The Biodiversity and Agricultural Commodities Program

The expansion of agriculture is the leading cause of habitat destruction and a major threat to global biodiversity. The Biodiversity and Agricultural Commodities Program (BACP) will seek to reduce these threats by leveraging market forces at all levels of the value chain. This will help to mainstream the use of so-called Better Management Practices (BMPs) that decrease the impact of production on biodiversity. BACP will work in partnership with major players in four commodity markets who are willing to adopt more sustainable practices.

The commodities concerned are palm oil, cocoa, sugarcane and soybeans, which today cover approximately 125 million hectares globally. Initially, BACP will work in Indonesia, Malaysia, Brazil, Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire, which are major producers and exporters of these commodities. Projects in other countries will be welcome as the program unfolds.

Status

Phase I (five years) of this ten-year program, which has been approved by the Global Environment Facility (GEF), has started implementation (see flyer). Through an international call for offers, Chemonics International was selected to host the Program Management Unit (PMU) of the BACP. Ecoagriculture Partners will be in charge of the Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) Unit.

The BACP Steering Committee has been formed (see Terms of Reference) with representation by GEF, IFC, the World Bank, and the roundtables. For its first meeting, the Roundtable for Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) was present. The Steering Committee has approved the Market Transformation Strategy for Palm Oil and the BACP Project Selection Criteria. The PMU will shortly call for submissions of individual project proposals that fit this market transformation strategy, and will work closely with the Roundtable for Sustainable Palm Oil and IFC in its selection of projects for BACP funding.

Documents for download:

• BACP Flyer – March 2008 (PDF, 716kb)
• Full BACP Documentation (Cover Memorandum, Program Appraisal Document and Annexes, as submitted to the GEF Secretariat for CEO endorsement in April 2007 – also available from the GEF website at www.gefweb.org
• Terms of Reference of the BACP Steering Committee (PDF, 125kb)
• Project Selection Criteria (PDF, 28kb)
• Market Transformation Strategy for Palm Oil (PDF, 85kb)

For additional information, please contact biodiversity@ifc.org.