To fulfil its mandate, GETI pursues a two track
approach:
- an "inward track" aimed at enhancing
and maintaining the strategic and operative capacity of IUCN's
Secretariat to address the dynamic issues at the intersection
of trade, investment and the Union's mandate, and
- an "outward track" engaged in
further scrutiny of topics, which notwithstanding their pressing
nature remain insufficiently attended.
GETI actively assists IUCN in building knowledge
by promoting research aimed at investigating the environmental consequences
of trade liberalization; promoting and supporting that such research
be undertaken by IUCN bodies and/or partners outside the IUCN Web;
and, providing practical and enabling information on trade and investment
relevant to IUCN's work
programme.
Substantive
Focus
Tentative
Areas of work
During its first
meeting in Johannesburg (August 2002), the members of GETI's Steering
Committee in consultation with experts from IUCN's secretariat and
CEESP identified tentative areas of work, which are relevant to
both the political agenda on trade, investment and environment and
to IUCN´s current and future programme of work.
Initial fields
of activities include*:
- Research
on the interlinkages between Trade, Investment, Poverty and
Biodiversity, initially drawing on case studies from Least
Developed Countries.
- Supporting
CEESP's work on Environment and Security and IUCN and TRAFFIC's
work on trade policies and international frameworks as they relate
to Trade, Aid and Conflict as well as to illegal trade
and trade in endangered species.
- Exploring
the interface between Macroeconomic Policies, Trade and Investment
with a view to contributing to a better understanding of how these
policies affect biodiversity conservation.
- Supporting
existing efforts by IUCN to address the urgent issues of the effects
of trade policies on the spread of Invasive Alien Species and
to laying out effective and innovative policy responses.
- Exploring
the economic and legal relevance, viability and options of the
international access and benefit sharing regime negotiations
agreed at the WSSD (2002).
- Taking an
Eco-Regions Approach to understanding how the sustainability
of eco-regions, such as the Mekong River Basin, are affected by
trade regimes.
- Scrutinize
and contribute to unlocking the debate on effectively addressing
biodiversity use and conservation concerns in the context of Integrated
Product Policy (IPP) including Process and Production Methods
(PPMs).
- Exploring
the economics and potential operationalization of Art. 26 of
the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety (socio-economic considerations).
- Scrutinize
trade and investment aspects of the Kyoto Protocol and the
Biodiversity Convention.
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