FairWild

The FairWild Standard, governed by the FairWild Foundation, is the leading sustainability certification specifically for wild-harvested medicinal and aromatic plants (MAPs). Roughly two-thirds of MAPs on the global supplement market are wild-harvested rather than cultivated, with TRAFFIC and IUCN Medicinal Plant Specialist Group assessments documenting over-harvesting pressure on hundreds of species. The FairWild Standard combines ecological criteria (resource assessment, population monitoring, harvest quota setting, harvesting practice impact assessment, regeneration verification), social and fair-trade criteria (fair pricing to collectors, premium fund for community development, child labour and forced labour prohibition, indigenous and traditional knowledge protection, gender equality) and chain-of-custody verification (segregation of certified material, traceability from collector through aggregation and processing to finished ingredient).

Certified suppliers are audited by accredited bodies (IMO, Ecocert, Control Union, BIO.INSPECTA among others), and the standard aligns with CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species), the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and the Nagoya Protocol on Access and Benefit-Sharing. Adoption is uneven by ingredient — well-established for several flagship botanicals (frankincense, baobab, devil's claw, juniper) but still limited as a share of total wild-collection volume. The complementary Union for Ethical BioTrade (UEBT) operates a broader certification framework covering both wild-collected and cultivated ingredients with Sourcing with Respect at the ingredient level and member-status certification at the organisation level, particularly relevant for ESG and CSRD-aligned biodiversity disclosure.

CITES regulates international trade in over 35,000 species across three Appendices, with supplement-relevant Appendix II species including Aquilaria spp. (agarwood), Cistanche deserticola, Hoodia spp., Pterocarpus santalinus (red sandalwood) and several others requiring CITES export permits. Non-compliant shipments are seized by customs with retrospective penalty exposure. Defensible botanical sourcing programmes maintain per-ingredient due diligence dossiers covering species identification, IUCN status, CITES status, source country and population, supply chain map with traceability at each tier, certification status, Nagoya Protocol ABS assessment for ingredients from CBD-Party countries with ABS legislation, and ESG/CSRD reporting alignment under ESRS E4 (Biodiversity) and the EU Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive.