IBC Executive Director Askar Sydykov spoke as a moderator at the roundtable “Private investments in conservation of biodiversity and benefits” held by “The Biodiversity Finance initiative” (BIOFIN) UNDP Project, International Business Council and CSR in Central Asia.

At first glance, "biodiversity" and "interaction with the private sector" may seem a strange combination. At the same time, it is now recognized that the conservation and sustainable use of natural resources is impossible without the participation of business.

Business plays an important role in providing society with gifts of nature in the form of goods and services. Even if they are not directly related to the processing of biological resources, most of the economic entities indirectly benefit from biodiversity or have some effect on biodiversity.

The roundtable provided a platform for business representatives to get acquainted with the positive experience of companies investing in biodiversity, as well as global practices of financial solutions that encourage private businesses to conserve and use natural assets.

So far, biodiversity is too abstract for most of the stakeholders in the economic sector to include it in its core business and address the issue of investment in biodiversity or the opportunities arising from such investments.

The main reason for this is the lack of available knowledge in a business-friendly language and the lack of communication with the environmental sector. In fact, both sectors do not speak each other's language and therefore cannot cooperate in developing reliable investment opportunities for biodiversity conservation.

Representatives of the Economy Ministry, Finance Ministry, Business and Entrepreneurship Development Council under the Jogorku Kenesh Toraga (Speaker), KfW Office in Bishkek, Swiss Embassy in the Kyrgyz Republic, Association of Forest and Land Users of Kyrgyzstan, Agrarian Platform Kyrgyzstan NGO, Kyrgyz Union of Beekeepers, JICA project "One village - one product", State agency for Environmental Protection and Forestry under the Government of the Kyrgyz Republic, Kumtor Gold Company, IFC's project on corporate governance in Central Asia, and UNDP program experts participated in the discussions.

The participants got acquainted with the contribution of the mining sector to biodiversity on the case of Kumtor and positive experience of Carlsberg-Kazakhstan in preserving biodiversity (Skype presentation). Experts of the BIOFIN initiative in the Kyrgyz Republic told how to help save biodiversity and generate income (existing and potential financial decisions in the Kyrgyz Republic), as well as about the best international practice on financial mechanisms and solutions for the business sector for biodiversity conservation and income generation.