The time has come to better frame business engagement towards the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity. Our experience, over the years, in the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) BioTrade Initiative shows that these goals can and should be mutually supportive. We have worked closely with the CBD and other biodiversity-related convention secretariats to share experiences and create synergies on business engagement, notably through a series of events organised with the business community dealing with cosmetics, functional foods, and endangered species.
Cosmetics and functional foods In May, UNCTAD and the International Finance Corporation (IFC) held a forum in Geneva on business engagement in the cosmetics and functional food industries. Business representatives noted that consumers are showing growing interest in natural health products. Consumers increasingly value ethical business practices and are interested in novel products. However, biodiversity still remains a relatively unknown concept for business and difficult to communicate with the public at large. It will therefore be some time before there is widespread consumer demand for biodiversity-friendly (and pro-poor) products as such. It was clear that biodiversity conservation and sustainable use are on a trend to become important aspects for markets, and that such market segments will become increasingly lucrative for products that follow the BioTrade Principles and Criteria We now need to find ways to work even closer with business to see how we can encourage the up-take of these principles, which closely follow the CBD objectives.
During the UNCTAD/IFC forum, businesses also provided their views on the role that national governments, through their CBD Focal Points, could play in search of business engagement. It was noted that few companies are actually familiar with the CBD and that awareness-raising efforts by national focal points need to be stepped up. Examples taken from developed countries showed that, at least for the cosmetics and food industries, national focal points are typically not very active in pursuing business engagement. Most governmental efforts in these countries appear to be focused on other sectors, big business, or activities that affect their domestic biodiversity, and mostly follow philanthropic or assistance models rather than investment-oriented approaches. Small and medium-sized enterprises involved in cross-border BioTrade are normally not considered.
This is an interesting outcome. Historically, UNCTAD BioTrade has worked primarily with Focal Points in developing (exporting) countries, but now we will also start to explore ways to collaborate much more with Focal Points in developed (importing) countries. We hope to be able to test this approach with a few countries before COP-9 and report back on this at the COP and through future issues of Business.2010.
Finally, several forum participants recommended that the recently created Union for Ethical Bio Trade (UEBT) could become a vehicle for facilitating business engagement in the CBD in the area of natural products. As reported here previously, this membership-based association brings together organizations from different industries around the globe that are working in the field of native biodiversity This platform was just created this year, and I hope it can play a leading role in business engagement from both developed and developing countries in this sector.
Endangered species In June, during CITES CoP 14 in The Hague, UNCTAD and the secretariats of CBD and CITES organised an exchange meeting with business groups. The importance of income generation for local communities was stressed when Uganda’s Minister of State for Tourism, Wildlife and Antiquities, the Honourable Serapio Rukundo stated “We are in government to create income and job opportunities for local communities” and emphasised the importance of growth led by small and medium-sized enterprises with support from the public sector to reduce poverty and generate sustainable incomes to improve living conditions.
It became clear, however, that the perceived role of business in the context of CITES is very different than that in the CBD. Representatives of some economic sectors explained, for example, that they view CITES as more of a threat than an opportunity for businesses that are truly engaged in sustainable use practices. Some of the business representatives argued that not only did their trade improve local livelihoods, but that regulated trade was more effective in achieving conservation objectives than outright bans, especially as illegal trade often accompanied such bans. Despite this, they believe there is a general tendency among many NGOs that follow the CITES process to prefer the prohibition of trade in wildlife species over their sustainable use. We do not think this should be seen as an either-or policy option. Based on our experience with the UNCTAD BioTrade Initiative, there is real benefit in providing policy space to make trade and sustainable use and conservation of biodiversity mutually supportive policy options.
It is evident that in the CITES community more effort is still needed to demonstrate how business can contribute to the implementation of CITES and local sustainable development. Also, the business community should be more pro-active in looking for solutions, for example by adopting voluntary measures such as codes of conduct or certification.
Merging conservation and business plans The CBD Focal point for business was also present and explained the approach of the Convention towards business engagement. Business representatives noted that provisions found in the CBD seemed more conducive to pro-active business engagement than provisions found within CITES. It would seem to me that much could be gained from having both secretariats continue to liaise on business engagement. In light of the outcome of this meeting, UNCTAD BioTrade will certainly try to facilitate the creation of a platform for regular communication between the CITES secretariat, traders and other business groups. We will also see how this can be linked to ongoing processes within the CBD.
Overall, there is reason to feel optimistic about the future of increased business involvement in biodiversity-related issues. New private and public sector initiatives seem to blossom every day. With adequate support from all interested stakeholders and an effort to exchange best practices through the CBD and other fora, at the next CBD COP, we may see a stronger business commitment to integrating biodiversity considerations into individual business plans.
Lucas Assunção (
lucas.assuncao@unctad.org) is Chief of Section, Biodiversity and Climate Change,
United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).
(1) For meeting reports and additional information on BioTrade, see
www.biotrade.org (2)
The Union for Ethical Biotrade