The study titled “Implications Of The African Continental Free Trade Area For Trade And Biodiversity” investigates the nexus between trade in biodiversity, specifically on the legal and sustainable trade of biodiversity-based goods and services (including BioTrade), and the existing commitments under the framework of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).

It seeks to identify potential entry points to enable legal and sustainable trade in biodiversity/BioTrade to support AfCFTA through future commitments, including in market access, services, investment, intellectual property rights (IPR), and competition policy.

While sustainable socioeconomic development is one of the general objectives of the AfCFTA, the link between trade and the environment was not fully developed under commitments negotiated up to December 2020.

In particular, the content needed to address sustainability had not yet been fully achieved. The AfCFTA Agreement would benefit from the inclusion of sustainable development considerations into the protocols being negotiated in phase II and from introducing a specific protocol on trade and environment, with BioTrade as one of its components.

This study presents short and long-term recommendations to transform the AfCFTA Agreement into an enabler of legal and sustainable trade in biodiversity/BioTrade as a key driver for development in Africa.

BioTrade is understood as activities related to the collection, production, transformation and commercialization of goods and services derived from biodiversity (genetic resources, species and ecosystems) under environmental, social and economic sustainability criteria known as the BioTrade Principles and Criteria (P&C) (UNCTAD, 2020a).

BioTrade activities have been implemented in over 25 countries in Africa by partners and practitioners in the personal care and food industries, who produce and trade products as diverse as argan oil, baobab pulp, honey, marula oil and shea butter.

The COVID-19 pandemic and the ensuing economic crisis are undermining prospects for global growth and damaging fast-growing African economies. In this context, sustained actions are needed to help African countries ‘build forward better’ by establishing a green development pathway (UNECA, 2020, p.4).

The pandemic has negatively impacted the economical use of nature-based products and services. Many biodiversity-based sectors, such as ecotourism in coastal and protected areas, have been greatly affected.

Policymakers see an opportunity to decouple growth from environmental degradation and invest in green industries as part of sustainable recovery strategies. Such investments can build on and embed shifts in human behaviour already underway. Fast-tracking green policies could include natural capital spending through afforestation, expanding parkland, and enhancing rural ecosystems (UNCTAD, 2020b, p.96).

Africa can use the historic AfCFTA Agreement to achieve a continental-wide economic recovery and create more sustainable, resilient and inclusive societies, thus contributing to the goals of the African Union’s Agenda 2063.

As an immediate step, parties to the Agreement establishing the AfCFTA can start the implementation phase in 2021 with a focus on adhering to existing commitments in an environment-friendly way so that Africa can produce more sustainably, engage in trade-related activities that promote both economic recovery and environmental sustainability, and chart a clear path towards a greener transition (Thomson Reuters Foundation News, 2020)