970. For developmental activities, biodiversity hotspots such as forests, wetlands, mangroves and coral reefs have been considerably encroached upon.

Further, the pollution load discharged into the ecosystem has also multiplied, and in certain locations is beyond nature’s carrying capacity. Ecosystem change has accelerated in many areas vulnerable to water-related activities. Further, climate change factors are significantly influenced by water availability and the health of the biodiversity.

The huge business potential of water and biodiversity naturally leads to their market possibilities. About 13 per cent (884 million) of the world’s population still relies on impoverished sources for drinking water, and 2.4 billion people are still without access to basic sanitation. Therefore, trade-offs among various water users are important.

Management Strategies

The future of business depends on the sustainability of water and bio-resources. Globally, the per capita availability of freshwater is steadily decreasing and the trend will continue as the world’s population grows, emerging economies increase their consumption levels, and climate change prevails.

For the global economy, if it needs to carry on expanding at the same pace, the worldwide annual water consumption will rise from 4,500 km{+3} today to 6,900 km{+3} in 2030, that is 40 per cent more than the current supply. The same pressure can be anticipated in biological resources too.

Some steps are proposed for the conservation and sustainable utilisation of water and biodiversity, from the business perspective.

The “access and benefit sharing” objective of the Convention on Biological Diversity should be operationalised. This would enable local communities (who use their traditional knowledge and efforts in managing water and biodiversity) to obtain a fair and equitable share from the overall benefits of resources-based businesses.

The benefit-sharing principle will act as an incentive to local communities for conservation and sustainable use of resources. In this regard, the industries’ cooperation is essential.

For the conservation and management of water and biodiversity, corporate responsibility is crucial, along with the role played by government departments. They can come up with innovative strategies that can be implemented with stakeholders’ participation to minimise water use, maximise recycling and sustain natural processes, including the management of biodiversity and the ecosystem.

Public-private partnership programmes in water supply, sanitation, and waste-water treatment have ample scope for entrepreneurs to take the lead with a focus on biodiversity.

Gifts of nature

Decisions on issues such as the conversion of ecologically sensitive areas for developmental purposes including wetlands and marshes are often taken considering the benefits of the project rather than the overall impact on the ecosystem. In this regard, the economic value of non-marketed goods and services of ecosystem/biodiversity is critical for effective policy decision-making.

If we follow these ‘Green Business’ principles, our water and biodiversity will be protected and we can achieve ‘Green Economy’ based growth in the country.

The authors are members of the National Biodiversity Authority (NBA), Chennai. The views expressed are personal.

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