10 September 2021 
Ashley Shelbrooke, HEPA and Project Specialist
The Ellen MacArthur Foundation have released an interesting study exploring how the circular economy can play a fundamental role in halting and reversing biodiversity loss.
Over 90% of biodiversity loss is due to the extraction and processing of natural resources. To halt and reverse biodiversity loss, we need to fundamentally transform the way we produce, use, and consume our products and food as conservation and restoration efforts alone will not be enough. The circular economy offers a framework for such a transformation: if we eliminate waste and pollution, circulate products and materials, and regenerate nature, biodiversity can thrive. Applied together, these three principles are able to help tackle the root causes of biodiversity loss.
In a circular economy, driven by design, waste and pollution are eliminated so these direct threats to biodiversity are reduced. For example, eliminating unnecessary plastics and re-designing plastic products to have value post-use (for reuse, recycling or composting) means they can circulate in the economy rather than being wasted and polluting the environment.
When products and materials are circulated in the economy, the need for production from virgin materials is reduced. In fashion, for example, business models that keep cotton clothing in use for longer, assuming the purchase of new clothes is displaced, will reduce the amount of land needed to grow cotton. This leaves more space for other uses, including the preservation of wilderness areas.
Economic activity can, and needs to, actively rebuild biodiversity. For example, regenerative agricultural approaches, such as agroecology, agroforestry, and managed grazing, sequester carbon in the soil and improve its health, increase biodiversity in surrounding ecosystems, and enable agricultural lands to remain productive instead of degrading over time, thereby reducing pressure to expand them.
You can download the report in full here.
