The Nature Pledge: Biodiversity and Sustainability in Asia and the Pacific

In this episode of The Nature Pledge podcast, we talk about the need to pivot from the "doom narrative" that often dominates our discussion on nature loss, to a more constructive view that sees also the business and finance opportunity.

"Less doom, and more boom" is one way of putting it. And indeed, that phrase belongs to our guest, Andrew Mitchell, who has spent more than two decades trying to get nature onto the balance sheets of banks, asset managers, finance ministries and businesses.

Join us for an illuminating discussion!

In this episode of The Nature Pledge podcast, we speak to Syed Mohazri, IPBES Coordinating Author, and former Chair of the Malaysia Platform for Business and Biodiversity.

Peering through a Southeast Asian lens, Syed offers his insights into this year’s IPBES Business and Biodiversity Assessment, the landmark global scientific study evaluating how corporate operations depend on and impact natural ecosystems.

He offers frank, sometimes controversial but always constructive views on a range of Business and Biodiversity issues including on nature-finance, nature-related financial disclosures, and business engagement in NBSAPs.

In this episode of the Nature Pledge Podcast, we sit down with Professor Ryo Kohsaka of the University of Tokyo, a lead coordinating author of IPBES's first-ever global assessment on business and biodiversity. Together, we unpack what the report means for Asia-Pacific.

The IPBES Assessment's message is simple: every business, in every sector, depends on and impacts biodiversity — and the knowledge to act already exists. The harder question is why action still lags in Asia Pacific?

Professor Kohsaka explains that the region is fundamentally different from other regions with Asia's "working landscapes" of paddy fields and secondary forests. that don't fit a one-size-fits-all global methodology. He explains too, why Japan is a leading adopter of nature-related financial disclosures in the region and globally.

Over the past two decades, Cambodia’s economic transition to lower-middle-income status has come at a steep environmental cost—including the loss of a massive share of its humid primary forests.

In this two-part episode, we explore the contrasting priorities of Cambodia’s policy makers and Indigenous Peoples. Where do goals overlap and where are they still misaligned?

Ken Bopreang, Director of Biodiversity at Cambodia's Ministry of Environment, outlines the state's vision including a massive reforestation effort and new inter-ministerial working groups.

Mane Yun, Executive Director of the Cambodia Indigenous Peoples Organization (CIPO), shares the perspective of an indigenous community facing legal challenges for exercising traditional land use patterns.

In this episode, we also discuss how multilateral actors and bilateral donors can better serve the needs of Indigenous Peoples.

In 2022, the UN General Assembly recognized the human right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment (RHE), the same year the world agreed the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework.

In this episode, we speak to Astrid Puentes Riaño, UN Special Rapporteur on the human right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment, and discuss the nexus of human rights and nature loss.

Has the RHE accelerated action on nature loss, and if so, how? Importantly, how has her work been received by policy makers and business and finance leaders in the countries she visits? And what do we make of the contradictions and complementarities between the rights of nature and human rights?

Rangelands cover 54% of our earth’s terrestrial surface and sustain around 500 million pastoralists world-wide, yet they receive a fraction of the attention they deserve and require.

In this episode of The Nature Pledge podcast, we dive headfirst into the misunderstandings and controversies surrounding rangelands and the pastoralists that call these vital landscapes their home.  Natasha Kirit Maru, Global Lead for Rangelands and Pastoralists at the International Land Coalition, challenges us to better understand topics like overgrazing and the sometimes-contentious relationship with conservation and climate mitigation efforts.

With up to 50% of global rangelands degraded, Natasha also highlights progress made, and the urgency of the upcoming UNCCD COP 17 in Mongolia. The year 2026, is also designated the International Year of Rangelands and Pastoralists.

Tune in to discover why protecting rangelands is a crucial factor in preventing biodiversity loss and driving sustainable development.

In this episode of The Nature Pledge podcast, we dive into the upcoming flagship report from UNDP, the 2026 Human Development Report (HDR), with Pedro Conceição, the Director of the Human Development Report Office. Together we explore what might result if business and society invested in a more constructive, mutually beneficial relationship between people and nature.

UNDP’s flagship report aims to shift our global dialoguetoward “constructive agency” to promote a reconnection between people and the planet. But just how feasible is this? And are we asking too much from business and society in this time of armed conflict and economic uncertainty?

Today, the degradation of our ecosystems is increasingly recognized as an economic, public health and national security priority. A recent security assessment by the British government has explored how environmental degradation can disrupt food, water, health and supply chains, and trigger wider geopolitical instability. A recently released assessment by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystems or IPBES outlines how economies are being undermined by the rapid deterioration of natural capital.

How can these new understandings intensify nature performance in Asia and the Pacific Region? Helping us to clarify the challenge and the solutions, we speak to the UK's FCDO Regional Director on Climate, Nature and Energy, and the Regional Director on Health.

For decades, work on nature has been the domain of conservationists, ecologists and development agencies. Yet, today, the degradation of our ecosystems is increasingly recognized as an economic, public health and national security priority.

A recent national security assessment by the British government outlines how environmental degradation may disrupt food, water, health and supply chains, and trigger wider geopolitical instability. A recently released assessment by IPBES details how economies are being undermined by the rapid deterioration of natural capital.

But what impact will nature loss in Asia and the Pacific have on a country half way across the world? In this episode of the Nature Pledge, we speak to the UK's FCDO on the growing awareness of the multidimensional threat posed by nature loss in SE Asia, and what the UK and its partners in the region are doing about it.

In this episode of The Nature Pledge, we consider the power of corporate benchmarking in nudging us towards a nature positive economy. Benchmarking the biodiversity performance of large enterprises can help us understand progress and incentivize further action. And as importantly, corporate rankings and indexes can tell us a great deal about how further there is left to go in mitigating the drivers of biodiversity loss.

Recently, the World Benchmarking Alliance – or WBA – released its 2026 Nature Benchmark report. Perhaps, unsurprisingly, WBA’s 2026 assessment of the world's most influential companies produced some rather alarming results: Only 14% of companies in their overall survey reported on their nature impacts. Of these, the global average score for the quality of their nature reporting was a paltry 17.3 out of 100.

What accounts for these failing grades? And how do we shrink the vast distance between corporate reporting, action and the global biodiversity goals?

Listen in to our latest episode to find out!