She conveyed the statement in her speech at the 2017 Biofin Day event in Bangkok recently.

“It is not just the responsibility of the public sector. Producers and consumers and also the private sector directly or indirectly benefit from biodiversity and should consider investment in protecting and restoring biodiversity resources,” she said.

The Princess also endorsed the Biodiversity Finance Initiative (Biofin) and called on Thais to recognise the importance of biodiversity financing.

“I am pleased to learn about what Biofin is trying to achieve … Biofin provides the framework to analyse the policy, institutional and legal context as well as socioeconomic drivers. It is understood that huge funds are needed to make the preservation of biodiversity resources possible,” the Princess said.

Thailand is recognised as a country with abundant biodiversity resources, which are sources of livelihood and economic growth for the country. An estimated 8 per cent of plant species and 10 per cent of coral species worldwide are found here.

The country houses about 141 species of indigenous vegetables and 1,500 herbal plant species, which are now used in the manufacturing of traditional Thai medicine. Unfortunately however, the country has generated revenue at the expense of its resources.

The three-day Biofin Day celebration that ended on Monday was part of a global partnership addressing the biodiversity finance challenge, in which Thailand is one of 30 countries taking part. Managed by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Biofin provides an innovative methodology enabling countries to measure their current biodiversity expenditures and assess their finance solutions to bridge their national biodiversity finance gaps.

The celebration, cohosted by UNDP, the Royal Plant Genetic Conservation Project, the National Economic and Social Development Board, the Office of Natural Resources and Environmental Planning and Policy, aimed to raise public awareness about biodiversity loss and the critical need to raise and manage finances for biodiversity and ecosystem conservation in Thailand and across the globe.

According to Onno Van den Heuvel, manager of Global Biofin, who also attended the event, investment by the private sector in biodiversity worldwide has risen strongly in the past 10 years. The most notable, said den Heuvel, was organic farming and certified forestry with global investments approaching the US$10billion (Bt344.7billion) mark.

“What this means is the private sector is widely embracing the sustainable development concept, and the role of a programme like Biofin is to facilitate a national dialogue about how investment can be diverted to the combined objectives of biodiversity conservation and sustainable development.”

Den Heuvel said Biofin would help Thailand, as well as another 29 countries, develop biodiversity finance plans with a series of prioritised finance solutions.