Adrianne van Wyk
Flower Valley
W
e live in a society
where it has become important to
know where products are coming from, who worked
with it and whether it has been
sourced sustainably. As a land user,
these questions are increasingly
being asked by the buyers of our
products – from the retailers and
exporters, to the consumers.
The fynbos industry is no different.
And for good reason too. Many
fynbos species in the Cape Floral
Kingdom have been listed as critically endangered on the Red Data
List, while 22 are already extinct.
Threats to fynbos include invasive
alien species, land transformation,
and in some instance, overharvesting for the markets.
For a non-profit organisation like
Flower Valley Conservation Trust, it
became clear in the early 2000s
that there was an opportunity to
work closely with land users to together find ways to manage fynbos
landscapes well. And to help provide evidence of this to those asking the questions.
This led to the creation of the Sustainable Harvesting Programme – a
programme providing a toolkit to
support sustainable practices in the
fynbos industry, and partnering
with those who pick fynbos for
markets. So while most land users
were already picking their wild fynbos responsibly, a system was created to provide monitoring support,
to show those along the fynbos
supply chain that legislation and
regulations were adhered to where
the actual picking was taking place.
The programme, with support from
partners such as Cape Flora SA (the
industry body), the Sustainability
Initiative of SA (SIZA) and CapeNa-
ture (the conservation authority)
has developed and adapted over
the years – as the fynbos industry
itself has developed and grown.
And so, as part of this growth, it
became increasingly clear that there
was an opportunity to support
many small fynbos suppliers – such
as a small business run from the
back of a bakkie, with a team heading out into fynbos landscapes daily
to pick wild fynbos. Many of these
suppliers consider themselves as
being too small to formally join industry bodies and ethical membership organisations. But they are
picking vast quantities of wild fynbos, which end up in bouquets sold
around the world.
So how could one get these players
involved in formal and measurable
ethical practices – to show those
who care that they, too, are meeting environmental and social best