Biodiversity & Luxury: LVMH’s Partnership with UNESCO

LVMH, the world's largest luxury goods retail conglomerate, has signed a five-year partnership with UNESCO to expand the organisations’ joint actions for biodiversity conservation.

The partnership, which is titled 'For the Beauty of the Living', expands on the work that LVMH and UNESCO have done together since 2019.

LVMH is set to support the mobilisation of UNESCO’s education, science and cultural programmes. 

The agreement also includes a new project conducted with the Tiffany & Co. Foundation, focused on the sustainable management of marine areas.

Audrey Azoulay, Director-General of UNESCO, says: “Preserving together the beauty of the living is the objective of this strengthened partnership. Within UNESCO-designated sites, we are developing with LVMH nature- and culture-based solutions, such as agroforestry or craftsmanship, for the benefit of local communities around the world.”

What the LVMH-UNESCO partnership will do

LVMH says that the partnership is structured around three major priorities from 2025 to 2029:

• Supporting sustainable economic models
• Measuring environmental and social impacts
• Strengthening skills and knowledge.

Local initiatives will be supported according to community needs and territorial specificities, particularly within the framework of actions it has already undertaken in the Amazon and Africa. 

The partnership will assess the combined benefits of sustainable and nature-positive practices, with the organisations looking to promote them and contribute to international work on the development of Nature Certificates. 

To strengthen skills and knowledge, the partnership will look to promote sustainable practices through agroforestry or regenerative agriculture through education, research and skills-based sponsorship.

This will rely on UNESCO University Chairs and cooperation with the Learning Planet Institute, previously known as the Center for Research and Interdisciplinarity (CRI).

“Proud of the actions carried out locally under the first partnership with UNESCO, LVMH is pleased to formalise this new chapter,” says Antoine Arnault, Image and Environment Director of LVMH.

“In connection with local stakeholders, such as breeders and farmers, the Group intends to continue its role as an integrator and facilitator in shaping this renewed relationship with living systems," he adds.

The Tiffany & Co. Foundation and UNESCO

The Tiffany & Co. Foundation, part of LVMH, is also taking part in the collaboration to support ocean sciences through its 'Delivering a Healthy Ocean' initiative. 

The Foundation aims to support the development of sustainable management plans for marine areas using scientific and local knowledge alongside strengthening international cooperation. 

It aims to establish a network of decision makers and experts across at least 10 countries and promote concrete solutions to protect marine ecosystems. 

LVMH says that this aligns with the objectives of the Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development, led by UNESCO’s Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission from 2021 to 2030.

LVMH and UNESCO’s results so far

The new agreement extends on initial collaboration between LVMH and UNESCO’s “Man and the Biosphere” programme that began in 2019.

This programme focussed on eight biosphere reserves in the Amazon region in Bolivia, Brazil, Ecuador and Peru across nearly 30 million hectares.

These areas are home to 1.3 million people including many Indigenous communities and LVMH says that more than 80 initiatives directly benefit in excess of 1,000 families and young people. 

So far, LVMH says that the partnership has helped to:

• Establish participatory governance in the eight biosphere reserves 
• Train and equip more than 200 people in for forest fire prevention, including the involvement of local communities and youth networks in management committees
• Develop income-generating activities unrelated to deforestation such as meliponiculture (farming stingless bees) in Peru and cacao production through agroforestry practices in Ecuador.

Specific LVMH brands, or Maisons, have made contributions to the programme too.

Christelle Capdupuy, Chief Sustainability Officer at Louis Vuitton, part of LVMH, says on LinkedIn: “Proud to be part of LVMH, committed to restore five million hectares of biodiversity in the world, especially through our partnership with UNESCO, dedicated to sustainable management of biodiversity.”

Guerlain launched the Women for Bees initiative in collaboration with UNESCO to support more than 120 women beekeepers in eight countries 

Christian Dior Couture partnered with UNESCO to strengthen community initiatives for biodiversity conservation and restoration in Mexico’s Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve.

Almost 18,000 people have indirectly benefited from support for ecotourism and agroforestry, as well as for the production of cocoa, coffee, crafts and honey, LVMH says.

This new partnership, 'For the Beauty of the Living', is part of LVMH’s LIFE 360 environmental strategy.