The meaning of Fair Trade for wild plants

Where the Fair Trade initiative is applied to wild plants, two contradictory objectives may arise: that of conserving a target plant species (conservation) and that of increasing income from it for collectors (poverty alleviation). As identified through my fieldwork in India, a Fair Trade certification for wild plants has been introduced for different purposes, including (a) to teach the local community the forgotten value of natural resources (conservation), (b) to make current collection practices more sustainable in exchange for better prices (both conservation and poverty alleviation), and (c) to help the most vulnerable collectors with better prices (poverty alleviation). A review of my past study (Makita, 2018) suggests that when there is a single primary objective, such as (a) or (c), certification can more obviously contribute to the achievement of this objective. Given the uniqueness of wild plants as an income source, it is important to clarify which one of the two contradictory objectives will be prioritised, rather than pursuing both.