Centre for Responsible Business (CRB) has partnered with The Capitals Coalition as the implementation partner for the project TEEB Agri Food, funded by European Union.

TEEB for Agriculture & Food (TEEB Agri Food) project aims to protect biodiversity and contribute to a more sustainable agriculture and food sector in seven EU partner countries: Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mexico and Thailand

CRB’s goal is to engage with the agri-business networks in India & communicate the project’s work to relevant businesses and offer insights and perspectives into the project as it progresses.

The agri-food sector significantly depends on well-functioning ecosystems that can provide such services as pollination, biological plant protection and pest control, water regulation, soil formation, erosion prevention etc. However, the biodiversity and landscapes that provide these critical ecosystem services are being depleted and degraded at unprecedented rates, in large part by the agri-food sector itself, causing further problems in terms of human health and livelihoods.

This constitutes a significant risk to business operations.

To mitigate this risk, there is a serious need to address: (i) a lack of awareness of the dependencies of agri-business on ecosystems and biodiversity, and (ii) the treatment of nature as a ‘public good’ implying that, although environmental stewardship has a social net benefit, individual private agents (such as farmers and agri-businesses) are not incentivized to conserve nature.