Wild Flora: Sustainable Use and Livelihood Projects

Wild Flora: Sustainable Use and Livelihood Projects

Plant conservation came under the spotlight during a preparatory meeting of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) currently underway in Canada.

In particular, discussions focused on developments with the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation (GSPC), whose over-arching aim is to halt the continuing loss of plant diversity. As the Strategy’s webpage notes: Without plants, there is no life.

Generally delegates to the 16th meeting of the Susbsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical  and Technological Advice (SBSTTA-16), who included a wide range of government representatives, many from Parties to the Convention, as well as non-governmental organizations, were pleased with progress with developing the GSPC, particularly the development of the online toolkit for its implementation.

TRAFFIC’s Medicinal Plant Programme Lead, Anastasiya Timoshyna, highlighted how the FairWild Standard’s principles could act as a tool to assist Parties, other governments and the private sector to implement particular targets within the GSPC, through relevant plans, programmes and policies, such as National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans (NBSAPs).

According to Timoshyna “Conservation of wild plants has never been more urgent, and the FairWild Standard is the right tool to help with implementation of the Strategy that will help secure the future for this invaluable resource.”

A paper jointly submitted to the meeting by TRAFFIC and WWF also recommended the use of the FairWild Standard to verify sustainable and ethical sourcing of plants from the wild.

Dicscussion surrounding the GSPC were drawn to a close on Thursday, with a number of recommendations now going forward for possible adoption at the Conference of the Parties taking place in October this year in India.

WWF Germany is particularly thanked for making TRAFFIC’s attendance at the preparatory CBD meeting (SBSTTA-16) possible.

Posted by George Daniels on Wednesday May 09 2012, 2:31 AM EST. Ref: TRAFFIC, GSPC. Link. All trademarks acknowledged. Filed under Featured News, Health. Comments and Trackbacks closed. Follow responses: RSS 2.0