PhytoTrade Africa and environmental sustainability

PhytoTrade Africa was established on the premise that our activities would be beneficial to biodiversity conservation. To this end, we ensure that:

• Our members have a shared commitment towards sustainable harvesting techniques enshrined through signature to a common Environmental Charter (download here). The Charter binds members to adhere to certain principles of environmental sustainability, and gives us the right to expel any members who violate these principles.
• Through our internal monitoring and evaluation programme, PhytoTrade Africa has established long term environmental impact assessments relating to natural product commercialisation at several sites across the region. So far, the results have confirmed multiple studies from elsewhere suggesting that commercialisation has a positive impact on the local-level conservation and management of our focal species.
• By adding value to indigenous plant resources, our members provide a strong incentive to rural producers to conserve those plant resources. Our approach is based on the premise that, if a resource has economic value and clearly defined ownership rights, its custodians will look after it.
• We only focus on species that are abundant and not under any immediate conservation risk. We also minimise the likelihood of adverse environmental impact by working with the parts of those plants that can be harvested sustainably from seeds and fruit, rather than bark and roots.
• Wherever possible, we target markets where concrete evidence of sustainability is required through, for example, independent certification. We have a particular focus on organic markets in which the criteria and the monitoring for sustainable harvesting are undertaken by accredited independent bodies (e.g. Soil Association, EcoCert). This provides our members with an additional, market-driven incentive to ensure their operations remain sustainable.
• Through their wild harvesting programmes, our members are able to guarantee that their products are free of synthetic pesticides, fertilizers and other chemicals, as well as Genetically Modified Organisms.
• We actively engage in international policy processes and debates relating to sustainability. We are partnered with IUCN, People and Plants International, UNCTAD’s BioTrade Facilitation Programme, ICRAF and CIFOR, all of whom share our approach towards the sustainable use of plant resources.
• We believe that wild harvesting of indigenous resources that manifests itself in multiple forms of land use, common pool resource use, diversified livelihoods, and traditional farming systems will have biodiversity friendly outcomes, improved livelihoods options and more strategic development results than farming systems for traditional commodities.

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