It goes without saying that nature is critically important to our very survival. Its breakdown threatens the way we live and work. Nature’s condition is crucial not just for our daily lives, but also for how businesses operate. Forward-looking organizations are beginning to recognize that nature and biodiversity loss isn’t just an environmental issue, but a strategic and financial one.

Multiple industries draw on natural resources and have direct and indirect impacts on the environment. Globally, the value chains for food, energy, infrastructure, and fashion drive over 90 percent of human-caused pressure on global biodiversity. Agriculture alone is responsible for 90 percent of tropical deforestation and 70 percent of freshwater withdrawals.

In addition, about 82 percent of all agricultural lands are used to support livestock, significantly impacting species by altering their habitats. In the Philippines, capture fisheries extracted 1.88 million tons of production from our waters in 2023. Even industries like supply chain and transport; chemicals and materials; aviation, travel, and tourism; mining and metals; retail, consumer goods, and lifestyle; and real estate, despite low direct dependency on natural inputs, have supply chains that could easily collapse due to hidden dependencies on nature.

The Philippine economy is deeply dependent on biodiversity. According to a Technical Brief commissioned by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources and the Biodiversity Finance Initiative Philippines, biodiversity contributed 56 percent of the Philippines’ gross domestic product (GDP) in 2018. This was largely due to industries such as manufacturing, construction, electricity, mining and quarrying, agriculture, forestry, fishing, real estate, and health.

In 2024, it contributed 44.4 percent to the GDP. Furthermore, 48 percent or ₱5.7 trillion, of total loans outstanding held by banks depend on nature. Seven of the top eight sectors lent to by Philippine banks rely on one or more ecosystem services, including timber and fuelwood production, water provision, ecotourism, carbon sequestration, flood prevention, and fishery production. These historical contributions to the economy clearly demonstrate that failing to restore biodiversity presents short- and long-term risks to the Philippines, both within and outside the business environment.

The risks of biodiversity and nature loss are tangible and severe, potentially including rising commodity prices, job losses, and resource scarcity affecting access to critical materials. Worse yet, the impact on humanity is even broader, with potential threats to food and resource supplies, economic development, trade agreements, equality efforts, and peace between nations.

Understanding the impacts of nature and determining mitigation measures is a daunting task, but Philippine businesses need to start now, setting and meeting nature-positive goals. Businesses stand to gain far more from a nature strategy when it's viewed as a core component of long-term business resilience and value creation, not just a compliance requirement.

The Taskforce for Nature-related Financial Disclosures’ report recommendations offer a roadmap for organizations looking to integrate nature into their focus. The Locate, Evaluate, Assess, and Prepare (LEAP) approach guides organizations on how to assess and manage nature-related issues:

- Locate an organization's interaction with nature.

- Evaluate nature-related dependencies and impacts.

- Assess nature-related risks and opportunities.

- Prepare an organization's response to material nature-related issues and reporting.

Additionally, multiple resources from the Science-based Targets Network and Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) are publicly available.

Nature strategies should not be considered separate from decarbonization strategies, as net zero cannot be achieved without protecting and restoring natural habitats. Streamlining actions would reduce the time and resources needed to achieve both goals. For example, protecting and restoring forest and mangrove areas can help reduce both carbon emissions and biodiversity loss. Taking advantage of these synergies offers businesses the opportunity to boost benefits while addressing risks.

As mentioned in the Workshop sponsored by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the IPBES in 2021, the protection and restoration of carbon-rich ecosystems is the top priority from a joint climate change mitigation and biodiversity protection perspective.

We are heading toward a world that will likely set nature-positive targets as a core business benchmark alongside carbon emission targets. Business leaders working to meet growing stakeholder expectations need to be prepared.