Background

Voluntary Sustainability Standards (VSS) are norms and standards that are used to ensure that a product is harvested, produced, processed or transported in accordance with certain sustainability metrics, such as environmental impact, basic human rights, labour standards and gender equality. With VSS increasingly being referenced in trade agreements to foster sustainable development and good governance, they serve as an effective tool to provide incentives for governments and companies to adopt sustainable practices.

The roundtables aim to assess the current landscape of VSS in relation to biodiversity conservation and sustainable trade, examining their role in addressing biodiversity loss which is accelerating at a record pace across marine, wetland, grassland and forest ecosystems.

The series of roundtables is co-organized under the BioTrade Initiative of UNCTAD and the United Nations Forum on Sustainability Standards (UNFSS), KU Leuven, with support from the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) under the Global BioTrade Programme, "Linking trade, biodiversity and sustainable development."

Objectives

• Map and understand current VSS approaches to biodiversity conservation
• Assess possibilities and limitations of VSS in biodiversity conservation
• Examine implementation challenges for low-income countries and SMEs
• Analyze relationships with existing frameworks (GBF, SDGs)
• Explore harmonization with emerging regulations
• Identify knowledge gaps for future UNCTAD activities

What will take place?

The event consists of three online roundtables:

• 3–5 pm, 7 January 2025. Roundtable 1: VSS and practitioners’ perspectives
• 3–5 pm, 8 January 2025. Roundtable 2: Academic research and knowledge experts’ discussion
• 3–4:30 pm, 10 January 2025. Roundtable 3: Joint discussion on future research agenda

All sessions will be conducted in English via Microsoft Teams.

Target audience

• VSS organizations and standard-setting bodies
• Academic researchers and experts
• Government representatives
• International organizations
• NGOs and development agencies
• Private sector stakeholders
• Certification bodies and auditors