News

The pandemic has posed challenges but also created opportunities for workers and businesses producing and selling biodiversity-based goods and services.

By Kweku Attafuah-Wadee, Lalen Lleander and Henrique Pacini, UNCTAD Economists

As multilateralism fails to provide many developing countries with the tools they need to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic, regional cooperation offers hope to building back better.

Unsustainable trade is behind the biodiversity crisis threatening our existence. But done sustainably, international commerce can help protect our planet’s precious resources.

The sustainable use and trade of indigenous plants has created valuable economic opportunities for 2,500 Namibian women and their communities.

Guidelines to help governments, companies and consumers benefit from sustainable trade in precious plants and animals now include elements such as climate resilience and marine biodiversity.

A new call to action urges countries to make BioTrade a lever for recovery and resilience in the wake of the pandemic.

The project is a point of convergence for conservation and sustainable use of marine resources, and a driver for a blue and green recovery from COVID-19.

UNCTAD and the WHO have teamed up to respond to the urgent call to boost local production of essential medicines in developing countries.

Written by James Zhan, Director, Division on Investment and Enterprise, and Christoph Spennemann, Chief, Intellectual Property Unit, UNCTAD