South-East Asia nations discuss integration of plant conservation targets into national policies

FairWild Standard implementation in practice at a CEPF-funded project at Bac Kan, Viet Nam © Dr Nguyen Tap / TRAFFICSingapore, 2013—Participants from countries across South-East Asia plus China met last month in Singapore to develop or update national and regional plant conservation targets consistent with the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation (GSPC). 

The GSPC was adopted by parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in April 2002 and for the first time set quantitative, although non-binding, conservation targets and a deadline for their attainment.

The GSPC currently has 16 targets under five objectives that include sustainable and equitable use of plant products, documentation and conservation of plant diversity improving education and awareness of plants, and increasing capacity for plant conservation.

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FairWild's trustee wins AHPA award

Josef Brinckmann, winner of AHPA's Herbal Insight Award 2013Josef Brinckmann, member of the FairWild Foundation's Board of Trustees, was recently recognized for the American Herbal Products Association (AHPA) Herbal Insight Award. With more than 34 years of professional experience in the medicinal herbal products trade, Josef is vice president of sustainability at tea company Traditional Medicinals, and currently serves as a senior consultant for biodiversity products with the International Trade Centre of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development. He also serves on the advisory board of the American Botanical Council, is an advisory committee member of the American Herbal Pharmacopoeia (AHP), and a member of the United States Pharmacopeial Convention's Dietary Supplements Monographs Expert Committee.

This award recognizes individuals that have a significant impact on furthering knowledge and understanding of botanicals and their uses. Learn more here.

FairWild cocoa certification in Bolivia - a world first!

Credit: http://www.befair.be/en/content/worldpremi%C3%A8re-fairwild-cocoa-certification-bolivia

As Fairtrade fortnight gets underway, we have some good news to share from a fair and sustainable trade initiative in South America.

The Yuracaré are an indigenous people of the Amazon basin living in Bolivia. Year after year they have witnessed how their natural resources subsided due to far-reaching deforestation. The association of Yuracaré forestry cocoa collectors ARCASY was established in 2011 with the aim to revalue the collection of wild cocoa, a tradition.
 
Together with REPSA, they focused on obtaining FairWild certification. Since November 2012 they are proud to have their cocoa FairWild certified: a world first.

Read more about the project on the BTC Trade for Development website.

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Keeping it wild: FairWild at BioFach, Germany

FairWild at BioFach 2013. Credit: TRAFFICFebruary 2013 - FairWild Foundation representatives, partners and friends were out in force at the BioFach trade fair in Nuremberg, Germany, earlier this month.

Known as “the place where organic people meet”, BioFach is an important annual event for those involved in the wild plant ingredient trade—producers, manufacturers, traders, brokers, NGOs, standard-setters, certifiers alike. And this year, wild collection was on everyone’s radar.

Addressing ecological and social issues connected with wild collection is difficult. Trade chains are long and complex and it can be hard for industry and consumers even to know when products are wild sourced.

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‘Living fossils’ used as trade case studies

Cycas pachypoda, one of Viet Nam's 'living fossil' plants, chosen for a sustainable trade study © Dr HiepHa Noi, Viet Nam, 1st and 2nd November 2012—Cycads—ancient plant species sometimes referred to as ‘living fossils’ because they have remained unchanged for millions of years—were chosen to examine the implementation of new guidelines developed to determine whether or not trade in perennial plants is sustainable.

The guidelines are aimed at helping CITES (The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) Management and Scientific Authorities, the national bodies charged with implementing the Convention, determine whether trade is detrimental to a species’s survival or not. If it is not detrimental, then the Authority can issue a Non-Detriment Finding (NDF)—a requirement before CITES trade permits can be issued. NDFs are therefore central to the successful implementation of CITES regulations.

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