The European Commission (2003) defines an SME in two parts, the first part dealing with the term ‘Enterprise’, the second with the terms ‘Small and Medium’ :

1. “An enterprise is considered to be any entity engaged in an economic activity, irrespective of its legal form. This includes, in particular, self employed persons and family businesses engaged in craft or other activities, and partnerships or associations regularly engaged in an economic activity”.

2. and then ….. “micro, small and medium-sized enterprises employ fewer than 250 persons and have an annual turnover not exceeding €50 million, and/or an annual balance sheet total not exceeding €43 million.

It is worth noting that within the SME definition, ‘micro’ and ‘small’ enterprises all have separate definitions. So, a ‘small’ enterprise employs fewer than 50 persons and have an annual turnover and/or balance sheet total which does not exceed €10 million. A ‘micro’ enterprise employs fewer than 10 people and have an annual turnover and/or balance sheet total which does not exceed €10 million

 EU web pages on A guide to SME policy

SMEs are an integral part of Europe's economy and it is therefore vital that they play their part in making the European economy more sustainable. The EU's 23 million such companies represent about 99 percent of all businesses and nearly 60 percent of the total economy value.

According to the European Commission (2003), within the group of SMEs, the vast majority (over 90 %) are micro enterprises, employing fewer than 10 persons. Approximately half of these micro enterprises have no employees at all, thus only providing employment and income to self-employed and family workers; this amounts to roughly nine million enterprises. On average, a European enterprise provides a job for seven persons; this measure of enterprise size varies between three in micro enterprises. So, the typical European enterprise is a micro enterprise.

The role of SMEs in exporting is less than that of their larger counterparts. European enterprises export an average of 17 % of turnover. Micro enterprises export the lowest share of turnover, 9 %, while LSE's export the greatest, 23 %. This pattern is apparent in all sectors of industry and all countries, and indicates that most small enterprises serve only limited local and regional markets.

  CORDIS web pages on SMEs and innovation
  EU web pages on Promoting SMEs and entrepreneurship
  EC document on 2003/7 Observatory of European SMEs

The definition of a Pro-Biodiversity Business (PBB) (or Pro-Biodiversity Enterprise- PBE), as defined by Dickson et al (2007), is as follows: 

“A Pro-Biodiversity SME is dependent on biodiversity for its core business and contributes to biodiversity conservation through that core business.”

PBBs cover three axis of engagement: conservation of biodiversity through the long-term sustainable use of biological resources, positive commercial returns on investments, and social, employment and cohesion benefits arising from the use of biological resources. Basically, a PBB strives to generate positive financial and biodiversity returns. Companies active in the sectors that most impact on biodiversity are mostly micro, small and medium-sized enterprises. The latter constitute over 99% of all economic activity in the EU25 and even more so in the EECCA countries.

  Dickson et al document on The working partnership- SMEs and biodiversity

It is thought that to conserve the Natura 2000 network for the EU 25, a further €6.1 billion per year is needed. A number of solutions therefore have to be found for financing the management of the European natural heritage which do not depend only on public sources and public institutions. There are genuine commercially viable opportunities for SMEs in the integrated European market economy, which necessitates searching for solutions that employ market mechanisms that work for the sustainable management (use) of natural resources.

Many Pro-Biodiversity Businesses, particular those in the primary sector (for example, agriculture, forestry and fisheries), make a contribution to the conservation of biodiversity in the particular sites that they operate in, whilst others do not make a contribution at a particular site but do so more generally through educational or awareness-raising activities (for example, through ecotourism). Within Natura 2000 sites, most Pro-Biodiversity Businesses belong to the Agriculture, Forestry/wood processing/non-timber forest products, Fisheries/aquaculture, production of pharmaceutical products, tourism and hunting sectors.

The BTAU project focuses on those areas of nature that have been recognised as high value and that are included in the Natura 2000 network, these include the large majority of Important Bird Areas (IBAs) as defined under the Habitats and Birds Directives. 



 Business and Biodiversity EU policy web pages
 The EU DG Research project on Pro-Biodiversity Enterprise (Probioprise) web pages