World market | The Global South hardly benefits from its biodiversity

Jute is mainly produced in South Asia. The importing countries in the global north limit trade with high import tariffs. Photo: IMAGO/Pacific Press Agency Biodiversity-based products account for a significant share of global trade. Such exports amounted to almost $3.8 trillion in 2024, according to a recent report from the UN Conference on Trade and Development (Unctad). Trade “does not always contribute to the protection and sustainable use of biological diversity.”

“Biodiversity-based exports” are particularly concerned with food, medical devices, cosmetics, certain raw materials and building materials. The UN organization in Geneva criticizes the fact that the benefits of trading such products are very unevenly distributed. The developing countries recently only accounted for a share of around 35 percent, and in Africa it is only three percent. In contrast, Europe is the largest bloc with 49 percent. “This gap is striking, especially since Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean are home to around two thirds of global biodiversity,” writes Unctad.

Tariffs, standards and access to finance have a strong influence on who benefits from biodiversity-based trade, according to the report presented ahead of the start of the World Nature Conference. Manufacturers in particular who wanted to move into higher-value areas of activity were often confronted with significant obstacles. The authors cite natural alternatives to plastics as an example. For cotton, jute, hemp and paper, average import tariffs worldwide were up to 16 percent.

Trade policy can support global biodiversity goals.

The area of ​​sustainable, certified “organic trade” still leads a shadowy existence on the global market for biodiversity-based exports, where sales recently amounted to $3.8 trillion annually. However, according to the UN, there has been a rapid increase in the past two decades: from 40 million to just under 50.5 billion US dollars. The report cites the conversion of agricultural waste into tradable products as a positive example. A project in Kenya will convert more than 3,300 tonnes of pineapple leaves into more than 100 tonnes of textile-grade fiber and around 800 tonnes of compost.

According to the Unctad message, trade policy can support global biodiversity goals by promoting the “sustainable use and development of biological diversity”. According to the UN organization, in which, unlike the competing World Trade Organization (WTO), the states of the global south dominate, this cannot succeed without government intervention: what is needed is an increase in production capacity, better market access, higher added value and a fair and equitable distribution of benefits, as well as more affordable financing, improved traceability and certification and an increased circular economy. “Together, these measures could help developing countries derive more value from biodiversity-based trade while protecting the natural resources on which it depends.”

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