Expenditures on biodiversity should be treated as investment as these expenditures will pay back in future, Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) executive secretary Braulio Ferreira De Souza Dias said.

Speaking at the United Nations' eleventh meeting of the Conference of the parties (COP-11) to the CBD in Hyderabad, Braulio admitted that countries are now facing financial crisis, but added that crisis time provides the best opportunity to make real changes in the way of doing business.

Speaking on the topic, Braulio said, "Expenditures on biodiversity should not be seeing as costs - they should be seen as investments that will pay back with significant environmental, social and economic benefits for all our societies."

India's Environment Minister Jayanthi Natarajan also said that the resources allocated towards biodiversity should be looked at as an investment because it would reap benefits for future generations.

She added that the ongoing economic crisis shouldn't discourage countries from investing more towards ensuring uninterrupted bionetwork services, on which all life depends.

Jayanthi Natarajan has assumed charge as president of Conference of the parties (COP-11) to the CBD for the next two years.

The ongoing COP meeting is going to one of the largest biodiversity gatherings ever held in the world as more than 14,400 participants are from around 173 countries are expected to attend it.