Protecting biodiversity for sustainability

Biodiversity can be defined as the variety of organisms at all levels: genetic variants of single individuals of a species (intraspecific diversity), differences between different species and taxonomic groups (interspecif diversity) and variety of ecosystems present in a specific territory (ecosystem diversity).

Up to now about two million species have been cataloged on earth, but naturalists estimate that the total number of species is at least ten million, three-quarters of which are concentrated in tropical rainforests.

Therefore, today only a fifth of the animal and plant species present on our planet are known.

Zoologists and botanists describe thousands of species new to science every year, but the destruction of tropical rainforests and the degradation of agrosystems determines the extinction of tens of thousands of species per year!

The loss of biodiversity, together with climate change, is the greatest environmental emergency of our time.

Biodiversity represents the most important resource of our planet’s natural systems, and all human activities depend on it, directly or indirectly.

The protection of biodiversity must be an indispensable objective for all production activities, in particular for the agricultural sector.

To deal with the problems that economic growth generates on the territory, a growing number of companies are developing strategies that include “environmental responsibility”. The environmental responsability is aimed at reducing the impacts of production processes on the environment, with a view to sustainable development.

The Biodiversity Friend Protocols certify good practices related to the protection of biodiversity and environmental, social and economic sustainability.

The Biodiversity Friend certification allows to undertake a process of gradual improvement of environmental performance.