BioTrade activities with Natural Ingredients in Vietnam

Vietnam is rich in biodiversity and the government has been working on issues related to its conservation and sustainable use, specifically, in the natural ingredients sector. The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) has developed the Non-Timber Forest Products (NTFPs) Conservation and Development Strategy 2006-2020. Moreover, the Prime Minister approved the Forest Protection and Development Strategy 2006-2020, which includes specific targets to promote NTFP production.

Building on the previous work done by UNCTAD BioTrade and the Swiss Import Promotion Programme (SIPPO) for the sustainable trade in natural ingredients, the working meeting on "BioTrade activities with Natural Ingredients in Vietnam" in Hanoi, Vietnam, on 25 March 2009 was organized. The event provided a platform to present and validate the BioTrade project to national stakeholders for their comments and inputs as well as to identify possible areas of cooperation and synergies. It brought together over thirty national and international stakeholders from the government and civil society working in Vietnam with non-timber forest products, natural ingredients and/or on development issues. To download the meeting proceedings, please click here.

Novel Food

UNCTAD BioTrade participated in the Vitafoods Discussion Forum on 7 May 2009 in Geneva, on the occasion of the Vitafoods International, the leading nutraceuticals exhibition in the world. UNCTAD presented the work it has been leading on the conceptual development of how developing countries could profit from the proposed simplified procedure for traditional foods through the recognition of traditional knowledge and informal scientific data as part of the history of safe use assessment in the novel food regulations. UNCTAD is currently assisting the European Union in the development of guidelines for assessing food safety on the basis of it history of safe use.

BioTrade Impact Assessment System (BT IAS)

Since 2006, UNCTAD has been working towards the development of an Impact Assessment System for BioTrade. The proposed system was enriched with consultations from BioTrade programmes, certification agencies, government representatives, cooperation agencies, NGOs and experts in South America and Africa (i.e. workshop in Johannesburg, Republic of South Africa). As a result of the consultations, a new version of the Impact Assessment System was proposed and is currently being tested in Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Uganda, and in Namibia and Swaziland through PhytoTrade Africa. A revised version taking into account feedback received and the results of the field testing is forthcoming.

Incentive measures

In implementing CBD's Decisions VII/26, IX/6 and IX/26 (link to decisions), UNCTAD BioTrade works on:
- compiling private sector experiences and incentive measures promoted by BioTrade practitioners, that aim to disseminate best practices for the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity (project brief); and
- the relationship with international legal obligations under WTO rules of economic incentive measures (project brief).