The CBD and development of UNCTAD’s BioTrade Programme
International efforts to promote sustainable development and biodiversity conservation.
In 1992, world leaders gathered for the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. During the Summit, the international community adopted Agenda 21, an unprecedented global plan of action for sustainable development. Following this, the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) was signed by 150 government leaders at the event, conceived as a practical tool for translating the principles of Agenda 21 into reality, and dedicated to promoting conservation and sustainable development.
In response, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) launched the BioTrade Initiative in 1996 to support sustainable development through trade and investment in biodiversity. The BioTrade activities are framed within the global conservation and development objectives established by the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) and the Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD).
Particularly the CBD has highlighted the important role the private sector plays in achieving these development objectives (see Decision VIII/17 of the CBD-COP8 on private-sector engagement).
UNCTAD BioTrade
Established in 1964, UNCTAD promotes the development-friendly integration of developing countries into the world economy. In 1996, UNCTAD began to support developing countries to take better advantage of their biodiversity, considering that sustainable use of biodiversity is fundamental for long-term sustainable development of developing countries. These countries face the great challenge of combining poverty alleviation and economic growth with sustainable use and conservation of biodiversity. Trade of products and services derived from biodiversity could be part of the solution to this problem.
To this end, UNCTAD created the BioTrade Initiative. BioTrade is defined as those activities of collection/production, transformation, and commercialisation of goods and services derived from native biodiversity (genetic resources, species and ecosystems), under criteria of environmental, social and economic sustainability. Together with developing country actors, UNCTAD elaborated guiding principles and criteria for BioTrade that now form the basis of the Union’s verification framework.
UNCTAD, together with a wide range of national and international organisations, also promotes national and international regulatory and policy frameworks that enable BioTrade. In various regions work has been initiated to create a supply base capable of producing competitive, innovative and sustainable products derived from biodiversity. Improved market access and uptake of BioTrade products was considered to be of crucial importance, strongly upholding the belief that national and international trade can offer developing countries a road to development.