“9 Billion people living well, within the resource limits of the planet by 2050”
Background
This project is led by UN Environment Programme globally, while Capitals Coalition is responsible for the business engagement and IBCSD is the country partner for the project implementation in Indonesia. There are five major activities in this project, i.e develop specific guidance for agribusinesses ; foster strong network among agribusinesses and other stakeholders; hold roundtables by including public and private sector, government and NGO to inform the guidelines; hold training session for agribusinesses to apply the guidelines; and build an evidence base from business pilot applications of the guidelines.
The roundtable is a consultative discussion for the TEEBAgriFood guideline and act as a precursor to a series of a free training program targeted to business representatives that will start on June 2021 on the practical business case and how to improve business decision-making based on assessments of impacts and dependencies on nature and people. To participate in the training, please register here.
Business Objectives
Can robust ecosystems and the services they provide to human civilization co-exist with 21st century global capitalism? Can the same capitalism help bring millions out of poverty while providing jobs for the growing young population of the developing nation such as Indonesia, and ample resources for the aging population in many of the industrial sector? Such questions would have seemed melodramatic a decade ago. Yet that was before the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MEA) found that two-thirds of ecosystem services are being degraded or used unsustainably. Two of more significant such services are predictable climate and fresh water; services that appear to be most dramatically affected.
The MEA reports argue that such damage and increase in poverty could accelerate during the first part of this century, but offer the hope “reversing the degradation of ecosystems while meeting increasing demands for their services can be partially met under some scenarios that the MEA has considered, but these involve significant changes in policies, institutions, and practices that are not currently under way.” What would such changes mean for business? More importantly, what vision of the business role in society would allow companies to lead in those changes in policies, institutions and practices required.
The Business Need and Opportunity
Indonesia is the largest economy in Southeast Asia and world’s fourth most populous country with over 240 million inhabitant, which live across the archipelago region consisting of 17,500 islands. The country is a bridge for the two continents of Asia and Australia, allowing this strategic position to influence the country’s economy with abundant potential of natural resources. Having said that, Indonesia represents a great opportunity to both domestic demand as well as to the global market demand. In addition, the consumption pattern is expected to grow due to natural increase population, locally and globally, and the significant increase of purchasing power in Indonesia because of the increase of middle class income population. The remaining natural resources contained in the stagnant area will soon lead us to the scarcity challenges for the raw material supply of the industry, amid the growing needs aligned with the rising population.
Following the global trends for sustaining the world in the long-run, Indonesia significantly and essentially has a motive to do the same action. The existing global consumption is estimated to require 2 to 3 planets to feed the people in the next 20 years. Furthermore, from the ecosystem perspective especially its unique biodiversity, Indonesia’s tropical forest is an integral part of the world’s climate and water systems that provide life support to the earth.
The key words for such actions are a holistic approach between consciousness of present planetary boundaries, visions of the future existence and innovation to overcome the possible challenges. Thus, sustainability will require new leadership skills and mindset in all development components, and solving sustainability challenges will require public and private sector collaboration. Many of Indonesia based companies have made tremendous progress in becoming more eco-efficient in terms of energy, water and resource use. Progress in eco-efficiency may have to give way to radical changes in business systems. This is the reason why innovation in policy making is urgently needed as much as the technology innovation itself.
Read more in detail about Vision 2050 by downloading complete PDF Document here
