Second meeting of the Informal Working Group on trade and biodiversity statistics

Background

UNCTAD has been at the forefront for turning trade into a driver for biodiversity conservation and generating sustainable livelihoods by developing relevant tools and providing guidance and technical assistance.

To achieve the above objective requires the promotion of effective management and trade of biodiversity-based products and services supported by reliable information and data. In this regard UNCTAD’s BioTrade Initiative and Statistics Service developed the pioneer Trade and Biodiversity statistical tool (TraBio), which contains information on global trade flows of biodiversity-based products, provides open access to a database on trade flows in these products and related indicators, and offers a visualisation tool.

With the aim of further improving collection of data on the commercialization and trade of biodiversity-based products and its socio-economic and environmental impact, the Informal Working Group on Trade and Biodiversity Statistics was convened.

Additionally, an Informal lunch event on trade and biodiversity statistics was organized to kick-start the discussion on 17 October 2023 at the margins of the Twentieth session of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe’s Joint Task Force on Environmental Statistics Indicators. At the lunch event, experts discussed priorities and other relevant initiatives/events on biodiversity and trade statistics and considered the findings of a survey conducted to identify relevant gaps and opportunities.

The first meeting of the Informal Working Group on Trade and Biodiversity Statistics took place on 23 November 2023.  Members of the Informal Working Group shared information on existing trade and non-trade related databases and their linkages to biodiversity issues based on an initial mapping of databases prepared by UNCTAD.

This second meeting is organized 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.

Objectives

The second meeting of the Informal Working Group of Experts on Trade and Biodiversity Statistics aims to:

• Identify a common understanding of what “Trade and Biodiversity statistics” covers, by discussing what could / should usefully be within the scope of the concept and work moving forward.
• Identify alignments in the scope of and definitions used by the mapped existing initiatives and further assess how the existing initiatives – on their own and collectively – match the general common understanding of “Trade and Biodiversity statistics” (above) moving forward.
• The output of the meeting will be an initial identification of the “universe” of Trade and Biodiversity Statistics moving forward, including the statistical initiatives and databases that are considered being part of this universe. This will help make progress on finding bridges between different existing databases by increasing understanding on the scope and definitions they use. It will also lay the groundwork for the following two meetings of the Working Group scheduled to take place later this year.

Target audience

Members of the Informal Working Group of Experts on Trade and Biodiversity Statistics.

Membership to this Informal Working Group is open to all demonstrating expertise and interest in biodiversity, statistics and trade from developed and developing countries. It aims to ensure broad participation with balanced geographic and gender representation. Participants will have experience on the topic being discussed and agree with the Terms of Reference of the Informal Working Group. If interested in joining or other related query, kindly send an email to biotrade@un.org with the Subject: Informal Working Group of Experts on Trade and Biodiversity Statistics.

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