Opening Plenary
This session will set the stage for the rest of the business forum and will feature speakers from the sessions on Biotrade, Tourism, Commodities, and Global Partnership who will examine how these various aspects can aid businesses in contributing to the fulfillment of the Strategic Plan.
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Parallel Event #1: UNCTAD Biotrade Congress
List of speakers and sessions now available HERE
Since 1996, the BioTrade Initiative (BTI) of UNCTAD has promoted trade and investment in biological resources to further sustainable development in line with the objectives of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), as well as other Multilateral Environmental Agreements. It seeks to integrate economic and business opportunities derived from the use of biodiversity through a value chain development approach. To date, around 20 countries from Asia, Africa and Latin America have been involved with the trade and investment opportunities which the BTI facilitates. These opportunities are a potential source of jobs, incomes, export diversification and rural development for populations, SMEs and multinational organizations engaged in the sector.
The theme of the third BioTrade Congress will be focused on sustainable use and trade of biodiversity-based products and services. The event is expected to be organized into three interactive sessions where government, private sector and civil society representatives would cover the following topics:
- Emerging issues in the implementation of the Nagoya Protocol for BioTrade value chains;
- Market access opportunities and challenges for private sector and governments in accessing sustainable consumption markets; and
- South-south and cross-industry cooperation for supporting the implementation of the Aichi Targets with concrete case studies - in this session, we encourage innovative experiences from other actors working in biodiversity-based businesses (e.g. businesses from Korea)
The Congress is targeted to policy makers and private and civil society stakeholders aiming to support the development of biodiversity-based sectors and capture the business opportunities arising from national and international markets for products developed from natural resources using environmentally and socially responsible practices.
More information on the Biotrade Congress (including registration information) is available at:
http://r0.unctad.org/biotrade/congress/index.htm.
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Parallel Event #2: Workshop on Sustainable Tourism
List of speakers and sessions now available HERE
UNWTO, UNEP and the CBD Secretariat, with the support of the Government of Germany, will cooperate with leading sustainable tourism trade associations, projects, experts and private sector leaders to set up a series of events looking at the contributions of tourism to the achievements of the Strategic Plan and the Aichi targets. This event will examine the operational recommendations being negotiated under COP agenda item 29 (“Cooperation with other conventions, international organizations and stakeholders’ engagement, including business”), as well as the importance of healthy ecosystems and biodiversity to sustainable tourism, through discussions with Parties, the tourism industry, and indigenous and local communities. It will consider the contributions of sustainable tourism to the fulfillment of the Strategic Plan as well as the opportunities that this rapidly growing sector represents for the business community as a whole (both directly and indirectly through supporting industries).
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Parallel Event #3: Discussion on Global Commodity Impact Indicators for Biodiversity
List of speakers and sessions now available HERE
Over the past 30 years, a plethora of voluntary certification programs have sprung up to address the most significant impacts of commodities production through the development of voluntary third-party certified standards for specific items. They generally focus on a single commodity and build consensus about the impacts—what is known, what is agreed on and disagreed on and where we simply do not have enough information. They sponsor research to address data gaps as well as differences of opinion and interpretation. They build awareness, consensus, strategic focus, proof of concept and the business case, and then accelerate change. What is clear is that these standards work—they build consensus, they reduce impacts, they are affordable and actually make producers more efficient, markets accept them, and entire commodity systems can be moved. However, this one by one approach is simply not fast enough. There are hundreds of commodities and there is already some “fatigue” with different certification efforts. There is also a great deal of variability across standards, but little benchmarking and single commodity approaches can miss big issues like cumulative impacts, and multi-cropping systems. The monitoring systems can be quite different and there is also often little learning across the efforts. This discussion is designed to begin a process to create a set of indicators for commodity production that will help to reduce the key impacts of all commodities and achieve viability of supply, while also halting habitat and biodiversity loss and maintaining and even restoring ecosystem functions.
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Parallel Event #4: Status and Updates on the Global Partnership
List of speakers and sessions now available HERE
The establishment of the Global Partnership for Business and Biodiversity stemmed from decisions taken at COP 10 and COP 11, and is a concrete signal by the global community of its increasing understanding that business needs to play a critical role in addressing the serious environmental problems facing us, including the loss of biodiversity. The CBD Secretariat, along with various partners, has been endeavoring to “encourage establishment of the national and regional business and biodiversity initiatives by facilitating a forum of dialogue among Parties and other Governments, business, and other stakeholders, with a particular focus on the global level”. The Global Partnership is essentially a network of networks, linking together various National and Regional Initiatives such that they can share information and best practices, and cooperate on common projects, so as to encourage mainstreaming of biodiversity concerns by companies. The National and Initiatives link together businesses, government and other key stakeholders to encourage information sharing and the facilitation of greater understanding and action by businesses at the national level. To this end, the Global Partnership should be seen as facilitating greater dialogue and cooperation amongst all groups and thus ensuring that the various efforts are as complementary and efficient as possible. This event will give an update on the status of the Global Partnership, noting some recent activities, explain how countries can join the Partnership, and examine how the Partnership can both help to communicate business issues to COP as well as facilitate the mainstreaming of COP decisions by companies. Biodiversity Initiative.
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