First International Review Meeting for the Country Projects on Integrated Assessment of Trade-related Policies and Biodiversity in the Agricultural Sector

Geneva, 26-28 November 2007

The First International Review Meeting for the UNEP Country Projects on Integrated Assessment of Trade-related Policies and Biological Diversity in the Agricultural Sector took place from 26 to 28 November 2007 at the International Environment House in Geneva, Switzerland.

This UNEP initiative aims to enhance capacity in African, Pacific and Caribbean (ACP) countries to develop policy recommendations that safeguard biological diversity while maximizing sustainable development gains from trade liberalization in the agriculture sector.

In 2006, six countries (Jamaica, Cameroon, Madagascar, Mauritius, Uganda and Papua New Guinea) were selected to receive technical and financial support for a two-year country project to assess the economic, social and environmental impacts of trade liberalization in the agricultural sector.

A year after the initiation of the projects, the first review meeting brought the six country teams and members of the core advisory group together to discuss the intermediate results of the assessment studies and to exchange experiences on issues such as the selection of appropriate tools, management of the stakeholder process and data gathering and analysis.

The country project teams presented first findings of their projects, including the potential impacts of the EU-ACP Economic Partnership Agreements in selected sectors (Jamaica and Mauritius: sugar sector, Uganda: flower sector) as well as the impacts of other trade-liberalization processes on a specific sector (Madagascar: aquaculture shrimp sector, Cameroon: cacao sector, Papua New Guinea: two major staple food crops). The meeting was held back-to-back with the project’s third International Steering Committee Meeting which provided an opportunity for the country teams to receive input and guidance from experts in the fields of trade, biodiversity and assessment.

The latest update on the initiative, including a draft trade and biodiversity assessment manual, the workshop reports and project documents can be found on the following websites:

http://www.unep.ch/etb/areas/biodivAgriSector.php http://www.unep.ch/etb/initiatives/BiodivCountryProjects.php

Contact: vera.weick@unep.ch