News

SIPPO conference on implementing sustainability

Web Editor — Thu, 06 May 2010 11:14:28 +0000

Genva, Switzerland—On 21 May, International Biodiversity Day, the Swiss Import Promotion Programme (SIPPO), one of Fairwild's partner organisations is hosting a confernce in Geneva on "Experiences from the Industries on Implementing Sustainability, Corporate Social Responsibility, and Trade with Biodiversity"

FairWild Foundation at Biofach 2010

Web Editor — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 00:01:40 +0000

Nuremberg, Germany, 17 February 2010—The FairWild Foundation is attending Biofach 2010, the World Organic Trade Fair, taking place from 17–20 February in Nuremberg, Germany.

“The FairWild Foundation can look back on a successful first year of operations in 2009,” says Bert-Jan Ottens, Chair of FairWild’s Communication and Marketting Committee.

Traditional Medicinals markets FairWild certified products

Web Editor — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 14:48:20 +0000

A mock-up of how the FairWild logo will appear on the certified products Click image to enlarge Sebastopol, USA, 20 November 2009—Traditional Medicinals, a leading medicinal and herbal tea company has become the first U.S.-based manufacturer to obtain the new FairWild certification.

Traditional Medicinals was instrumental in first identifying a critical gap in sustainability certification for wild harvested plants. The company is currently the largest Fair Trade-certified herbal tea company in the U.S. However, of the roughly 3,000 plant species traded globally, more than 2,000 are wild-collected and thus not eligible for Fair Trade certification.

FairWild at Mumbai Biofach

Web Editor — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 13:41:36 +0000

TRAFFIC India will be representing FairWild in the upcoming BioFach in Mumbai, India, from 18-20 November 2009.

BioFach is the World Organic Trade Fair.

TRAFFIC will be showcasing the ISSC-MAP project being implemented in India in the States of Uttarakhand & Karnataka.

TRAFFIC India is taking a delegation comprising of medicinal plant experts, local partner NGOs, State Government representatives and harvesters/collectors from the field (local community).

ISSC-MAP featured in Conservation for a New Era

Web Editor — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 14:15:00 +0000

The latest analysis of the state of conservation published by IUCN

The book, Conservation for a New Era, outlines the critical issues facing us in the 21st century, developed from the results of last year’s World Conservation Congress in Barcelona.

The landmark publication takes on the pressing issues of today and highlights the solutions to be found through investing in nature.

The International Standard for Sustainable Wild Collection of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants (ISSC-MAP) features in a section on Optimizing biodiversity-related support for human health.

FairWild Standards prove their worth in Bosnia and Herzegovina

Web Editor — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 10:16:00 +0000

A pilot project to implement measures for fair and sustainable collection of Wild Garlic in Bosnia & Herzegovina proved a success © Sladjana Bundalo Bosnia and Herzegovina, 12 August 2009—experts in sustainable management have given their strong approval to the new sustainability standards for the collection of wild medicinal and aromatic plants (MAPs), after testing them in Bosnia and Herzegovina during an 18-month pilot project on Wild Garlic Allium ursinum.

Bosnia and Herzegovina, located in south-eastern Europe, is a major source country for medicinal and aromatic plants collected in Europe.

ISSC-MAP merges with FairWild Foundation

Web Editor — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 14:52:00 +0000

Horses are used to carry the harvested Wild Garlic collected at the implementation project in Bosnia & Herzegovina © Sladjana Bundalo Implementation of the International Standard for Sustainable Wild Collection of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants (ISSC-MAP) received a major boost in October 2008 with the agreement to combine ISSC-MAP with the “fair trade” standard developed by the FairWild Foundation. The new FairWild Standard provides a unified modular system of both standards’ requirements for assessing harvests of wild plants against ecological, social and economic requirements. Use of the FairWild Standard will support efforts to ensure plants are harvested and traded in a way that maintains healthy populations in the wild and benefits rural producers.

The agreement to join ISSC-MAP with FairWild Foundation was formalized during the IUCN World Conservation Congress (October 2008) with the signing of an agreement with the FairWild Foundation by representatives of ISSC-MAP’s four founding institutions: the German Federal Agency for Nature Conservation (BfN), IUCN, WWF Germany, and TRAFFIC. The application and further evolution of the combined FairWild Standard will be overseen by the FairWild Foundation, with IUCN, WWF and TRAFFIC each having initial representation on the Foundation’s governing and technical bodies, alongside representatives from the organizations involved in FairWild Foundation’s founding: SIPPO (Swiss Import Promotion Prog ramme), Forum Essenzia e.V and IMO (Institute for Market Ecology).

FairWild features in The Organic Standard

Web Editor — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 13:57:00 +0000

Wild collection standards under one roof: Josef Brinckmann, a member of the FairWild Foundation board, wrote about the history of the FairWild Foundation initiative and the reasons for its existence in the April 2009 issue of The Organic Standard.

New foundation to promote sustainable collection of wild plants

Web Editor — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 13:11:00 +0000

Left to right: Julia Marton-Lefèvre (Director General, IUCN), Professor Beate Jessel, BfN President, Guillermo Castilleja, Executive Director of Conservation, WWF and Steven Broad, Executive Director, TRAFFIC, announcing a new ISSC-MAP agreement © TRAFFIC Barcelona, Spain, 9 October 2008—An important agreement was signed today between the four founding institutions of the International Standard for Sustainable Wild Collection of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants (ISSC-MAP) to endorse global implementation of the standard through the FairWild Foundation.

ISSC-MAP is a standard that promotes appropriate management of wild plant populations used in medicines and cosmetics to ensure they are not over-exploited. Under the new agreement, the FairWild Foundation will help develop an industry labelling system so products harvested using the sustainable ISSC-MAP criteria can be readily recognised and certified. Use of the standard will be promoted throughout the herbal products industry.

Therapy needed for medicinal plants

Web Editor — Tue, 20 May 2008 13:22:00 +0000

Traditional medicinals market © Nguyen TapCambridge, UK, 20 May 2008—It is well known that there are plants that save lives; the question now is who saves these plants from over- exploitation, habitat loss and a host of other threats.

Every year, about half a million tonnes of dried medicinal and aromatic plants (MAP) are traded internationally, and an unknown but substantial quantity is traded on national and local markets.

More than 50% of the plants are harvested from the wild, and the demand for MAPs is increasing world-wide. Coupled with land conversion and habitat degradation in many regions, it means around a quarter of such species are under threat.