Background information: Many developing countries are endowed with rich and highly diverse biological resources. Although those resources have the potential to become an important tool for sustainable development and poverty reduction, they are often "mined" to generate short-term economic benefits, instead of being "managed" to achieve long-term development.In accordance with the objectives of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), UNCTAD´s BIOTRADE Initiative is developing programmes that enhance the capability of developing countries to seize those opportunities by promoting the sustainable production of biodiversity products and their commercialization in national and international markets. The main beneficiaries of these programmes are small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and associations of smallholder producers with product groups ranging from natural products (such as fruits and nuts and various ingredients for cosmetics, pharmaceuticals and food products) to services (such as ecotourism).

Purpose: On the occasion of UNCTAD XI, the BIOTRADE Initiative would like to convoke all relevant stakeholders to a high-level meeting in order to share its successful experiences with meeting the above-mentioned challenges. More specifically, the purpose of the event is to:

• Share experiences gained with partnerships and private-sector involvement in trade and sustainable use of biodiversity, with examples of concrete results;
• Increase awareness of the potential biodiversity holds for development and poverty reduction;
• Obtain new ideas and inputs for national and international policies and strategies related to trade and biodiversity; and
• Take stock of ongoing partnerships and announce new partnerships that promote biotrade.

Expected outcome: The event is expected to:

• Attract interest from new potential partners in order to enable the BIOTRADE programme to expand to other regions.
• Launch new partnerships.

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