CII teams up with World Bank to promote tiger, biodiversity conservation

WASHINGTON: The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) has announced its association with the World Bank Group to establish the India Wildlife Business Council (IWBC), aimed to encourage tiger and biodiversity conservation for the development at a certain level.

The council will also initiate steps to ease the dialogue between business, conservation stakeholders as well as decision-makers.

IWBC, which will serve as an institutionalized platform for collaboration, will get the joint support of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), the International Development Association (IDA), the International Finance Corporation (IFC) – which comprise the 'World Bank Group' – and CII.

The population of tiger has diminished gradually in size on the backdrop of rapid industrialization, habitat fragmentation, poaching and illegal trade. Only 3,000 tigers remains in the wild today and are limited to only 7 per cent of their historical geographic presence.

Chandrajit Banerjee, Director General, CII, “Economic Growth and Environmental Conservation are not mutually exclusive objectives. Building on CII’s pioneering concepts in sustainable development, we will work with industry through the India Wildlife Business Council to promote green growth models, aligning business strategies focusing on a triple bottom line approach – on profits, people and planet. Industry will thus play a major role in integrating biodiversity with the development agenda.”

Robert Zoellick, the president of World Bank opined that the private sector's involvement into this initiative will bring new ideas and new resources, altering the dynamic between industry and conservation and will serve as a powerful instrument of change.

To establish such industry-engaged coalition for conservation has been decided in a roundtable meeting CII members held with Zoellick and other World Bank officials in March last year in New Delhi.