Vienna – On 4 and 5 July 2023, the UNIDO task force on the Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) welcomed an Expert Group Meeting (EGM) on the topic of “Biological diversity and industrial development: synergies, threats and opportunities”. The EGM, co-hosted by the UNIDO Innovation Lab, was organized to explore the biodiversity-industry nexus with an international array of experts spanning the research, IGO, NGO and private sectors.

On the first day, experts discussed how industry and productive activities can contribute to achieving the main targets of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and the outcomes of COP 15 (Kunming-Montreal, December 2022). Private sector initiatives, research and expert interventions on biodiversity were also presented. On the second day, an interactive co-creation workshop based on design thinking methods took place to structure potential intervention paths for UNIDO to help deliver the goals of the CBD and the GBF.

A rich opportunity map emerged highlighting experts’ recommendation that UNIDO must act to mainstream biodiversity in industrial policies and raise the engagement from the private sector. The following three main roles were identified:  

• influence drivers of change by encouraging knowledge transfer and awareness raising campaigns as well as by enabling coherent policy environments;  

• provide support to integrate industrial policies into landscape management, with the full involvement of local communities in decision-making;  

• foster technology development and innovation, including supporting standards and impact measuring methods, to increase the scale and visibility of initiatives.  

The meeting highlighted that climate change, environmental pollution and biodiversity loss, also known as the Triple Planetary Crisis, are jeopardizing the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Unsustainable production and consumption patterns are at the center of the Crisis. It is in the mandate of UNIDO to mainstream biodiversity in promoting sustainable industrial development. 

By 2050, the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) envisions a world where biodiversity is “valued, conserved, restored and wisely used, maintaining ecosystem services, sustaining a healthy planet and delivering benefits essential for all people”. 

Reiterated by several experts is the potential for UNIDO to become a global reference on the industry-biodiversity nexus by contributing to standards and impact assessment methodologies to monitor industries’ biodiversity performances. With the complex biodiversity reporting landscape, there is a high demand for capacity building in particular for SMEs. There is also high demand for greater digitalization and partnerships in order to increase the scale of reporting.

Furthermore, experts emphasized that UNIDO must work to support circular economy principles and practices to promote new and more biodiversity-positive production and consumption patterns. Yet, for change to last in the long term, environmental objectives must align with social and economic objectives. Therefore, it becomes essential for UNIDO to collaborate with rural communities and minorities to find alternative income generation pathways in favour of sustainable nature-based solutions. These can be found in a bio-economy system, where the significant use of renewable biological resources undoubtedly translates into major efforts to restore and remediate degraded ecosystems.

Finally, it was suggested to UNIDO to promote global sectorial initiatives to support industrial engagement in biodiversity-positive businesses. For instance, virtual platforms could offer guidance and training for better practices. 

Overall, UNIDO received a very clear and loud message from the EGM: UNIDO must actively join the GBF and collaborate to mainstream biodiversity in industry. The next step for UNIDO’s task force on the GBF is to formulate a position paper, describing how UNIDO will promote sustainable industrial development in balance with nature.

For further information, please contact: 

Riccardo Savigliano, UNIDO Senior Industrial Development Officer 

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