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The 1st IFOAM Conference on Organic Wild Production |
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May 3rd-4th 2006 in Bosnia and Herzegovina
Introduction
There is significant trade in “organic” wild products, including
products for direct consumption, such as berries, mushrooms and a wide
variety of herbs. There is also a growing interest in organic wild
products by the body care medicinal herb sectors. Statistics for this
type of production are vague, and parallel to the “organic” market,
other concepts such as the Non-Timber Forest Product scheme of the
Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) and other company-specific schemes
have been developed.
This conference will focus on the harvesting of wild vegetable products
from forest, “natural” lands, pastures and uncultivated land in the
agriculture landscape. It will concentrate on current production that
enters the organic market stream, but will also extend to
other concepts, such as Fair Trade, sustainable forest management
certification and Good Manufacturing Practices.
“Wild harvested production” as a concept is very broad, and also
encompasses commodities used for fibrous or industrial production. It
could even include some types of animals (e.g. snails). Wild products
may also come from the sea (shellfish) or from lakes (wild rice). The
term “wild” is not fully appropriate, as many so-called wild products
are collected in areas such as pastures, commons and marginal or
uncultivated agricultural land. Additionally, the concept of “wild”
implies a lack of management, although in reality almost all land is
managed, and the collection of “wild” products themselves should be
subject to sustainable management. Nevertheless, for lack of better
alternatives, the word “wild harvested production is used here. It is
also a term used in the IFOAM Basic Standards. Other systems use other
terms to describe similar production, e.g. natural/biodiversity
products, Non Timber Forest Products, Non Wood Forest Products or minor
forest products. Some products that are “wild” can also be cultivated.
This conference will not focus on such cultivation; however one session
will address it.
General objectives of the conference
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Establishment of the state of the art in organic wild production, the volumes, the participating countries and communities
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Clarification of terms and definitions
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Increasing the understanding of the various initiatives for NTFP, NWFP, wild collection, etc.
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Exploring the possibilities of bringing initiatives together
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Identification of challenges and opportunities for the sector
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Information exchange and networking between actors in the sector, including forging commercial links
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Increased visibility of wild production
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Addressing sustainability in wild harvesting
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Initiating further development of quality assurance and standards
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Assisting IFOAM to further develop the concept of wild harvested production
For the host country, the conference also has the additional objective
of promotion of the country in general and its wild collection sector
in particular.
Target groups:Producers of wild plants
- Communities involved in collection of wild harvested products
- Processors of wild plants
- Buyers and users of wild plants
- Developers of standards and certification systems for wild plants and their collection
- Governmental or intergovernmental organizations involved in the sector
- Service providers to any of these groups (consultants, researchers etc.)
Exhibition
An exhibition will be linked to the conference. It is expected that
exhibitors are will be producers, buyers/processors and service
providers (consultants, certification bodies, institutes). Sponsors and
partners may also wish to exhibit.
Further Information
Inquiries can be directed to the Agriculture Institute Banja Luka,
polj.institut.bl@blic.net or to Gunnar Rundgren, gunnar@grolink.se
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