Broadly defined as the set of financial instruments that support foreign trade transactions, trade finance includes letters of credit, factoring, export credit and insurance. The provision of trade finance support is often limited in developing countries due to the lack of service providers or affordable products. Trade finance is particularly needed to support bio trade, i.e. activities related of collection, production, transformation, and commercialization of goods and services derived from native biodiversity under the criteria of environmental, social and economic sustainability.
The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) launched the BioTrade Facilitation Programme (BTFP) in 2015 with the aim of mainstreaming BioTrade in relevant multilateral, regional and national processes and strengthen the policy and regulatory environment for BioTrade sectors so as to enable key stakeholders (governments, communities and companies) to take advantage of policy options and strategies available for leveraging BioTrade sectors. To achieve this goal, three components were implemented:
Mainstreaming BioTrade in sustainable sourcing and use in sustainable development strategies, including in global biodiversity targets
Identifying barriers to trade of biodiversity-based products
Understanding and mapping policy options on certain aspects of the implementation of the Nagoya Protocol on Access and Benefit Sharing on BioTrade.
Read more about the BioTrade Facilitation Programme here.
Link to Guide entry:
Return-Based Investments —> Debt: Leasing, Bank Loans, Notes and Trade Finance