The Nature and Biodiversity Conservation Institute (ICNB) has organised the 1st Annual B&B Company Meeting, which took place on 21 May and was attended by various companies that undertook in 2007 to incorporate biodiversity management and conservation into their business strategies.

The Portucel Soporcel Group was naturally one of the companies that were invited to participate in this initiative by presenting their main projects in this domain. The presentation was made by Eng. Paula Guimarães, who is in charge of Forest Certification within the Group, and focused on the initiatives we are taking to preserve natural assets and biodiversity.

One of the Group’s main ventures in this field is our partnership with WWF, which has enabled us to classify 48% of the assets under our management as High Conservation Value Areas (HCVAs) at a landscape scale.

The main objective of this Meeting was to assess what the companies that have adhered to the B&B philosophy as part of the protocols they have signed with ICNB have done so far in this respect. This was complemented by an exhibition of panels displaying information about the initiatives that are being pursued by these companies (which include Corticeira Amorim, REN, EDP, BES, Secil and Altri, among others).

The President of ICNB, Eng. Tito Rosa, praised the business community’s ability to respond to this challenge by showing that biodiversity can be incorporated into the value of their products and services. The fact is that the emerging biodiversity market looks likely to become an area which will be treated like the carbon market in the near future.

The session was closed by the Secretary of State for the Environment, Prof. Humberto Rosa, who emphasised the fact that there is a platform of Portuguese companies that can make a difference within the international biodiversity context. He also said that the involvement of the economic agents who work in the field and want to make their management activities compatible with the conservation of biodiversity will make it possible to take real steps forward in the evolution of this process.

This initiative can thus be said to have been a very positive way of highlighting Biodiversity Day, which is held on 22 May.