Rik Kutsch Lojenga, Executive Director (Left), Bas Schneiders, Board President (Right), Weleda booth at Biofach
Dear friends,
2019 was an important year for us at UEBT. We saw the revision process of the UEBT standard and significant growth of UEBT activities. We welcomed many new members, our conference attendance grew by 20%, and UEBT’s diverse staff welcomed new representatives in Southeast Asia and India, as well as experts on knowledge sharing and Access and Benefit Sharing (ABS).
We worked with companies on their Biodiversity Action Plans and released a detailed manual and a learning platform on the topic. UEBT continued to be seen as the global expert on ABS and we fostered several examples of ABS excellence within our membership. In 2019, we also had the pleasure of seeing the first UEBT labelled products – from Natura and Weleda - released in stores.
As we write this in late April 2020, the world is grappling with the COVID-19 pandemic and our international sustainability community is working diligently, despite this new set of unprecedented challenges, to launch the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework. UEBT and its members and partners will continue our core work together, and later in 2020 we will share lessons learnt over the past many years and publish a set of concrete future recommendations for business on the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity.
We could not do this work without you, and we thank you for your commitment. Here’s to a better next decade that sees more positive trends emerge for all people and biodiversity.
Board field trip to Rooibos fields, South Africa, 2019
