Helping to removing some of the obstacles to sustainable development

The most important trade and environment problems in least developed countries (LDCs) are: deforestation, desertification, degradation of coastal areas, overfishing, loss of wildlife and other biodiversity resources, land degradation, and the dumping (by other countries) of wastes, environmentally harmful products and obsolete technologies

Many LDCs have already acknowledged the need to integrate environmental considerations into their economic policies and poverty alleviation programmes. Several LDCs have established a National Environmental Management Programme (NEMP) or similar plan to strengthen institutions, monitor and enhance environmental quality, provide environmental education and raise public awareness. Significantly, however, trade-related environmental issues and environment-related trade issues have received little or no explicit mention in such plans.

Some of the issues under consideration in the WTO Committee on Trade and Environment affect the LDCs just as they affect other developing countries. Environmental requirements, for example, may restrict market access for LDC producers in the same way they do for those in relatively more advanced developing countries. LDC producers, however, lack the capacity and flexibility to accommodate such requirements in their production processes. This problem has been exacerbated by the fact that their exports depend on a very limited number of items.

In other instances, trade-related environmental issues pose a special challenge to LDCs. Environmental degradation can reduce their capacity to generate export earnings in the future. The costs of any environmental degradation they may suffer tend to be compounded by their lack of economic diversification.

UNCTAD's Least Developed Countries 1998 Report concludes that "the strengthening of LDCs' capacities for policy analysis and better coordination between trade and environmental policies could help to reduce some of the obstacles to the achievement of sustainable development in LDCs. With that goal in mind, and bearing in mind also the special characteristics of LDCs, special attention should be given to:

• The introduction of effective conservation practices, bearing in mind that they tend to be ineffective unless they are preceded or accompanied by effective income-generation programs which meet the basic needs of the populations.
• Multi-stakeholder approaches to multifaceted problems in specific sectors.
• Projects designed and implemented at the grassroots level, in close cooperation with the developmental NGOs in LDCs.
• Greater policy coherence on the part of the international donor community, in particular export promotion programmes should be accompanied by assistance to LDCs in identifying and complying with environmental requirements in the sectors concerned.
• Projects in favour of smallholders and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
• Capacity building in the field of trade and environment, including UNCTAD's technical co-operation programme for LDCs."

In recent years, the UNCTAD secretariat has paid special attention to the conditions and needs of LDCs in the area of trade and environment.

• In April 1997, UNCTAD and the Office of the Special Co-ordinator for African Least Developed Countries (OSCAL) convened an Expert Meeting on the implementation of special measures for least developed countries in Agenda 21, in preparation for the 19th Special Session for the UN General Assembly. The Expert Meeting paid special attention to trade and environment issues.
• UNCTAD held a seminar on Trade and Environment in Antananarivo, Madagascar, in March 1998. The seminar adopted recommendations for further work.
• The LDC 1998 Report contains a chapter on trade and environment
• A paper on Trade and Environment was discussed at the UNCTAD seminar on the Positive Agenda and LDCs, held in Pretoria, South Africa, from 21 to 25 June 1999.
• The project "Strengthening Research and Policy-Making Capacities on Trade and Environment in Developing Countries, funded by the UK Department for International Development (DFID), includes 3 LDCs among 10 beneficiary developing countries: Bangladesh, Republic of Tanzania and Uganda.
• The UNCTAD secretariat and AITIC are planning a one-day workshop on trade and environment for Geneva-based delegates from African countries and LDCs (Geneva, October 1999)
• UNCTAD is preparing a TRAINFORTRADE project on Trade and Environment (in French) for Benin, Burkina Faso and Mali, likely to be funded by the French Government

UNCTAD's Technical Cooperation on Trade and Environment, and the Least Developed Countries.

The Least Developed Countries 1998 Report emphasised the need for capacity building in the field of trade and environment, including UNCTAD's technical co-operation programme for LDCs. A recent seminar on the Positive Agenda and LDCs stressed that future trade negotiations make it even more important to step up efforts to help strengthen capacities in LDCs to participate in the negotiations and to address trade and environment issues throughout the trade liberalization process. The page entitled "Partners" describes the UNCTAD/UNEP cooperation on capacity building on trade and environment, which is also relevant in this context.

