FairWild and CITES
The FairWild standard is also proving instrumental for the implementation of existing regulatory frameworks provided by National Resource Management Systems as well as by International Conventions such as CITES.
Countries exporting plant and animal species listed in Appendix II of CITES are required to demonstrate the levels of export are not detrimental to the survival of the species concerned.
This is achieved through the compilation and issuing of a so-called Non-Detriment Finding (NDF) by the CITES Scientic Authority of the country concerned.
Currently there is little detailed technical guidance on how to compile NDFs or how to make them comparable between different countries. CITES is currently preparing such guidance through its Animals and Plants Committees.
The FairWild Standard has been useful in this process. Members and partners of the FairWild Foundation have ensured that the relevant ecological criteria (formerly the ISSC-MAP Standard) of the FairWild Standard were considered at International CITES expert meetings in Mexico and elsewhere and a background paper on Supporting the Implementation of ISSC-MAP in CITES through the Non-Detriment-Finding-Process (PDF, 700 KB) prepared.
The general outcome of the Mexico meeting was presented in a formal document (Doc 16.2, PDF, 330 KB) to the 15th Conference of the Parties to CITES (CoP15) in March 2010, with a specific reference to ISSC-MAP in paragraph 6.
The guidance docs from the Mexico expert meetings were used by the CITES Plants Committee to form the basis of papers on medicinal plants, agarwood and timber. All elements relevant to CITES in ISSC-MAP were used in the resultant CoP15 document (Doc 16.3, PDF, 450 KB).
The ISSC-MAP standard is also referenced in another CoP15 document (Doc 17, PDF, 44 KB), which states: "the aim of ISSC-MAP is to bridge the gap between existing broad conservation guidelines and management plans developed for specific local conditions."
The implementation of an adaptive management scheme based on regular monitoring is an important consideration in the ongoing NDF evaluation process discussion. FairWild management planning guidance can also provide guidance to this.
Lesotho: CITES NDF based on FairWild Standard
TRAFFIC has field tested how the FairWild Standard could guide the elaboration of a NDF for Pelargonium sidoides in Lesotho and South Africa as part of the international project "Saving Plants that Save Lives and Livelihoods", funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and co-ordinated by TRAFFIC and WWF Germany.
Pelargonium sidoides is currently not listed in CITES, but populations are under severe pressure due to land conversion and harvesting.
The FairWild Standard proved to be a comprehensive and useful tool to prepare an NDF in Lesotho, and the results were presented (PDF, 440 KB) at a CITES NDF workshop.