Taking a walk on the wild side

Paris, France, 3 July 2007—Plants took centre stage today during the 12th meeting of the Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice (SBSTTA), currently taking place in Paris.

SBSTTA comprises government experts who provide reports and make recommendations to meetings of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD).

Yesterday, the agenda focused on implementation of the CBD Global Strategy for Plant Conservation, with several participants noting the importance of medicinal and aromatic plants and the need for tools to support sustainable management and conservation of wild plants generally.

One such tool, the International Standard for Sustainable Wild Collection of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants (ISSC-MAP), was featured during a lunchtime event organised by TRAFFIC, the IUCN/SSC Medicinal Plant Specialist Group, WWF and the German Federal Agency for Nature Conservation (BfN).

Participants from 15 countries learned about the Standard and how it can be used to achieve sustainable use and conservation of this critically important group of plants.

“Key priorities now are the need to increase local capacity for assessing the status of medicinal plant resources, and for ensuring that local harvesters receive a greater share of the benefits from trade in medicinal plants,” said Teresa Mulliken of TRAFFIC, who helped organise the ISSC-MAP event.

Implementation of the Standard is being made possible thanks in part to the generous support of BfN.