[MPWG] New foundation to promote sustainable collection of wild plants

[Patricia_Ford at fws.gov]

http://www.traffic.org/home/2008/10/8/new-foundation-to-promote-sustainable-collection-of-wild-pla.html
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New foundation to promote sustainable collection of wild plants

Barcelona, Spain, 9th 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.

ISSC-MAP was developed by a partnership including the German Federal Agency
for Nature Conservation (BfN), the IUCN SSC Medicinal Plant Specialist
Group (MPSG), WWF-Germany, and TRAFFIC, plus industry associations,
companies, certifiers and community-based NGOs. The announcement was made
at the World Conservation Congress, currently underway in Barcelona.

“This new agreement marks a significant step forward in the sustainable use
of wild plants important to human health and well being. Industry adoption
of the standard will ensure sustainable use and equitable sharing of the
world’s wild plant resources, reinforcing the healthy environments, healthy
people theme running throughout the World Conservation Congress,” said IUCN
Director General Julia Marton-Lefèvre signing the agreement on behalf of
IUCN.

“A susscessful wild plant collection standard is essential to ensure
sustainable use of medicinal plants not only for purposes of nature
conservation but also in a social and economic context. Germany, as one of
the major medicinal plant importers worldwide has a special responsibility
of acting upon such principles,” said Professor Beate Jessel, President of
the German Federal Agency for Nature Conservation.

More than 400,000 tonnes of medicinal and aromatic plants are traded
annually, with around 80% of the species harvested from the wild. Almost
3,000  species are traded, many of them over-exploited and in danger of
extinction through over-collection and habitat loss. Implementation of the
standard will stop more plants being over-exploited and becoming threatened
with extinction under IUCN’s Red List criteria.

“Worldwide, people depend on medicinal plants and profit from the unique
therapeutic effects of medicine from nature’s pharmacy,” said Guillermo
Castilleja, Executive Director of Conservation, WWF. “This new agreement is
a significant step forward in ensuring the long-term sustainability and
supply of these invaluable natural products.”

“Over-harvesting of wild plants is a serious, yet often neglected issue.
This timely agreement is a milestone on the road to seeing sustainability
become the norm throughout the herbal products industry.”
said Steven Broad, Executive Director of TRAFFIC.


ENDS
For more information, please contact: Richard Thomas, TRAFFIC
International, Email: richard.thomas at traffic.org mobile: +44 752 6646 216.

NOTES
1 Organisations and experts involved in the ISSC-MAP consultation
included: the German Federal Agency for Nature Conservation (BfN), the IUCN
SSC Medicinal Plant Specialist Group (MPSG), WWF-Germany, and TRAFFIC, plus
industry associations, companies, certifiers and community-based NGOs.

2 The Fair Wild Foundation was founded in 2005 as a joint initiative of the
Swiss Import Promotion Organisation (SIPPO), the Institute for
Marketecology (IMO), and Forum Essenzia to promote socially and
environmentally sustainable use of natural products.

3 The ISSC-MAP is based on six principles: maintaining wild medicinal and
aromatic plant resources, preventing negative environmental impacts, legal
compliance, respecting customa ry rights, applying responsible management
practices, and appdownload a copy as a PDF, and to find out more about the
standard and its implementation, please visit:
http://www.floraweb.de/MAP-pro/