Biodiversity - planetary challenge requires innovative investment solutions

The rapid loss of biodiversity is one of the key challenges of our time. However, advances in science and technology offer innovative ways to tackle this crisis - and to integrate them into strategic investment decisions. This is the conclusion reached by the FERI Cognitive Finance Institute in a recent study in cooperation with the Senckenberg Gesellschaft für Naturforschung. “In the face of escalating species loss, the protection and preservation of planetary ecosystems is essential. The global finance industry can make an important contribution to this,” says Dr. Heinz-Werner Rapp, founder and director of the FERI Cognitive Finance Institute. 

The study entitled “Biodiversity Advantage - Business Solutions and Investment Opportunities for Nature” analyzes the complex relationships between ecological, economic, political and social factors of biodiversity. The interdisciplinary team of authors includes Prof. Dr. Klement Tockner, Director General of the Senckenberg Gesellschaft für Naturforschung, sustainability manager and Senckenberg guest scientist Dr. Tobias Raffel and Antje Biber, Head of the FERI SDG Office. 

“Biodiversity is the basis for more than 50 percent of global economic output and our own survival. It provides goods and services that are just as essential for ecosystems, nutrition, health and human well-being as they are for the economy,” emphasizes Tockner. In order to tackle the massive loss of species, a profound paradigm shift is necessary. “But our current actions are also the cause of the critical state of nature and its diversity,” says Tockner. 

Biodiversity: material risks and new investment opportunities

Because, according to the analysis, the rapid decline in biodiversity not only represents a material risk, but also opens up new areas of business, its conservation and regeneration should be on every investor's agenda. “As our study shows, the topic of biodiversity will give rise to numerous innovative products and services in the coming years. Specific investment opportunities already exist today, such as biodiversity credits, conservation bonds, green bonds and impact bonds. As a result, this complex is also becoming increasingly interesting for professional investors and offers attractive investment opportunities - explicitly in harmony with nature,” explain Biber, co-author of the study, and Rapp from the FERI Cognitive Finance Institute.

The study “Biodiversity Advantage - Business Solutions and Investment Opportunities for Nature” is available in English in the download area of this page.