Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: Biomimicry—the practice of emulating nature’s time-tested patterns and strategies—has generated transformative innovations across multiple sectors, while the biodiversity crisis is accelerating. This paradox reveals an innovation debt to nature: humanity increasingly benefits from ecosystems’ intellectual capital, while ongoing ecological degradation erodes the very knowledge base upon which future innovations depend. Grounded in the semiconducting principle—which permits environmental value to generate monetary gains while rejecting the use of monetary gains to offset or compensate for environmental degradation—this perspective proposes a profit-sharing mechanism designed to redirect socio-economic systems toward activities aligned with ecological thresholds and long-term sustainability. Specifically, the proposed mechanism channels a portion of revenues or profits derived from biomimicry-based innovations toward conservation and restoration activities, thereby helping address the biodiversity finance gap and fostering an eco-surplus culture in which business success and ecological regeneration mutually reinforce one another. In doing so, it creates a positive feedback loop: the more humanity innovates through nature, the more it contributes to sustaining and regenerating it.
Source: Journal for Nature Conservation
Institutions: Korea University, Phenikaa University
Language: English
Subfield: Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law
Field: Environmental Science
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
Estimated APC paid: $2,890
OpenAlex ID: W7214489856