African Technical Workshop on the Impact Assessment System for BioTrade
6- 7 November, 2008
Johannesburg, South Africa

As BioTrade/UNCTAD activities are being implemented worldwide, there is a constant need to define and measure its contribution to sustainable development and the conservation/sustainable use of biodiversity in a harmonized and structured manner, thus the development of the BioTrade Impact Assessment System (BT IAS) to address this need.
In 2006, UNCTAD commissioned a consultant to develop an Impact Assessment System for BioTrade. Several consultations took place in South America with BioTrade programmes, certification agencies, government representatives, cooperation agencies and experts. During these consultations, the process and method to define the main elements of the system and the definition of the basic tools to identify, collect and analyze the data that will be included were adjusted and validated based on the feedback received.
In order to continue with consultations to further develop the system, particularly in Africa, a technical workshop was organized in Johannesburg, Republic of South Africa, on 6 and 7 November, 2008. It provided a platform to discuss the indicators and guidelines suggested for the BT IAS as well as receive valuable inputs from our BioTrade partners on how best to proceed in defining possible next steps for its implementation and testing

Santa Cruz, Bolivia 5 - 7 June 2008

The first International BioTrade Fair – BIOEXPO 08 – was held on 5-7 June 2008 in Santa Cruz, Bolivia. It was organized by the Sustainable BioTrade Programme in Bolivia, the National Biotrade Chamber - Bionativa and the Ministry of Rural Agriculture Development and Environment. The Fair brought together more than 250 representatives of private companies, producers' associations, academia, certification agencies, government ministries and international cooperation institutions from Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru.

The Fair was organized to strengthen and contribute to the positioning of BioTrade sectors in the domestic and regional markets, create opportunities to establish commercial and financial ties between participants, promote products, share experiences and develop common strategies. Participants were able to exhibit their products and benefit from business-round tables as well as specialized round tables in exchanging experiences and lessons learned. Topics addressed included: Market access to European markets, E-commerce, Sustainable businesses, Access and benefit sharing, among others.

The Fair was supported by SECO/Switzerland, UNCTAD, DGIS/The Netherlands, SGCAN, ACTO, CAINCO, Fundación PUMA and Care.

BioTrade at nine session of the Conference of the Parties (COP9) of the CBD

The BioTrade Initiative of UNCTAD actively participated at COP 9 of the CBD that was held in Bonn in May, 2008. Additionally, the work carried out by BioTrade was recognized and supported in two COP9 Decisions, namely IX/6 Incentive Measures and IX/26 Promoting Business Engagement.

During this COP, BioTrade and its partners organized several events on a wide range of topics being Greening Trade for Biodiversity; The Amazon Regional Program; Private sector engagement in the Cosmetic sector; and Implementation of the Regional Biodiversity Strategy of the Andean Community. Additionally the Andean & Amazonia Showroom was presented, recreating these rich ecosystems and displaying some of the products supported. More...

BIOTRADE: Making Trade Work for Biodiversity Sustainable Use

During the twelfth session of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, held in Accra, Ghana from 20 to 25 April 2008, the BioTrade Initiative of UNCTAD launched the second phase of the BioTrade Facilitation Programme (BTFP II), which helps developing countries benefit from the sustainable use of their biodiversity.

BioTrade has created platforms where stakeholders have successfully engaged and, as a result, it is increasingly seen as an important component in development cooperation. Nevertheless, the complex and evolving legal and policy environment could negatively impact conservation efforts through the sustainable use of biodiversity, unless BioTrade is adequately recognized. For more information, please review UNCTAD Press Release.

At the Conference, the 194 Member States of UNCTAD reinforced the mandate of the BioTrade Initiative and instructed it to continue its support for the creation of an enabling policy environment to foster private sector engagement.

In addition, Member States recognized that "the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity provide opportunities in trade, investment and development for developing countries. Strategies to facilitate trade in products and services related to biodiversity should be considered, as appropriate, to promote trade and sustainable development" (For more information, please review the document TD/L.414, paragraphs 59, 84, 85 and 102).

New Publications:

Guidelines for the Development and Implementation of Management Plans for Wild-collected Plant Species used by Organizations Working with Natural Ingredients. English Spanish

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