TRAFFIC and British conservation consultancy Biodiversify have launched the Wild Harvest Improvement Project, or WHIP, Framework to help companies identify and improve the sustainability of wild-harvested plant and fungi ingredients. The new step-by-step framework has already been piloted on argan kernels in Morocco and liquorice roots in Uzbekistan. Developed with the Global Diversity Foundation, MBLA and FairWild, and funded through the UK Government’s Darwin Initiative, it is intended to support community-led governance and equitable trade. Its launch places greater focus on ingredients that may sit beyond conventional farm and plantation supply-chain records, including argan oil, liquorice and frankincense.
A Route Beyond Certification
Wild-harvested materials appear in products ranging from food and cosmetics to medicines, yet their origins can be difficult for buyers to assess. The framework responds to risks associated with overharvesting, habitat loss and climate change, which can threaten both plant species and the livelihoods of people who collect them.
WHIP is positioned as an improvement route rather than an immediate certification requirement. It is designed for producers and purchasing companies facing barriers such as limited visibility, high costs or insufficient market incentives, enabling measurable progress before a move towards full sustainability certification.
Cara Flowers, Sustainable Supply Chain Manager at TRAFFIC, said:
“Sustainability in wild harvesting is not achieved by walking away from these supply chains. The people who know these species best are the people harvesting them, and they need a route that recognises the progress they are already making.
“A WHIP ensures these species remain a critical part of their ecosystems while helping the people who harvest them earn a dignified living. That is a commercial argument as much as a conservation one.”
Building Shared Improvement Plans
The framework brings harvesters, governments, NGOs and ingredient buyers into a shared process. Participants agree objectives and develop a phased work plan focused on challenges including biodiversity loss and unfair working conditions. The model also requires participants to publicly declare their involvement and provide evidence of improvements, creating a basis for progress to be checked rather than presumed.
That structure is particularly relevant in supply chains where sourcing information is incomplete. For companies purchasing ingredients collected outside agricultural systems, the process offers a practical way to begin examining dependencies that may otherwise remain obscured until environmental or social pressures become acute.
Caitlin Schindler, Principal Consultant at Biodiversify, said:
“Every business both depends on nature and affects it, and each has a chance to help protect it in ways that also reduce their own long-term risk.
“The ingredients companies know least about are often the ones they are most exposed to. Wild harvest sits outside the plantation and the farm gate, so it rarely shows up in supply chain data until a species, or a community’s livelihood, is already in trouble.
“What makes WHIP different is that it gives a company a credible first step instead of an unreachable standard. Having spent years working on the realities of wild-harvested plant supply chains, I have seen how often companies want to act but have no practical route in. WHIP gives them one.”
Pilots In Morocco And Uzbekistan
The initial pilots applied the approach to argan kernels in Morocco and liquorice roots in Uzbekistan. Both examples illustrate the framework’s emphasis on local participation, with the aim of connecting environmental management to fairer commercial relationships for communities involved in harvesting.
Argan and liquorice are prominent examples of the kinds of wild ingredients that can enter international value chains with limited visibility for end buyers. The WHIP Framework’s gradual approach is intended to make engagement more accessible for companies at an early stage of reviewing these materials, while setting out a route towards verifiable sustainability.
The framework itself is available through TRAFFIC’s WHIP Framework guidance. Its development reflects collaboration between conservation, trade and supply-chain specialists seeking to retain the economic value of legal, sustainable wild harvesting while protecting the ecosystems on which it depends.
Biodiversity Obligations Drive Action
The launch comes as businesses face mounting expectations connected with the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, which sets a global direction to halt and reverse biodiversity loss by 2030. For companies with products containing wild-harvested ingredients, the framework offers a focused starting point for examining biodiversity exposure alongside social and sourcing risks.
TRAFFIC and its partners are urging businesses to assess ingredients that may be absent from routine procurement data. Companies can begin by using TRAFFIC’s WildCheck platform to identify whether common wild ingredients occur in their own supply chains.
By connecting improvement plans with evidence, public participation and locally informed management, WHIP offers a credible model for businesses seeking to protect supply continuity without overlooking the people and species behind essential natural ingredients. The framework makes the case that responsible wild harvesting can support both nature protection and durable commercial relationships.
