A changing climate is a threat to biodiversity. Biodiversity and ecosystem conservation enable permanence of climate change mitigation and adaptation efforts.

 

Healthy ecosystems and rich biodiversity are fundamental to life on our planet as they affect our food, medicine, and environmental well-being. Healthy ecosystems require a vast assortment of plant and animal life, from soil microbes to predators like crocodiles and tigers.  These ecosystems deliver crucial functions in the grand scheme of things; any loss of species could reduce this ability, especially when environmental conditions change rapidly over time. If one or more species is removed from this environment, no longer serving its niche, it can harm the balance of the ecosystem. With climate change, species are eliminated from an area causing a change in some ecosystem functions, which could have major or minor repercussions on the quality of life on the planet.

 

While this interconnectedness of climate change and biodiversity is well recognized, it is also well known that biodiversity makes a vital contribution to both climate-change mitigation and adaptation. Hence, conserving and sustainably managing biodiversity is critical to addressing climate change.

 

The Southeast Asian region is home to roughly half of the world’s tropical mountain forests, which support massive carbon stores and tremendous biodiversity, including a host of species that occur nowhere else on the planet. And its geography makes its populations highly vulnerable to sea level rise and extreme weather conditions.

 

While biodiversity loss has been eclipsed by climate change on the global agenda, the two issues are closely linked, have similar impacts on human welfare and need to be tackled urgently. In fact, an effective climate change response requires consideration of the role of, and potential impacts on biodiversity and ecosystem services. Climate change mitigation and adaptation need to be supported by biodiversity conservation actions, in order to enable the permanence of mitigation and adaptation efforts.

 

The destruction of forests and other ecosystems undermines nature’s ability to regulate greenhouse gases in the atmosphere and protect against extreme weather impacts - accelerating climate change and increasing vulnerability to it. The rapid vanishing of carbon-trapping mangroves and seagrasses, for example, both prevents carbon storage and exposes coastlines to storm surges and erosion.

 

While Malaysia is one of the most biodiverse countries on earth, it battles with degradation of ecosystems both in its wetland and forest habitats. Increasing climate change poses a real threat to Malaysia’s natural resources, and its national plans have targeted significant investment into climate resilient strategies to tackle this. The government has declared that Malaysia is a responsible member of the international community in fulfilling the collective duty of addressing climate change and protecting its biodiversity for the common future of humankind. At the grassroots, several NGOs have made small yet significant strides in protecting these biodiverse habitats, despite many challenges.

 

Climate Governance Initiative of Malaysia (CGM) firmly believes that corporates have a critical role to play in supporting the National Biodiversity Policy which anticipates partnerships between government, non-government and private sectors to fund biodiversity conservation, and Malaysia’s commitment to the UN Sustainable Development Goals particularly SDG13 (Climate Action), SDG14 (Life Below Water), SDG15 (Life On Land) and SDG17 (Partnership for the Goals).

 

With this in mind:

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• CGM launched The Hornbill Award in 2021 where a number of corporate sponsors will fund an innovative Conservation project by a deserving Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) or Civil Society Organization (CSO).  

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• CGM encourages you to connect with our panel of biodiversity experts who can advise you on how your business can play its part in biodiversity conservation.