Sixth Stakeholders Steering Committee meeting for BioTrade, Day 2

Objective

Under the Global BioTrade programme “Linking trade, biodiversity and sustainable development”, UNCTAD is expanding the scope to other emerging trade and biodiversity-related issues, while ensuring the sustainability of the BioTrade concept and the sharing of experiences and work implemented by different organizations. Thus, the meeting aims to:

• explore additional themes and sectors like agricultural commodities, bioeconomy and oceans, circular bioeconomy and biodiversity finance, as well as new partnerships, and
• provide a space for partners and other organizations to share information and build partnerships in the implementation of BioTrade, including its principles and criteria.

Background

The current Global BioTrade programme “Linking trade, biodiversity and sustainable development” was launched in 2018 with the aim of supporting the achievement of the SDGs and Aichi targets – as well as supporting the recently adopted Kunming-Montreal global biodiversity framework. The programme contributes to unfolding the potential of the BioTrade approach for biodiversity conservation as well as poverty reduction. Currently, the BioTrade Initiative promotes sustainable trade in approximately 100 countries.

In October 2022, SECO and UNCTAD agreed to a 2-year extension of the current phase with focus on BioTrade but also expanding the scope to other emerging trade and biodiversity-related issues. The overall objective of the continued programme is to support key stakeholders to seize and capitalize on trade opportunities while synchronizing and leveraging results from previous phases.

An essential element of the programme has been the Stakeholders Steering Committee (SSC), which has annually brought together BioTrade partners and allowed to jointly explore key issues in sustainable trade and biodiversity while contributing with policy recommendations to the international fora.

Building on the successes of the previous SSCs, the sixth edition of the SSC (6SCC) will represent the transition to the wider conceptualized scope of work which includes new issues and products related to sustainable trade and biodiversity, including exploring additional themes and sectors like agricultural commodities, bioeconomy and oceans, circular bioeconomy and biodiversity finance. Concomitantly, the meeting will also contribute to enhancing the sustainability of the BioTrade concept and its work.

The SSC meetings are organized under the Global BioTrade Programme “Linking trade, biodiversity and sustainable development” with the financial support of the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs SECO.

Participants

BioTrade partners and other trade and biodiversity experts