Project Launch and Webinar: Seizing the trade and business potential of Blue BioTrade in selected OECS countries

Invitation to participate on Wednesday, 7 October!

Starting this Fall 2020, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), in collaboration with the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) and the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), will implement an 18-month project to empower small-scale coastal producers from selected OECS member states.

This project aims to produce and trade queen conch (Strombus gigas)—a sea mollusc or shellfish—products in domestic, regional and international markets under the Blue BioTrade Principles and Criteria. Blue BioTrade aims to promote trade and investment in marine biological resources in line with social, economic and environmental sustainability criteria, known as the BioTrade Principles and Criteria. The project is funded by the OECS with support of the European Union.


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Seizing the trade and business potential of Blue BioTrade in selected OECS countries

Wednesday 7 October 2020 │ 10:00 - 12:00 pm (Eastern Daylight Time)

REGISTER NOW: http://bit.ly/bbtoecs

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Target Audience

This online event will convene project partners, beneficiaries and national and regional stakeholders to discuss the relevance of the project for OECS countries and small island developing states, particularly in preparing national producers to participate in international markets in a COVID19 era.

The project considers conducting stakeholder-owned value chain assessments of queen conch products in the three beneficiary countries: Grenada, Saint Lucia and St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and developing a Blue BioTrade regional implementation plan of action. Queen conch is a highly appreciated seafood delicacy with important non-food uses, including therapeutic products, handicrafts and jewellery.

Webinar Objectives

Since the late 1990s, the global conch market has been estimated at an average of about $60 million annually. While global demand for this Appendix II CITES-listed species is booming, small-scale coastal producers in the Eastern Caribbean do not fully seize the opportunities offered by sustainable conch markets.

The project aims to enhance stakeholders’ capacity to identify sustainable and gender-inclusive business opportunities and formulate actions to pilot the application of the 2020 BioTrade Principles and Criteria to the conch value chain.

The project will directly contribute to achieving key targets of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 14 (Conservation and sustainable use of oceans, seas and marine resources) and 12 (Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns). Also, it will address key economic, environmental, and social objectives of the OECS Development Strategy 2019-2028 and supporting a blue recovery in a COVID-19 scenario.

The online event will be delivered through Webex. You will receive details on how to join in a subsequent email after your registration.

More information of the project is available at: https://new.unctad.org/project/blue-biotrade-promoting-sustainable-livelihoods-and-conservation-marine-biodiversity

 

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Lench Fevrier

Senior Technical Specialist, Agriculture, Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States

OECS Communications Unit

Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States

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About The Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States

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The Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) is an International Organisation dedicated to economic harmonisation and integration, protection of human and legal rights, and the encouragement of good governance among independent and non-independent countries in the Eastern Caribbean. The OECS came into being on June 18th 1981, when seven Eastern Caribbean countries signed a treaty agreeing to cooperate with each other while promoting unity and solidarity among its Members. The Treaty became known as the Treaty of Basseterre, so named in honour of the capital city of St. Kitts and Nevis where it was signed. The OECS today, currently has eleven members, spread across the Eastern Caribbean comprising Antigua and Barbuda, Commonwealth of Dominica, Grenada, Montserrat, St. Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, St Vincent and The Grenadines, British Virgin Islands, Anguilla, Martinique and Guadeloupe. 

Contact

Morne Fortune Castries Saint Lucia

+1758-455-6377

media@oecs.int

www.oecs.int