• Overview • Principles • Definitions • Policy • Contacts •

UNCTAD launched the BioTrade Initiative in 1996 during the third Conference of the Parties of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD).

Its mission is to stimulate trade and investment in biological resources to further sustainable development in line with the three objectives of the CBD:

• the conservation of biological diversity;
  

• sustainable use of its components; and
  

• fair and equitable sharing of the benefits arising from the utilisation of genetic resources. 

The BioTrade Initiative has established a number of partnerships with national and regional organisations to set up programmes that enhance the capability of developing countries to produce value-added products and services derived from biodiversity, for both domestic and international markets.

The mandate of the BioTrade Initiative comes primarily from UNCTAD's Plan of Action (Bangkok, 2002, and São Paulo, 2004) and from the trade-related aspects of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), specifically Article 10 on sustainable use and Article 11 on incentive measures.

It also responds to the UN Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD), which stresses the urgent need “to provide incentive measures at national, regional and international levels to stimulate the conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity and improve the functioning of their markets by enhancing developing countries' capabilities to compete in emerging markets for biological resources”.

The United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDG) and the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) stress the need to reconcile the goals of environmental sustainability, including biodiversity loss, with developmental needs and the necessities of millions of poor people for natural resources.

The BioTrade Initiative is also called upon by other MEAs, such as the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), and the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands.