[MPWG] Transparency?

[Plant Conservation]

On Wed, 8 Dec 2004, Michael Schenk wrote:

> The only thing opaque about this discussion is just what is meant by
> "transparency"  :) .  Could someone define this?

Here's a good little blurb that mentions the general idea of what is meant
by transparency.
http://www.journalofbusinessstrategy.com/articles/WhatIsTransparency.shtml
A Google search will yield a lot of other links as well.

The concept is being applied to all sorts of things, from democracy to
technology to medicinal and aromatic plant supply chains.  For the purpose
of MPWG's discussions, I think it's being referred to as being able to
know where the plant material comes from, how it's collected, who's doing
the collecting/processing & under what living/working conditions, and any
other number of supply chain related questions.  The ability to access
this information (having it be transparent, rather than secret) allows
people/companies to make informed choices as buyers/consumers/suppliers
and that means companies would be more easily held accountable for their
actions/decisions as well.  At least that's my understanding of the issue,
hopefully someone else can eludicate upon this if it's incorrect or there
are other questions.

Olivia
SER/PCA
http://www.nps.gov/plants/