UNCTAD's capacity building activities on trade and environment are implemented in close coordination between the office of the Special Coordinator for the Least Developed Countries and DITC/Trade, Environment and Development Branch. There is also close coordination with the secretariats of the WTO and UNEP, as well as civil society.

Objectives

UNCTAD's technical cooperation for capacity building in LDCs on trade and environment has the following immediate objectives:

• To facilitate dialogue between trade, environment and development communities.
• To strengthen capacities for policy analysis and trade and environment policy co-ordination in developing countries.
• To assist LDCs in taking advantage of new trading opportunities and to achieve environmentally sustainable export growth.
• To support the effective participation of LDCs in international deliberations on trade and environment

Activities and issues to be addressed

Techical cooperation is implemented through regional and country projects. Activities consist of policy-oriented studies, the compilation and analysis of statistical information, seminars, training, and the promotion of consultative mechanisms. Issues to be addressed include: market access issues, the promotion of trading opportunities for environmentally preferable products, trade liberalization and the environment, preservation of biodiversity, domestically prohibited goods and transfer of environmentally sound technologies

Training and the promotion of policy dialogues will play a key role. Training will be provided through the TRAINFORTRADE approach. This implies the development of a training package and its adaptation to the specific needs and conditions of each country, training seminars, and follow-up activities to address priority issues identified in the training seminars. Training of trainers is of key importance. It is expected that some institutional mechanism will be implemented in each beneficiary country to enable such activities.

Beneficiary countries: priorities

Based on interest expressed by LDCs, it is proposed that activities for which funding is sought will focus on the following regions:

The Southern African Development Community (SADC)
Mozambique, Malawi, The Republic of Tanzania, Other LDCs in the SADC region,

South Asia
Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal,

South Pacific

Activities under preparation

Mozambique: a broad programme of capacity building on Trade, Environment and Development is being prepared. It will be implemented in cooperation with UNEP and ICTSD. The projected has been requested by both the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Tourism as well as the Ministry for the Coordination of Environmental Affairs. A Series of meetings were held in Maputo, 21-23 July 1999, to prepare a national capacity building project.

Malawi: UNCTAD is already implementing a project, with support from UNDP, to assess potential agricultural alternatives to production and export of tobacco from Malawi. The first phase will be completed in July 1999. It is envisaged that a proposed second phase will include a TRAINFORTRADE training course as well as policy dialogue to discuss issues of national and regional interest as well as future trade negotiations in the WTO and their relationship with the environment.

South Asia: Training activities in two LDCs in the SAARC region countries and a regional seminar to promote policy dialogue are under preparation. This will help to promote a larger programme in the region, for which funding is being sought from UNDP and the Asian Development Bank (Both donors have expressed a strong interest). The project will be taken up at a SAARC meeting in Male, Maldives (August 1999) for approval by members. The objectives of this programme are:

• To strengthen national capacities to co-ordinate trade and environment policy-making aimed at achieving sustainable development objectives in the context of globalisation and trade liberalisation; and
• To strengthen regional co-operation on trade and environment issues as part of a process in moving towards a regional free trade agreement.
• To support participation of South Asian countries in multilateral deliberations on trade and environment

Other activities

South African Development Community (SADC): Policy dialogue at the regional level as well as TRAINFORTRADE packages at the national level, with special focus on two LDCs in the SADC region.

South Pacific: Cooperation with the FORUM secretariat and the South Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP). Background: UNCTAD assisted the FORUM secretariat to organize a seminar on Trade and Environment (Fiji, 25-27 January 1999). UNCTAD prepared a report on Trade and Environment for consideration by the FORUM Island Countries (FIC) Trade Ministers Meeting in June 1999. Ministers from FICs inter alia decided to develop a programme to facilitate environmentally friendly products from and to consider trade and environment linkages throughout the trade liberalisation process. The FORUM secretariat is seeking UNCTAD's assistance in this.