Global & European Strategies for Plant Conservation

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ESPC Target 12

30% of plant-based products derived from
sources that are sustainably managed

 

TARGET 12. PLANT PRODUCTS PRODUCED SUSTAINABLY

Information: The GSPC defines plant-based products include food products, timber, paper, and other wood-based products, fibre products, ornamental, medicinal and other plants for direct use. Sustainable management is understood to include natural and semi-natural ecosystems that are managed to avoid over-harvesting or damage to other elements of the ecosystem (excepting commercial extraction of resources from primary forests and near pristine ecosystems of important conservation value), sustainably managed plantation forests and agricultural land. In both cases sustainable management should be understood to integrate social and environmental concerns. Indicators include direct measures, e.g. certification, and indirect methods, e.g. assessment of farming systems.

For the ESPC plant-based products include those that are grown in or imported into Europe. Certification systems current in Europe are the IFOAM (International Federation of Organic Agricultural Movements) and national organic agriculture systems, the EU have an organic production and labelling system, the Forest Stewardship Council certifies sustainable forestry practices, the FairTrade and FairWild schemes ensure basic price, working standards and environmental standards for the producers and collectors of plant products many of which are imported into Europe, the International Standard for the Sustainable Wild Collection of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants (ISSC-MAP) provides guidelines for collectors, producers and consumers. Trade monitoring networks and conventions include FERN, TRAFFIC, CITES. The growing and importing of biofuel and biomass products in Europe is of major concern for plant conservation and sustainable development and should be monitored under this target as well as target 6

Targets: (for details of lead partners download pdf of ESPC)

 

European Projects/Databases/Organisations:

Organisation	Project/Database (DB)/Aims	Online DB
Fairtrade	FairTrade Labelling Organisations International – a not for profit network of Labelling Initiatives (mainly Europe & America) and Producer Networks (Africa, Asia and Latin America) – the FairTrade Standards & certification system includes environmental standards. http://www.fairtrade.net/
Fairwild	Fairwild is a certifiable standard for the collection of wild products in a socially & ecologically sound way – it has been developed as an additional module of the ecological standards of ISSC-MAP (see below) – it was initiated & is supported by SIPPO, Forum Essenzia & IMO. http://www.fairwild.org/
FERN	The Forests and European Union Resource Network – a campaigning NGO working for greater social and environmental justice for forests and forest peoples’ rights in the policies and practices of the European Union. www.fern.org
Friends of the Earth Europe	Campaigning NGO – including agricultural, food and biofuel policies http://www.foeeurope.org/
FSC	Forest Stewardship Council – Provides a certification scheme for responsible management in the world’s forests, including timber and non-timber forests products. 22 national offices in its Europe and Russia Region. http://www.fsc.org/
IFOAM	International Federation of Organic Agricultural Movements – network of national and regional organic movements – IFOAM standards include environmental conditions – 2 European regional organisations – The IFOAM EU Group and AgriBioMediterraneo. http://www.ifoam.org/
ISSC-MAP	International Standard for the Sustainable Wild Collection of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants – principles & criteria for resources users, collectors, producers and collectors – began as joint initiative of the German Federal Agency for Nature Conservation, the IUCN Medicinal Plants Specialist Group, WWF Germany, & TRAFFIC – latest version http://www.floraweb.de/MAP-pro/
TRAFFIC Europe	The Wildlife Trade Monitoring Network – the European Office is one of 8 regional offices & monitors European wildlife trade http://www.traffic.org/europe/
WWF (Europe)	20 national European offices & regional programmes offices in different ecoregions – projects on agriculture, forestry and reform of the EU CAP. http://www.panda.org/about_wwf/where_we_work/ europe/index.cfm

 

Link to case-studies/tool kits: (.pdf)

• Biofuels and biofuel policy in Europe
• Planta Europa plant product footprint study
• Community Orchards
• Cork oak production sustainability project
• ISSC-MAP (see target 11)
• Organic Certification Standards (see target 6)
• Forest Stewardship Council – Foresty Certification (see target 6)

International Projects:

• The International Centre for Underutilised Crops (http://www.icuc-iwmi.org/)
• The Global Non-Timber Forests Products (NTPF) Network (http://ntfp.inbar.int/wiki/index.php/Main_Page)
• FAO, FairTrade, FairWild, FOE, FSC, IFOAM, WWF are all international organisations (see above for details)
• International Network for Bamboo and Rattan (INBR) (http://www.inbar.int/)

 

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