Originally Published on The Island
Biodiversity is rapidly moving beyond the traditional boundaries of conservation to become an increasingly important economic and business issue, with Sri Lankan companies being urged to recognise nature not simply as an environmental responsibility but as an asset capable of influencing competitiveness, investment and access to international markets.
This was among the key messages at the opening plenary of the 11th Annual Technical Sessions of Biodiversity Sri Lanka (BSL), held on Tuesday at the Shangri-La Colombo under the theme “Beyond Borders: Partnering for Business to Prosper with Nature.”
The panel brought together leading figures from economics, business and biodiversity, including Dr. Nishan de Mel, Founder and Executive Director of Verité Research; Dr. Ruchira Somaweera, National Technical Executive (Ecology), WSP Australia and Adjunct Professor at Murdoch University; Siddarth Hirdaramani, Director, Hirdaramani Group and Director, Biodiversity Sri Lanka; and Shiranee Yasaratne, Senior Technical Advisor, Biodiversity Sri Lanka.
The discussion placed particular emphasis on the growing role of biodiversity science in business decision-making, with Dr. Ruchira Somaweera bringing an important scientific perspective to the question of how companies—large and small—should respond to the rapidly changing global biodiversity agenda.
Somaweera, a wildlife biologist with extensive international experience in scientific research, environmental consultancy and biodiversity conservation, currently provides expert advice on biodiversity conservation and environmental management through his work in Australia. He is also an Adjunct Professor at Murdoch University and contributes to international scientific and conservation initiatives.
His participation in the panel underscored an increasingly important reality for business: biodiversity cannot be addressed only through isolated conservation projects, but needs to be understood in terms of how companies interact with ecosystems, supply chains and natural resources.
Opening the discussion, Dr. Nishan de Mel said he had been invited to step outside his familiar field of economics and examine biodiversity from an economist’s perspective.
Drawing a parallel with biodiversity, de Mel said economists had traditionally developed sophisticated ways of measuring inflation, productivity, employment and economic growth, but had failed to adequately measure the natural systems on which economic activity depends.
“The single largest input into the world economy, the one without which no one can get anything done, appears not to get measured at all by economists, he said.
That missing element, he noted, was nature.
De Mel referred to research by the World Economic Forum and PwC which examined the dependence of 163 industries and their supply chains on nature and biodiversity. He said the research estimated that economic activities moderately or highly dependent on nature represented an enormous share of global economic output.
The significance of those figures, he stressed, was not that nature could simply be assigned a monetary value equivalent to global GDP. Rather, they represented the exposure of the global economy to the degradation of natural systems.
The concept of risk extending beyond the traditional boundaries of a company’s balance sheet was particularly relevant to the theme of the forum, “Beyond Borders”.
For Dr. Ruchira Somaweera, the scientific dimensions of that relationship between business and biodiversity are increasingly difficult for companies to ignore.
The panel’s decision to bring a leading wildlife biologist into a discussion dominated by business and economics reflected the changing nature of the biodiversity debate itself. Biodiversity is no longer being discussed solely as a matter for conservationists, wildlife specialists or environmental organisations.
Businesses are increasingly being asked to understand what ecosystems provide, how their operations affect those systems and what risks arise when biodiversity is degraded.
The moderator specifically turned to Somaweera after hearing how major international companies and buyers were increasingly concerned about environmental performance.
He raised the question of whether the business advantages of biodiversity were confined to large corporations dealing with sophisticated international buyers, or whether small companies and firms should also be taking biodiversity seriously.
The scientific perspective offered by Somaweera is therefore critical to ensuring that biodiversity is not reduced merely to a corporate branding exercise.
Earlier, Yasaratne explained how the business community’s approach to biodiversity had changed considerably over the past 11 years.
She recalled that when the platform was established, businesses were still trying to understand how they could engage with biodiversity and ecosystem issues.
‘At that time there was more philanthropic activity for biodiversity, she said, referring to popular initiatives such as tree-planting campaigns.
The emphasis, however, has increasingly shifted towards understanding the science behind biodiversity and the business implications of ecosystem degradation.
From the business perspective, Hirdaramani said Sri Lanka’s biodiversity and environmental credentials could provide a genuine competitive advantage.
He used the apparel industry to illustrate the point.
Sri Lanka cannot compete with countries such as Bangladesh, India, Vietnam and China purely on the basis of low production costs or manufacturing scale, he said. Labour costs are higher, the country’s manufacturing base is smaller and Sri Lanka does not possess the extensive domestic supply chains available in some larger manufacturing economies.
“What we do have is a very positive biodiversity environment,” Hirdaramani said.
He argued that Sri Lanka’s environmental credentials, together with its strong labour standards and social compliance, had helped create a reputation as a responsible manufacturing destination.
Hirdaramani said this could translate directly into business opportunities, particularly when competing for customers who are prepared to pay a premium for responsible production.
The discussion also highlighted another fundamental economic problem: natural capital is often depleted without being properly reflected in conventional measures of economic performance.
De Mel referred to the work of economist Professor Sir Partha Dasgupta, whose landmark review for the UK Treasury reframed the environmental challenge as an issue of asset depletion rather than merely pollution.
He argued that countries routinely account for the depreciation of physical infrastructure and machinery, but national accounts generally fail to properly reflect the depletion of forests, fisheries, watersheds and other natural assets.
The message emerging from the BSL panel was therefore that biodiversity must increasingly be incorporated into the way businesses understand risk, competitiveness and long-term value.