FairWild Standard highlighted at the World Forum on Plant Conservation in China

November 2019 - The FairWild Standard has featured during presentations on the current situation for plant conservation at the World Forum on the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation, held in Dujiangyan, China on 28-30 October 2019.

This event was convened roughly one year before the 15th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD CoP15) is due to be held in Kunming, China. This landmark UN Biodiversity Summit is expected to conclude the negotiations on the post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework – a detailed strategic plan of action aimed at reducing the rate of biodiversity loss after 2020 – as well as assess outcomes of conservation efforts in the years to date. Targets will be agreed for the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation (GSPC) in 2021-2030, building on implementation activities for the strategy already undertaken.

The GSPC includes 16 outcome-oriented targets for the period 2011-2020, including two which specifically relate to trade in wild plants - Target 11: No species of wild flora endangered by international trade, and Target 12: All wild harvested plant-based products sourced sustainably. The uptake of the FairWild Standard and its certification framework is used as a proxy measure of progress against Target 12.

At the World Forum, FairWild implementation was accordingly mentioned in the opening remarks by David Cooper, CBD Secretariat, as well as in the presentation on GSPC progress to date by Paul Smith, Secretary General of Botanic Gardens Conservation International, a non-profit organisation that has developed the toolkit aiding implementation of the GSPC.

Anastasiya Timoshyna, TRAFFIC delivered a keynote presentation on the progress around Targets 11 and 12, giving examples of various elements of work designed to improve the sustainability of trade in wild plants, and progress with adoption of the FairWild Standard. Such updates will also feed into a Plant Conservation Report to be launched in Kunming 2020 as part of the Global Biodiversity Outlook 5.

Beyond the discussions on the political framework and high-level conservation targets, the Forum provided a venue to highlight new initiatives underway. The event was well attended by Chinese organisations – the People's Republic of China being both the host country, and also a very important actor in the global production, trade and consumption of botanical ingredients. It included the launch of China's Plant Conservation Strategy 2021-2030 in the final session. Speakers at the Forum also introduced cutting-edge thinking on the targets on species survival, in particular the "STAR" (Species Threat Abatement and Restoration) metric.

More information on the conference, which was organised by the China Wild Plant Conservation Association (CWPCA) and partners, is available here, and also the final declaration from the conference.

The World Forum was not the only important event for wild plants taking place in China in October, with the “Panda Friendly Products and Branding Conference” in held Chengdu 25-26 October. This meeting was held to mark progress with the Chinese “Panda-Friendly” standard, the first certified products of which are due to be launched later this year.

The Panda Friendly Standard is the outcome of years of work to develop species-specific conservation guidelines for commercial activity (such as wild harvesting) taking place in the habitat of the Giant Panda. It incorporates elements of the FairWild Standard, in particular relating to Principle 2, Preventing Negative Environmental Impacts. Co-certification of wild harvested products against the Panda Friendly Standard and FairWild Standard is an option for the future – FairWild certification has been available in China since 2017, through a partnership with the Chinese control body China Standard Conformity Assessment Co., Ltd (CSCA).