Ricupero told The Earth Times that it is a priority of UNCTAD to protect the rights of the indigenous peoples involved in these partnerships. "It is one of the central principles of this program that we will religiously respect the rights of traditional communities and indigenous communities," Ricupero said. "We will do everything we can to give them full protection under the already existing rules."

The first of UNCTAD's partnerships is a program to support the biotrade industry in the Andean nations Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela. This program would introduce the idea of sustainability to local business and educate local businessmen and producers on sound business practices. The program encourages cooperation between governments, indigenous communities, business and conservationists. The second program is a Biotrade Facilitation Program in Latin America, Africa and Asia that provides access for local communities to foreign markets. The third program will assist small and medium enterprises (SMEs) involved in biodiversity in upgrading their operations to access credit and venture capital.

According to Ricupero, "These are three examples of partnerships that support the implementation of Agenda 21 and the Convention on Biological Diversity."

Ricupero gave an example of a potential beneficiary of the newly announced UNCTAD programs. He referred to a woman from Mauritania he had met and who wanted to export camel cheese to Germany. She found an exporter who could export a significant quantity of this cheese to Europe, but could not carry this out because there was no precedent for camel cheese in international trade.

"We help those people to put those kinds of products on the market," Ricupero said. "We will even help them in the sanitation aspect to give assurances that camel cheese will be healthy and safe to eat."

The secretary general also maintained that UNCTAD would make efforts to improve existing intellectual property and protection rules, emphasizing that traditional communities need specialized types of rights. The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) has not yet agreed on these rights.

"We are trying to persuade them [WIPO] that many indigenous communities are not used to western categories of patents, so they need something different," Ricupero noted. "There is no doubt whatsoever for us that if there is no possibility of giving them protection we would rather refrain from exposing those people to piracy."

The programs are currently active in the Amazon and Andean regions. Some programs are also under way in Africa, and being planned for Asia.

"We are trying to cover all the developing world, with emphasis on the poorest among the poor, particularly the least developed countries," Ricupero said.