INside: Spotlight on cop-9

Vol.3| Issue 2 February 2008 Agribusiness

BusA newsletter on businessin and biodiversityess. by the Secretariat2010 of the Convention on Biological Diversity

A contributionA-13 to

SBSTTand

IBD 2008

Food, feed, fiber & fuel an overview of biodiversity and agribusiness  Business.2010 | February 2008

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From the Secretariat e s s

In this issue: agribusiness

Photo courtesy of IUCN/Wiebke Herding Photo courtesy of IUCN/Wiebke Part 1 (pages 4-13)

Multinationals and industry associations provide their views on agribusiness and biodiversity

By Ahmed Djoghlaf, Executive Secretary

e are releasing this issue of Business.2010 as a contribution to SBSTTA-13 which will be considering, amongst other agenda items, the in-depth review Wof the implementation of the Programme of Work on Agricultural Biodiver- sity. This is also fitting, given that the theme of the International Biodiversity Day, this year, is ‘agriculture and biodiversity’.

Over the last few months, we have continued to witness tangible signs of an in- Part 2 (pages 14-21) creasing interest in the business and biodiversity agenda. Following from the lead provided by Portugal in November 2007, several business and biodiversity events Looking at certification schemes are planned in the run-up to the COP. The Secretariat is actively participating in a number of these.

The Secretariat, for instance, worked with the University of California Berkeley, Haas School of Business in the design of a seminar for MBA students and we were delighted to participate in the first session which took place in late January.

In , Deloitte and IUCN, with the support of the Government of Canada, as well as the Secretariat, are organizing a conference on business and biodiversity in April.

The business and biodiversity conference — organized on 2-3 April by GTZ and the Part 3 (pages 22-30) Global Nature Fund, in Bonn, — will prove, I am sure, an important mile- An overview of biodiversity initiatives; and stone in the preparation of the COP. mechanisms for promoting ‘biodiversity businesses’

In the centre pages of this issue, we have compiled the first edition of a guide to business-related events at COP-9 which also includes an overview of pre-COP busi- ness related events.

In December 2007, the Secretariat signed a Letter of Intent with the Government of The Netherlands which focuses, inter alia, on business engagement. This agreement contributes, in particular, to the development of this newsletter.

As usual, I would like to sincerely thank all contributors for taking time to share their experience and contribute to the business and biodiversity agenda. I invite Parties, the business community and others to submit contributions for the April issue which Updates (Pages 31-35)

will focus on COP-9. We also include, at the end of this issue, more general updates on business and biodiversity. 24 Business.2010 | February 2008 Mixing medicinal plants and passion fruit. Making soap!

It is always a tremendous challenge to craft Further still, we can even think of expand- a commercial venture so that it also com- ing the concept to include other oil-pro- plements the promotion of sustainable de- ducing plants whose farming can be bene- velopment within small communities. Af- ficially coupled with traditional crops. In a ter extensive research on native medicinal region where wind causes land degradation, plants from the Atlantic Forest, the Medic- an oil-producing tree like the Bombacopsis inal Plants project at Iracambi looked at a glabra, which is also used to make natural number of alternatives for commercializa- fences, could improve yields of traditional tion to find the perfect match. This proved crops while also being used to make a soap to be with the production of soaps. base. We are also looking at the possibil- Biodiversity, especially with the Atlantic ity of using locally produced cachaça — the Forest, is a bottomless treasure box. We sugar cane alcohol from — to replace realized this mostly during the product cereal alcohol in the production of the me- development phase when we were look- dicinal plants extracts. And who knows if ing for ways to maintain the majority of one day we might not be able to produce MATTHIEU BEAUCHEMIN and MARCELO the value-chain within the local communi- even the packaging material from locally MENDES AMARAL assess the viability of ties. Doing so, not only would we add lo- producing soaps using medicinal plants sourced products. cally produced medicinal plants extracts extracts from the Atlantic Forest. to an industrially produced soap base, but Capturing the value chain we could even explore using other native hen all but 7% of one of the world’s This constant focus on trying to maintain plants to produce that soap base. richest ecosystems remain, it is the entire value chain within small local critical to take concrete conser- W Passion communities can bring about a number of vation measures towards its protection. One crop that has grown in importance in benefits. By capturing most of the value Yet, when more than 100 million people chain, we maintain most of the additional live within that ecosystem, applying con- the region recently is passion fruit. This income in the hands of small producers, stant pressure on a strained environment, plant, native to the Atlantic forest, is providing a financial reward for the- con protection is not enough. In this case, mainly used to produce a delicious juice. what is needed is a new model of develop- As such, during the processing phase, the servation of biodiversity. In doing so, we ment; one that promotes the conservation seeds are separated from the pulp and also support a form of development that of biodiversity not by fencing off protected nearly always discarded — this is unfor- is both sustainable and small-scale, with areas but by giving an economic value to tunate, especially when one knows that numerous suppliers of materials, thus pro- biodiversity. the seeds contain a large quantity of an moting a better redistribution of financial oil that can be used to produce a great benefits. Finally, focusing the production The situation described above is that of the soap base. Why not, then, use this by- processes primarily at the local level, we product of passion fruit processing to cre- Atlantic Forest, a forest that partially cov- reduce our impact on the environment by ate a whole new product? Passion fruit oil ers 17 of the 26 Brazilian states and that reducing the need for transporting mate- also possesses moisturizing properties and extends from the Brazilian Nordeste all the rials over long distances, amongst other way into Argentina and . This for- contains passiflora, a relaxing substance. things, lowering emissions of greenhouse est is home to more than 20,000 species of Thus, by capitalizing on the possibilities gases. plants (8,000 of which are endemic) and offered by the biodiversity of the Atlantic to about 1,6 million species of animals and Forest, we could create a soothing, relax- insects (25 to 50% of them being endemic). ing soap with medicinal properties! And all It is critical today that the conservation of Local people are best placed to become the while making the most of the very pro- the Atlantic Forest, and more generally of the defenders of this rich ecosystem. One duction process of passion fruit. the world’s biodiversity, be of concern es- of the best ways to ensure that they take pecially to small local actors. And with our up this role is to provide an economic in- Despite being grown mostly under the evermore globalizing world, we must take centive to conserving biodiversity. sun, passion fruit is a priori a shade-grown into consideration the needs and preoccu- plant. To plant it in the sun, which can give pations of those local actors when propos- Commercial venture higher yields, one must use a significant ing solutions to protect the environment. The Medicinal Plants project of Associação amount of chemicals. In order to promote Amigos de Iracambi, a Brazilian not-for- more environmentally friendly agricultural At the time of writing, Matthieu Beauchemin was Jun- profit organization aims at doing just that. practices, small-scale producers must be ior Manager - Projeto Medicina da Mata, Iracambi RN; Adopting a three-way approach to develop- compensated for revenue lost implied by Marcelo Mendes Amaral is Manager of the Medicinal ment, with an emphasis on environmental, lower yields. This can be accomplished Plants Project, Iracambi RN. socio-cultural and economic development, by introducing, as shade providers, plants www.iracambi.com the project seeks to find economic value that also have a commercial value. We

for both the medicinal plants themselves therefore manage to create an interde- [email protected] as well as the traditional knowledge of lo- pendent system where both crops comple- cal people. ment each other. [email protected] Business.2010 | February 2008 Business.2010 | February 2008 25

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Mixing medicinal plants and passion fruit. Making soap! e s s

By capturing most of the value chain, we maintain most of the additional income in the hands of small producers, providing a financial reward for the conservation of biodiversity Schmidt

Photo courtesy of Blake