1st BioTrade Congress

Sponsors
State Secretariat for Economic Affairs
 www.seco.admin.ch/

The State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) is the Swiss federal government's centre of expertise for all core issues relating to economic policy. Its aim is to ensure sustainable economic growth by putting in place the necessary regulatory and economic policy conditions.

The Economic Cooperation and Development Division at SECO is responsible for the planning and implementation of the economic and trade policy measures for the developing countries, the countries of Eastern Europe and Central Asia, and the new member States of the European Union (EU). In addition, SECO is responsible for the coordination of Switzerland's relations with the World Bank Group, the regional development banks and the economic organisations of the United Nations.

SECO’s economic development cooperation has two main objectives: to support the integration of partner countries into the global economy, and to promote their sustainable economic growth. Thus, SECO is contributing to poverty reduction.
Natural Resources Stewardship Circle
www.nrsc.fr/

The Natural Resources Stewardship Circle (NRSC) is a voluntary association of leaders in the cosmetics, perfume, flavor, and fragrance industries. Beyond the confines of competition and moved by a shared awareness, they have decided to join their forces to increase the positive impact they can have on the preservation of biodiversity and improvement of living conditions for local populations. Based on a common guideline of good practices to serve as model, they aim to act together on building examples of long-term, economically profitable, and sustainable collaborations.
Yves Rocher
 www.yves-rocher.com/
In Brittany, France, the sourcing of ingredients based on biological resources allowed Mr. Yves Rocher to create his cosmetics firm some 50 years ago in the village of La Gacilly, originally to fight rural depopulation. Since then, the brand Yves Rocher has focused its attention on Botanical Beauty – combining expertise on skin biology with knowledge of plants. Still nowadays Yves Rocher is a grower with its organic fields in La Gacilly, a manufacturer with its Breton factories,and a distributor with its own networks.

United Nations Conference on Trade and Development/ BioTrade Initiative
www.biotrade.org/

The BioTrade Initiative was launched by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) in 1996 to promote sustainable BioTrade in support of the objectives of the Convention on Biological Diversity:
• "the conservation of biological diversity;
• sustainable use of its components;
• and fair and equitable sharing of the benefits arising from the utilisation of genetic resources."
The Initiative has developed a unique portfolio of programmes in Asia, Africa and Latin America that enhance the capability of developing countries to produce value-added products and services derived from biodiversity, for domestic and international markets.
The sound economic and environmental sustainability of BioTrade's intervention is guaranteed by the compliance of its principles and criteria.
The BioTrade Initiative works from UNCTAD, in the Biodiversity and Climate Change section that is part of the Trade, Environment, Climate Change and Sustainable Branch under the Division on International Trade in Goods and Services, and Commodities (DITC).