Amidst a remarkable array of promising initiatives and collaborations to advance change, the reality is that the world is not yet moving fast enough in the right direction. Despite our growing understanding of the role and value of nature as a fundamental basis of economic activity and human welfare, incentives that drive its destruction are built deep into our economies, with a vast range of impacts, risks, and threats for people around the world.

The World Wildlife Fund’s 2024 Living Planet Report reveals that a number of tipping points in the natural world “are highly likely if current trends are left to continue, with potentially catastrophic consequences.” The World Bank has estimated that “the collapse of select ecosystem services provided by nature—such as wild pollination, provision of food from marine fisheries, and timber from native forests—could result in a decline in global GDP of $2.7 trillion annually by 2030.”

Reversing biodiversity decline will require a focused commitment to end incentives that harm nature and to foster incentives and opportunities that build a nature-positive economy.

There are opportunities to do better. The theme of this year's Biodiversity Day is “harmony with nature and sustainable development,” calling for attention to the importance of integrating biodiversity priorities into economic development and global policies.

At TESS, core to our mission is how to develop a more systemic vision and agenda for a nature-positive trading system. We know that trade and trade-related policies can play a critical role in both driving and responding to the biodiversity crisis—and that enhanced international cooperation will be vital. Indeed, only through inclusive international cooperation can we forge effective, fair trade rules and policies that proactively support environmental outcomes and address the dependence of economic activity and sustainable development on nature.

As we advance this work, collaborations are vital and will require engagement with the growing range of partners working from a variety of different starting points—nature-positive trade, sustainable bioeconomy, and sustainability in agriculture, among others. Here is some of the work that we at TESS have been pursuing over the past year to support engagement and action on inclusive international cooperation on nature, trade, and sustainable development.

At the UN Biodiversity Conference (COP16), TESS was present supporting trade-related cooperation to protect and restore nature for sustainable development. The conference featured the first-ever Trade Day partnered with UNCTAD, the WTO Secretariat, UNEP and the BRS Secretariats, among others, on a variety of trade-related topics. Connecting the dots between nature and finance, we published in 2024 a policy brief on The Transition to an Economy that Values Nature, written by Ruth Davis, in which she examines options for reforming financial systems to tilt incentives away from nature’s destruction towards its protection, sustainable use, and restoration. On a similar theme, we had a great collaboration with UNEP and Nature Finance on an expert brainstorming on the nexus of cooperation on trade, finance and nature.

At the 2024 UN Climate Change Conference, we hosted an event focused on the opportunities for international cooperation on trade to support achievement of the global climate goals and sustainable agriculture and food systems. We have also mobilized an International Expert Group on Environmentally Harmful Agricultural Subsidies to identify a set of environmentally harmful subsidies for priority action at the international level, including at the World Trade Organization, and contributed to G20 discussions on this critical issue for the preservation of biodiversity globally. On the occasion of the WTO’s Global Review of Aid for Trade, we published a statement from 35 WTO members on addressing fisheries subsidies delivered by Hon. Kerrie D. Symmonds, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Barbados, highlighting the importance of a comprehensive agreement for protecting ocean health, the livelihoods of fisherfolk, and the communities they support.

In our blog Synergies, a diversity of leading experts from around the globe have written on biodiversity-related issues ranging from making the global food system more sustainable and resilient and the achievement of a nature-positive global goal through to protecting forests through sustainable supply chains, and the governance of trade as if a healthy planet really mattered.

In short, some good news is that work is well underway among a range of partners to focus attention on opportunities for trade-related cooperation that can support implementation of the Biodiversity Plan and sustainable development. As we celebrate World Biodiversity Day, we at TESS look forward to working with renewed energy on fostering inclusive international cooperation on nature-positive trade and the range of trade policies relevant to biodiversity and sustainability in agriculture, food systems, and use of natural resources.