Introducing The Field Guide for Wild Flower Harvesting
Glossary
What is Fynbos?
The Cape Floral Kingdom
South Africa’s Plants
Threats to Fynbos
The Value of Fynbos
Fynbos and Fire
Classification of Plants
Naming of Plants
The Market for Fynbos
Picking Fynbos with Care
The Sustainable Harvesting Programme
The SHP Code of Best Practice for Wild Harvesters
Ten Principles of Good Harvesting
The Vulnerability Index and the Red Data List
Know How Much Fynbos You Have
Fynbos Plants of the Agulhas Plain and Beyond
Plant Descriptions
The Sustainable Harvesting Programme
The Sustainable Harvesting Programme (SHP) was initiated in 2003 in order to protect both the fynbos and people’s jobs that depend on fynbos. Flower Valley Conservation Trust worked with CapeNature, botanists, market experts and the fynbos industry over a period of ten years to develop the SHP.
The SHP provides fynbos harvesters and suppliers with an SHP Toolkit to help them pick fynbos in a responsible manner. It also encourages harvesters to regularly check (or monitor) the fynbos veld, in order to better understand our long-term impacts on the veld.
The SHP Toolkit includes:
- The Sustainable Harvesting Programme Code of Best Practice for Wild Harvesters.
- A Vulnerability Index, developed specifically for the SHP, which helps identify which species to pick.
- Support for obtaining a floral license.
- Support with field assessments and surveys of species populations on each property.
- Opportunities for training and capacity building.
- Support with ongoing research.
- Access to a user-friendly database (or record of information) to enable more effective land management planning.
Flower harvesters, fynbos suppliers and landowners may become members of the SHP.