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While certification systems can signal values important
to some groups of people, they do not always capture
aspects important to other groups e.g. the cultural values
of biodiversity. Although nature tourism depends on a healthy
environment, there is no guarantee that the tourism
industry will take steps to protect it. There is often a time
lag between profit-generating activities and the appearance
of environmental degradation, which can make it
difficult to develop a coordinated approach involving all
relevant stakeholders (Bishop et al. 2008). For example,
in 90 of the 109 countries where coral reefs occur, they
are damaged by cruise ship anchors and sewage, by
tourists breaking off chunks and by commercial harvesting
for sale to tourists 48 .
LACK OF BIODIVERSITY FOCUS BY
CERTIFIED PRODUCTS AND SERVICES
Many certification systems do not make their relationship
to biodiversity explicit. Organic farming labels, for example,
have been reported to be generally beneficial but the
certification does not set out to ensure biodiversity and,
depending on local circumstances, could actually reduce
species richness (Bengtsson et al. 2005). To further confuse
matters, there are substantial differences between
standards in terms of how they treat biodiversity.
Certification systems are based on the assumption that
adopting certain specified production and processing
practices will have positive biodiversity and ecosystem
benefits, regardless of the producer’s location in the
landscape/watershed. In practice, as mentioned above,
most certified forests are not very biodiverse 49 and an organic
farm located in the midst of a large agro-industrial
landscape may not provide much biodiversity benefit for
reasons beyond its control. Greater attention to landscape/watershed
criteria in certification systems could
help ensure better biodiversity outcomes although, as
seen in the case of MSC, a broad ecosystem-based approach
can weaken incentives for individual producers.
UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES OF NEW
LEGISLATION
REWARDING BENEFITS THROUGH PAYMENTS AND MARKETS
New regulations can sometimes limit market opportunities
for natural products. For example, a potential barrier
to growth in natural cosmetics comes from tighter legislation
in the US and the EU (REACH) on the safety of
chemicals in cosmetics. This could reduce research investment
into potential new ingredients, making it
harder for new products to meet the new criteria. The
end result could be continued reliance on existing species/products
already approved under the legislation,
at the expense of lesser-known biodiversity-friendly
options.
5.5.3 EXPANDING THE REACH OF
BIODIVERSITY-FRIENDLY
PRODUCTS
Practical steps to expand the reach of biodiversityfriendly
products could be taken to:
• review and strengthen the biodiversity element
of existing and new certification systems to
ensure they monitor biodiversity use and impacts.
Implementation methods currently in place require
streamlining as customers (and sometimes user
industries) are often unclear what a particular label
means;
TEEB FOR NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL POLICY MAKERS - CHAPTER 5: PAGE 52
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