Joint CSO Submission EIB Standard on Biodiversity & Ecosystem Services

As part of the public consultation on the review of the European Investment Bank's Environmental and Social Sustainability Framework (ESSF), 10 civil society organisations sent a joint submission on the Bank's draft standard 4 on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services.

The submission provide an overview of the main issues identified with the draft, together with concrete suggestions for the EIB to improve its approach to environmental protection.

The organisations for instance ask the EIB to include no-go zones in its policy, following the categories outlined at: http://banksandbiodiversity.org/.

The Bank also needs to better take into account the interrelationships between biodiversity and vulnerable social groups, particularly women and indigenous peoples. That there is hardly any engagement with the gender dimensions of biodiversity conservation is a major gap in the standard as written.

Read the full submission here: