The post-2020 global biodiversity framework is set to be adopted in Kunming in 2022, laying down a platform to pursue sustainability transition to attain the 2050 Vision of Living in Harmony with Nature. The development and trade of sustainable biodiversity-based products play a key role in achieving the future goals of the post-2020 global biodiversity framework. It will also ensuring the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity, enhancing livelihoods of communities that depend on these resources and achieving the aim of sustainable consumption and production.
The Southeast Asia region is rich in biodiversity which can be a potential jump-off point for initiatives that consolidate activities and initiatives that produce and market biodiversity-based products and services. This potential can be further enhanced with the implementation of BioTrade, including its Principles and Criteria, to open up new economic and market opportunities in the region.
The goal of the webinar is to raise awareness and understanding of the importance of sustainable trade in biodiversity-based products, and particularly BioTrade in the ASEAN region among the focal agencies of the ASEAN Working Groups (AWG), including the AWG on Nature Conservation and Biodiversity, on Forest Products Development (AWG-FPD) and the ASEAN Coordinating Committee on Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (ACCMSME), and their partners and stakeholders.
This webinar will also serve as a preliminary scoping exercise on current initiatives implemented by government and non-government actors within the ASEAN region. This can then pave the way to examine how BioTrade may be further adapted or integrated in these initiatives within the context of the ASEAN regional policy action.
The event will open with an overview of the importance of trade in biodiversity-based products and services in the ASEAN region, focusing on the ACB experiences. It will be followed by an overview of BioTrade to date: what it is, how it works (introducing the BioTrade Principles and Criteria), and some case studies and tools available. The webinar will move into practical BioTrade examples from the Mekong region from Helvetas and present the online BioTrade-self-assessment tool for companies and projects to assess their practices against sustainability criteria.
This webinar is organised as part of the Global BioTrade Programme “Linking trade, biodiversity and sustainable development” with the financial support of the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs SECO. This is also being supported by the ASEAN Centre for Biodiversity (ACB), United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), and Helvetas.
We welcome ASEAN Working Groups (AWGs) – Nature Conservation and Biodiversity (AWGNCB); Forest Products Development (AWG-FPD); and ASEAN Coordinating Committee on Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (ACCMSME), Policy makers, Practitioners working on trade and biodiversity to join the webinar virtually.