Biodiversity is no longer the exclusive concern of biologists and environmental activists. It is, increasingly, a matter for economists, managers and regulators. That is one of the central conclusions of the report “Biodiversity and economy: financing and viability of the European Union Nature Restoration Regulation”prepared by the Higher School of International Trade of the Pompeu Fabra University (ESCI-UPF) and presented at a conference organized by Fundación Naturgy and Nactiva which brought together representatives of the public administration, the academic world and the business sector.
The main conclusion of the document is clear, Biodiversity must be managed as strategic natural capitalnot as a secondary environmental good. Its deterioration, the report warns, not only compromises ecosystems, but represents a direct threat to macroeconomic stability, the resilience of value chains and long-term business competitiveness.
Just as the need to invest in roads, electricity grids or drinking water systems is not questioned, the report argues that forests, wetlands, fertile soils and coral reefs are natural infrastructures whose deterioration has measurable economic costs and whose restoration generates concrete returns.
A historic regulation
The approval in 2024 of the European Nature Restoration Regulation introduced for the first time legally binding targets for the recovery of terrestrial, marine, urban and agricultural ecosystems in the EU. Member States are obliged to draw up National Restoration Planswhich makes nature conservation a legal obligation and not just a political aspiration.
“The approval of the Regulation marks a historic turning point, by placing the restoration of ecosystems as a legal and strategic priority,” says Erola Palau, professor and co-director of the master’s degree in sustainability at the Pompeu Fabra University Business School, who presented the report. “With this work, we seek to transfer rigorous knowledge to the business and political sphere to accelerate the transition towards a truly regenerative economy.”
Once the regulatory framework is clear, it is time to talk about financing, which in the report is identified as the main obstacle for the regulation to be developed. The document shows that there is a significant resource deficit and raises the need to combine public and private instruments, in the form of green and blue bonds, nature credits, payments for ecosystem services and carbon markets, as long as they are supported by rigorous metrics, solid verification systems and governance frameworks that facilitate clear and precise control. “For nature restoration to be viable on a large scale, it is necessary to treat it as an investment in green and blue infrastructure, capable of generating economic, environmental and social value,” Palau stressed.
For his part, Joan Ribas, professor at the ESCI-UPF Higher School and collaborator of the Master in Sustainability of the same university, also emphasized the importance of financial provision “The main challenge for the restoration of nature is the effective mobilization of financing. Achieving the objectives set by the new European framework will require financial instruments and solid regulatory frameworks and close public-private collaboration. Only in this way will it be possible to transform commitments into concrete and sustainable actions over time.”
Public-private collaboration
From the Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge, Fernando Magdaleno, deputy director general of Terrestrial and Marine Biodiversityexplained that the plan – currently being developed – points towards “an approach with a strong territorial vision, adapted to the different realities of the country.” Magdaleno recognized that “it is necessary to generate favorable structural conditions that facilitate the integration of the different economic, social and environmental realities” and called on the private sector, “without the participation of the private sector it is not viable to achieve the objectives. It is necessary to identify, from that area, what elements are missing, what barriers exist at the regulatory level.”
In his opinion, “the administration designs the framework, but trusts that companies actively participate in shaping it. For this reason, Magdaleno stressed the need to “generate an environment that favors convergence as a country, through the development of opportunities and the creation of tools that promote collaboration and investment.”
Strategic value of nature
On the business side, Nieves Cifuentes, corporate head of Environment at Naturgystressed that “biodiversity is already a strategic axis for companies, both for risk management and for the opportunities for innovation and value creation that a regenerative economy offers.” Cifuentes also insisted on the need to have robust market mechanisms—payments for ecosystem services, environmental credits—with homogeneous metrics that guarantee transparency and minimize the risk of companies using biodiversity as a simple image tool.
Joan Cabezas, co-founder and CEO of Nactivaemphasized the paradigm shift proposed by the report, “the restoration of nature can no longer be addressed solely through environmental policy. It is a first-order economic issue. Europe today has the regulatory framework, but the real challenge is to activate the capital necessary to take it to scale.” For Cabezas, this requires “transforming the way we understand investment, integrating biodiversity as a strategic infrastructure capable of generating value, reducing risks and strengthening competitiveness” and mobilizing public, private and philanthropic capital in a coordinated manner.
The general director of the Naturgy Foundation, María Eugenia Coronado, summed it up when opening the day: “Moving towards a sustainable economic model requires placing biodiversity and natural capital at the center of public and private decisions.” Not as an ethical complement, but as a condition of economic viability.