A natural capital approach to sustainable investing: A tribute to Pitta

IT WAS a sunny afternoon when I dropped off a beautiful bird in a wooded park in the middle of a concrete jungle of a city. The pitta bird is a rare sight in tropical forests, even to the trained eyes of birdwatchers. Yet there she was just hours before, perched on the window of my condo, in a busy metropolis bustling with traffic and millions of pedestrians, miles away from home. Rather unoriginally, I named her Pitta. I hope she survives.

Biodiversity loss ranks among the top 5 global risks. That’s according to “he Global Risks Report 2020 from the World Economic Forum. Of those top 5 risks, 3 were environmental in nature. The numbers are stark: The total populations of wildlife species have plummeted 68 per cent between 1970 and 2016, and one million animal and plant species now face extinction. This deterioration of biodiversity and related ecosystem services is the combined result of land and sea use changes, direct exploitation, climate change and pollution.

Let’s explore why institutional investors should protect ecosystems and biodiversity and how sustainable investment strategies that offer risk mitigation and value creation opportunities can help accomplish this.