Case Studies

Many species of animal have become extinct in the past century, sadly. Somewhat less well-known, however, is that a large number of plant species have also been lost forever. Plants sustain all life on earth yet up to two-thirds of the world's plant species are currently under threat of extinction. Botanic Gardens Conservation International (BGCI) works to help preserve plant species as well as to raise awareness of the plight that these species face. Through the Investing in Nature partnership, HSBC helped BGCI to achieve some of its goals.

With HSBC's support, BGCI developed the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation and got this signed by 187 governments. This has made BGCI an internationally-recognised authority on plant conservation and has radically changed the way that policy decisions are made around international biodiversity issues.

In addition, HSBC funded BGCI to work specifically with botanic gardens and education centres around the world. This helped to increase conservation and education staff and facilities and enabled individual centres to raise awareness of the importance of diverse plant species and the ways in which individuals can help.

Click on the links below to read about projects on which HSBC and BGCI collaborated:

• Environmental Education in Canada
• São Paulo Botanic Garden

To find out more about BGCI, visit their website.

HSBC and Earthwatch wanted to reach and involve people who had not considered their own environmental impacts. To do this, HSBC enabled 2,000 of its employees to join over 100 field research projects.

Earthwatch engages people worldwide in environmental issues by offering them the opportunity to take part in research projects. This allows participants to see the problems first hand and what is being done to solve them. It also provides much-needed labour to the projects themselves. The data that was collected by HSBC Earthwatch fellows would have taken one scientist over a century to complete. They helped to protect land and conserve and discover species.

In addition to becoming involved and more aware of the issues, half of the fellows also engaged their wider community upon returning home. An HSBC grant allowed fellows to undertake a community environment initiative, reaching an additional 11,000 people.

As well as involving volunteers in the research process, HSBC also enabled over 200 scientists to receive field research training.

Click on the links below to read about a few of the projects on which HSBC and Earthwatch collaborated:

• Wechiau Hippo Sanctuary
• Impacto Verde
• Asian Conservation Training Programme
• Indian Water Harvesting

To find out more about Earthwatch, visit their website.

Freshwater is one of the most critical environmental issues – over 1.2 billion of the world's poorest people do not have access to safe drinking water. If current trends continue, nearly 50% of the world's projected population will live in water-stressed river basins by 2025.

Under the Investing in Nature programme, WWF joined with HSBC in 2002 to address the long-term sustainability of the planet's natural resources, specifically freshwater systems in Brazil, China, Mexico and the UK. The two main goals were:

• To achieve significant freshwater conservation in four priority regions around the world;
• To help make HSBC's core business more sustainable, through setting standards to ensure best practice environmental and social responsibility in lending and asset management.

These aims catered both to WWF's long-term conservation goals and to HSBC's immediate concerns of creating a sustainable business. Over the five years, WWF and Investing in Nature saw many successes in this area and significant progress in policy decisions:

• Globally, 2.2 million hectares (5.4 million acres) of river basin habitat were protected, managed or restored;
• In China, wetland restoration has resulted in 285 million cubic metres (10 billion cubic feet) of flood storage capacity, protecting over eight million people;
• The Chinese government established the Yangtze River Basin Forum to start managing the whole river basin in a sustainable manner;
• Brazil became the first Latin American country to base its ten-year National Water Resources Plan on an integrated ecosystem approach;
• The UK government adopted new European Union water legislation which satisfied WWF's criteria for good management of river basins.

Click on the links below to read about a few of the projects on which HSBC and WWF collaborated:

• Water for Life

• Potteric Carr Nature Reserve

To find out more about WWF and its global work, click here.