Workshop promoted by the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity, in partnership with CEBDS, CNI and Instituto LIFE, brought together experts from four countries, in Belém, on the 4th and 5th of September
With the aim of bringing together public authorities, companies and civil society to discuss how to combine economic development and conservation and sustainable use of nature, with a focus on strategies to overcome the gaps that still exist in the implementation of the new Global Biodiversity Framework, several organizations participated in the “ Business and Biodiversity Workshop”.
The meeting took place in Belém, on the 4th and 5th of September, and was promoted by the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CDB), in partnership with the Brazilian Business Council for Sustainable Development (CEBDS), the National Confederation of Industry (CNI ) and the LIFE Institute, as part of the Brazilian Business and Biodiversity Initiative (IBNBIO). The event was also supported by Vale and Natura & Co.
The workshop was part of the program for the annual meeting of the CBD Global Business and Biodiversity Platform, which brings together initiatives to promote greater business engagement with the biodiversity agenda.
On the occasion, representatives from different sectors discussed the importance of integrating biodiversity throughout the value chain, bringing some successful business cases linked to the bioeconomy, as well as the role of the private sector in implementing the new Kunming Global Biodiversity Framework -Montreal.
Topics were discussed such as the importance of multi-stakeholder action to build national goals linked to the new global framework, as well as to implement conservation and restoration actions; metrics for disclosing impacts and dependencies on biodiversity, incentives for nature conservation and sustainable use of natural resources, among others.
The workshop provided the opportunity to begin a process of creating recommendations from the private sector to be delivered to the CBD to support governments and companies in implementing the Global Framework. The document is being prepared and will include considerations from members of the global platform. It will later be published on the CBD website and will be part of the list of recommendation documents on the new framework for COP16.
The meeting was attended by the private sector, the government – in the presence of the Director of Conservation and Sustainable Use of Biodiversity, Bráulio Dias, representing the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change – and the CBD, with the participation of GIZ Mesoamérica, Costa Rica; ASEAN Center for Biodiversity and Japan Business Initiative for Biodiversity.
To illustrate the debate on bioeconomy and the integrality of biodiversity in the value chain, a technical activity was organized by Natura & Co on September 2nd at Cofruta, which provided a visit to the Amazon forest and the sharing of the traditional knowledge of the extractive community and the experiences of cooperativism in the Amazon. Cofruta is part of Natura's supply chain, being responsible for collecting seeds (such as tucumã, açaí, ucuúba, andiroba, murumuru) and the process of extracting and producing the oil and butter present in the seeds.
The topics discussed during the visit were bioeconomy, the importance of creating incentives for farmers, investment in technical training, among others. The work developed demonstrates the importance of the standing forest, as well as promoting the generation of work and income, contributing to the socioeconomic and cultural transformation of the local community and the municipality.
