Rio Conventions Pavilion TV, CBD COP11 (18/10/2012) – James Griffiths, Managing Director of Ecosystems, Forest Solutions and Water at the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), discusses the importance of engaging the private sector in conservation and sustainable development policy.

Griffiths notes that the CBD includes a wide range of different strands of negotiation, in many of which the business world does not need a central role, but stresses that as implementation becomes a focus for the CBD it needs to better engage with stakeholder groups, including business.

Griffiths emphasises not only are businesses dependent on and beneficiaries of biodiversity but that progressive businesses can have a large positive impact when included in policy-making.

Griffiths sees the new national biodiversity strategies and action plans as a key opportunity for business engagement in biodiversity policy. He references a new report that the WBCSD has presented at CBD COP11 called ‘Picking Up The Pace’, giving recommendations on how to accelerate public environmental policy.