News

The trade in sustainable plant and animal products - or "BioTrade" - is growing exponentially, with export values reaching $4.5 billion in 2015 from $40 million in 2003, according to a new UNCTAD report published on Saturday.

Illegal trade is accelerating the extinctions of wild plant species, and more transparent value chains would help tackle this illegal trade, an UNCTAD official said on Friday on the sidelines of the world's largest conference on the wildlife trade.

UNCTAD, Swiss Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO), the General Secretariat of the Andean Community (CAN), the Ministry Environment of Peru (MINAM), the Interamerican Institute for Agriculture Cooperation (IICA) and GIZ joint forces to support a BioTrade friendly implementation of the Nagoya Protocol in the Andean Region.

The revival of nutmeg farming has generated jobs and economic opportunity in the post-conflict Indonesian province of Aceh and is still helping to consolidate peace in the region as much as a decade after the end of the insurgency, says a new UNCTAD study, Sustaining Peacebuilding and Post-Conflict Recovery Through BioTrade.

Vietnamese exporters want importers to be more transparent about the trade measures that affect exports from Viet Nam of sustainable biodiversity-based goods, worth $100 million per year.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, organic farmers and enterprises in Laos have called for the Lao Organic Agriculture Forum to continue beyond 2016, when aid from the United Nations comes to an end.

​Recommendations on rules and procedures for a BioTrade-friendly implementation of the Nagoya Protocol in Viet Nam made at consultations organized by Viet Nam Government and UNCTAD.

UNCTAD held two workshops in Peru last month to look at how the country could use the Nagoya Protocol to ensure it gets a fair share from research and commercial benefits derived from local microorganisms, plants and animals.

Experts discuss the practical implications of the implementation of the Nagoya Protocol and its impact over certain aspects of BioTrade, at a peer review meeting in Geneva on 24 November 2015.

UNCTAD and the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) launched today the 3rd phase of the BioTrade Facilitation Programme (BTFP III).