Following on from our recent conference in Geneva, we took a very crucial first step today in convening a Round Table to discuss issues of BioDiversity and the Luxury Industry. The table was assembled under the auspice of the United Nations Conference of Trade and Development and included a fantastic level of participation by some of the leaders and thinkers in their industries. Present were eleven key individuals from a number of organisations including the UN, Gucci Group, The Walpole, World Wildlife Fund, International Institute for Environment and Development / CITEs, Wildlife Conservation Society, Earthwatch Institute, Agropecuária Setten, The Guardian, and of course our venue hosts at the Centre for Sustainable Fashion.

While I think it would be ambitious to expect significant change to come out of a single half day meeting, what we did establish was a very good first step on the road to improving BioDiversity within the Luxury sector. Ideas were exchanged which we will begin to collate over the next few days with the goal of developing specific contributions towards the Cop-10 of the Convention on Biological Diversity in Nagoya this October and the revision of the Global BioDiversity Targets for 2020.

I see this as particularly important because in a world caught up with Climate Change and Carbon Footprints, what many of us fail to appreciate is that BioDiversity, while often ignored and certainly less glamorous in the media, is the overarching thread that holds it all together. It is the one thing that directly impacts every single one of us everyday from the water we drink to the air we breathe and from the food we eat to the clothes we wear. So it is for these very reasons that in my eyes and many of the people around the table today, that BioDiversity is arguably the overriding "environmental" concern today and not global warming or carbon impact as many of us are led to believe. Issues that while important are often attributed to the destruction and loss of BioDiversity.

But it is this very all encompassing nature of BioDiversity which equally makes it such a difficult problem to address. Luxury aside, nobody has ever done a full audit of all the BioDiversity issues and the complex relationships which exist within the eco-systems which comprise them. We have ideas about various issues or segments within BioDiversity, but do we really know what the full impact is if a particular species of creature in the Amazon goes extinct due to deforestation or some other intervention of humankind? What happens to the flora and fauna which have established symbiotic relationships of one form or another with the now extinct species? It could lead to significant changes further along the system which we may not even be able to relate to. 

Creating Traceability in something like carbon impact is relatively straight forward. Creating Traceability in complex eco-systems which are still to be understood is an entirely different story. I don't think that I or any of the others around the table today are in any position to fully understand the ramifications of changes to BioDiversity for this very reason. But what we do know is that reducing impact is only a stop gap measure in delaying the inevitable changes which are already beginning to happen around us. We also know that positive impact and considered management of our natural resources is crucial for protecting the permanent and irreversible loss which is happening.

We also know that the Luxury Industry is also a relatively small sector which in itself has minimal impact when compared to many of the other industries around it. But what it can do is galvanize people and drive awareness in a manner which is appealing to a group which may not even buy into luxury. It is an industry which has the resources to not only instigate change but also to create awareness that permeates down and will hopefully have a further reaching impact that within the industry on it's own.

It is for these reasons that our group gathered around that table today, in the hopes of making changes which will be further reaching that we could ever do on our own. Will the big luxury groups, whose involvement is crucial for change to have any significant effect, adopt change? Only time will tell but judging by the people who attended today and the others who have expressed interest in being involved, what I can say is that I am happily optimistic...