EGP-MAPs Engaging China’s private sector in sustainable management of medicinal plants

China, the origin and biggest centre of production for many plant materials used in TCM, produces a wide variety of plant-based herbal medicines and ingredients that are consumed both within China and worldwide. 

However, wild medicinal plant resources in China are under threat in large part owing to over-harvesting to meet high demand from the TCM and herbal products industry. Poor management is not only threatening wild species but also the livelihoods of collectors and, ultimately, TCM healthcare systems. 

The EGP-MAPs project (PDF leaflet: in  English and Chinese) brings together stakeholders involved along the entire supply chain—harvesters, conservation NGOs, industry associations, academia, government departments, and of course the TCM industry and traders to address these issues.

The project uses the FairWild Standard (English version (PDF 1 MB), Chinese version (PDF, 500 KB)) as a best-practice framework for sustainable wild harvesting and equitable trade in plants to underpin a long-term approach towards sustainability in the TCM industry, piloting a participatory approach to governance of China’s wild plant resources.