5th Science Policy Forum for Biodiversity COP 15 session 9

Key messages from the session

Sustainable production and consumption were recognized as important drivers of biodiversity loss in 2010. However, actions proposed in Aichi target 4 to keep low the impacts on biodiversity were not implemented in a significant way. A couple of new targets have now been proposed for the GBF. With the participation of different actors, the following potential measures were discussed to attain sustainable production and consumption:

• Sustainability requires complementary policies in both producing and consuming countries.
• Sustainable public procurement can align production and consumption patterns with sustainability standards and support biodiversity conservation efforts by supporting a transformation of Agricultural systems towards agroecology. Public procurement (for food, construction materials, etc.) has a great potential aligning to sustainability criteria: reliable demand, reliable source of income, prices stabilization & fair incentives.
• Tele-coupled agri-food systems need complementary policies and therefore depend on bi-lateral and multilateral trade relations.
• We need to address unintended effects through due diligence, carbon border taxes, renewable energy policies et cetera. We can also make use of standards and requirements to improve sustainability (e.g. carbon border taxes, tenure regimes).
• The EU has a high regulatory potential and responsibility for sustainability (e.g. in soy, palm oil, cacao, coffee).
• Private market initiatives such as certification can support sustainability, but might have limitations and could benefit from better oversight.
• Africa requires further capacity-building and more data to enable scaling up into international markets. There is a need for some definitions on sustainability and quantitative data collection on unsustainable actions, to monitor changes in the situation. Facing a lack of choice in consumption for resources required for subsistence such as water and energy, large scale strategies for replacing those resources will be necessary to bend the curve towards sustainability.
• As a way of leverage, an example of capacity Development on biodiversity and ecosystem services experts in West, Central & East Africa, has proven useful to build a baseline for the elaboration of guidelines for development of a National Strategy and Action Plan of Integrated Management of Oasis Ecosystems.
• Another example, in the context of the Sahel and Sahara Observatory, a South-South-North collaborative platform established for monitoring land-use changes that could be used in African countries, incorporating biodiversity aspects.
• With regard to Target 15 of the GBF, a crucial issue for scalability is to take the small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) on board. This is true for European companies (with big challenges regarding new reporting obligations and due diligence legislation on sustainability) and even more for SME in Africa, Latin America or Asia, which need capacity building and support to access financial resources for transition to sustainable production when exporting. 
• Consumers often need orientation to understand the difference between hundreds of sustainability standards – there are helpful tools i.e. the sustainability map by ITC or the Sustainability Standards Comparison Tool by GIZ. Overall, there are only few good biodiversity standards and more research efforts could be made to improve this situation.
• As a positive example, Forestry Stewardship Council standard (FSC) is becoming a certification not only for wood but also for ecosystem services (including biodiversity, watershed, recreation potential, carbon fixation, soil conservation), thus enabling with technology and good data (origin, volume, checks, etc), for consumers and importing companies to quickly track biodiversity impact.
• Deforestation is linked to economic activity through various channels: Financial and non-financial corporates (large and small) are responsible for, at (financial) risk from and have the power to halt deforestation.
• Links between deforestation an economic activity are often difficult to capture: from an EU or US (or more generally, an OECD country) perspective, the bulk of it happens upstream, (hidden) in the value chain. We need to make deforestation and other nature related impacts across value chains visible. 
• With the help of an ambitious and coherent policy framework and access to relevant data, financial and non-financial corporates can take action on divestment, engagement, sustainable procurement/purchase policies & impact investment for halting deforestation.