CSCA accredited as FairWild certifier in China
Beijing, China, 25th October 2017—Today marked a special day as a signing ceremony was held between the FairWild Foundation and the China Standard Conformity Assessment Co., Ltd (CSCA)., marking the accreditation of CSCA as the exclusive certifier for FairWild in the People’s Republic of China.
Mr. Li Tienan, Director of CSCA said, “As one of China’s most innovative control bodies, we are very much looking forward to this new stage of co-operation with the FairWild Foundation, to introduce this international certification standard in China.”
“In a world increasingly concerned about the safety and traceability of ingredients, as well as the environmental and social issues related to the consumption of wild resources, it is important for China to remain cutting edge and establish international co-operation to address sustainable sourcing issues. The FairWild Standard adds an important tool to CSCA’s certification portfolio, and we are keen to keep building and expanding our expertise on wild collection issues.”
The availability of FairWild certification audits in China has long been an ambition of the FairWild Foundation, as well as the many other partners and stakeholders involved with the trade in wild medicinal and aromatic plants.
China is a major player in these ingredients, as highlighted in a recent publication by ITC-TRAFFIC. The review identified the scale of the trade, as well as the huge potential opportunity for China’s medicinal plants production sector to benefit from the growing consumer and industry demand for certified sustainable, fairly traded products.
Michael Schwegler, FairWild trainer, discusses wild collection issues with candidate auditors during the FairWild auditor training course. © TRAFFICThe co-operation between CSCA and FairWild Foundation began in 2015, with a connection facilitated under the EGP-MAPs project–an EU-funded initiative which aimed to introduce corporate social responsibility (CSR) and sustainable sourcing in the Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) industry. This culminated in an MoU signed in 2016, with agreement to work on a joint road map for the introduction of FairWild Standard and certification scheme in China.
Actions taken since have included the formal registration of the FairWild Standard with the government agency Certification and Accreditation Administration of the People's Republic of China (CNCA), and inclusion in their database of certifiable international standards. FairWild Foundation’s partner, TRAFFIC, is the registered focal point for the FairWild Standard in China, and has played an important role in facilitating the process to enable certification for the export market.
Preceding the signing ceremony, earlier this month, there was a formal FairWild Auditor Training course—an intensive four day event carried out in locations in Guangxi and Yunnan. Under the tuition of Michael Schwegler, a FairWild authorized trainer, six trainees received the training and passed the exam.
The training was supported under the projects implemented by TRAFFIC and local partners—the initiatives “Sustainable trade in wild medicinal and aromatic plants: linking biodiversity, communities and livelihoods in the Sino-Vietnamese Limestone corridor”, funded by the Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund (CEPF), and “Sustainable use of China's five-taste berry and other medicinal plants”, funded by the Keidanren Nature Conservation Fund. These projects aim to establish sustainable sourcing and sustainable economic development to wild-harvesters of wild plants in some of China’s most biodiverse habitats.
Zhou Fei, TRAFFIC’s Head of Office in China, said, “Application of the FairWild Standard and introduction of the certification scheme is not only important to protect China’s precious resource base—the biodiversity and ecosystems on which we depend—but also to address rural development issues and introduce new skills and livelihood options, in line with the national strategy to pursue green development and build a beautiful China.”
“As a partner of the FairWild Foundation, we are very pleased to have played a role over a number of years, to support the use of this internationally recognized Standard in China, including through this recent auditor training event in Guangxi.”
Completion of the FairWild auditor training exam. © TRAFFICThe auditor training programme was designed to give participants the knowledge and skills to be able to verify wild collection against the FairWild Standard requirements, and strengthen their understanding of the certification scheme framework and standard operating procedures. The final step remaining was the formal accreditation of CSCA as a certifier for the FairWild scheme, which was done through the contract signing today.
Elisabeth Rüegg, FairWild Foundation Board Member and Accreditation Co-ordinator, said, “The accreditation of CSCA marks a considerable milestone in the development of the FairWild certification scheme, and our ambitions to make this Standard internationally available. It opens up new exciting possibilities for the global medicinal and aromatic plants sector to source wild ingredients sustainably from this critically important source country. We look forward to working with CSCA on the path ahead!”
Contact details:
FairWild Foundation: Bryony Morgan, Executive Officer secretariat@fairwild.org
CSCA: Ma Xiaoti maxt@cscac.com.cn and Huang Rui huangrui@cscac.com.cn
TRAFFIC: Sammi Li, Senior Communication Officer Xiaojia.Li@traffic.org
Notes:
The FairWild Foundation has opened its accreditation programme in 2016, with a formal launch in February 2017. The system is now open to any qualified control body, with no geographic exclusions other than the exclusivity arrangement currently in place for CSCA, China. For further details, contact the FairWild Secretariat.
FairWild Foundation’s work in China is undertaken in partnership with TRAFFIC, the wildlife monitoring network, who are currently implementing pilot projects with the financial support of the Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund and Keidanren Nature Conservation Fund. For details contact TRAFFIC.