“FairWild Week” to champion sustainable wild plant harvesting
August 2017 - The FairWild Foundation will launch the first ever “FairWild Week” to champion the vital need to harvest wild plant ingredients sustainably. Taking place between 21–27th August, the event will be supported by our partners such as TRAFFIC, the wildlife trade monitoring network, and involve FairWild certification scheme participants including Pukka Herbs, Traditional Medicinals, Neal’s Yard Remedies, London and Scottish and Dr. Jackson’s.
FairWild Week 2017 will be based online, inspiring curiosity and excitement about the amazing plant species we all depend upon and responding to the need for greater public awareness about the issues of wild plant harvesting and trading. More than 20 companies, NGOs and other stakeholders are expected to participate in FairWild Week.
During the week, the public will be invited to test their knowledge on wild plants. The award winning WhyGoWild site, hosted by TRAFFIC, provides insights into the use of wild plants in medicine and daily life. Take the plant quiz to find out how much you already know!
FairWild Week will raise awareness of the issues behind wild plant harvesting, and the many benefits we enjoy from wild plant ingredients in our daily lives. © TRAFFIC"Through FairWild Week, consumers will begin to learn how they can be part of the solution by looking for the FairWild logo on packaging," said Bryony Morgan, Executive Officer of the FairWild Secretariat.
"This guarantees that the product contains wild plant ingredients that have been harvested and traded in a way that protects both the plant and the collector - so we can enjoy their benefits for generations to come."
Created in 2006, the FairWild Standard protects the rights of collectors, promotes sustainability and ensures harvesting doesn’t threaten species, ecosystems or local communities. It is the only standard that provides an exclusive tool for the establishment of sustainable wild plant collection.
Around 60,000 plant species are used for their medicinal properties alone, the majority of them collected from the wild. Millions of people rely on wild harvested plants for medicine, with 30% of drugs sold globally containing plant-derived compounds. Yet one in five wild plants species is currently under threat. Many ingredients are also harvested without consideration of the long term ecological or community effects.
Added to this, the recent meteoric rise in popularity of natural, organic and wild-harvested ingredients makes the use of sustainable harvesting practices fundamentally important to ensure the protection of ecosystems, as well as the communities that depend on them.
Projects supporting the implementation of the FairWild Standard’s principles are being implemented across the world, ranging from locations throughout Central and Southeast Europe to countries including India, Kazakhstan, Zimbabwe and Georgia. All the projects are designed to fit with the social structures specific to wild collection, meeting the needs of collectors and their communities.
Over 300 tonnes of FairWild certified ingredients, derived from around 20 species of wild plants whose collection practices and supply meet the FairWild Standard criteria, were used by food, health products and cosmetic manufacturers in 2016.
FairWild Week aims to engage the pioneering companies from the FairWild certification scheme (wild collection operations, traders, manufacturers) in sharing messages about sustainable sourcing and the FairWild Standard to their customers, and beyond. The herbal product manufacturer Pukka Herbs - a FairWild Licensee that uses certified ingredients across their range of herbal teas - has made a particular contribution to the campaign, developing a series of videos about FairWild and wild plant sustainability issues.
To become involved in FairWild Week, check out our facebook and twitter pages throughout the week for videos, facts and success stories. The online event will be supported by TRAFFIC, a partner of the FairWild Foundation.
For more information, please contact the FairWild Secretariat.
Participation in the event will be co-ordinated by Marcus Cornthwaite, Communications Officer, TRAFFIC: marcus.cornthwaite@traffic.org
Visit the public landing page for the event here.