A High Road to Sustainability? Wildflower Harvesting, Ethical Trade and Social Upgrading in South Africa's Western Cape

Abstract

This paper evaluates the outcomes from an ambitious wildflower harvesting programme in South Africa's Western Cape, which has sought to achieve positive outcomes in terms of socio‐economic development and biodiversity conservation. Indigenous wildflowers, harvested according to conservation principles, are processed into ‘Cape Flora’ bouquets and sold into international and domestic markets. The principal supply chain provides an example of ethical trade due to the explicit environmental and social standards that are required at local sites of production. The incorporation of such standards represents an attempt to engender economic and social upgrading within the value chain. In this sense, the programme is consistent with dominant policy discourses, which suggest that exploiting potentially profitable niches within international trade flows represents a ‘high road’ to economic growth and transformation. The paper focuses upon the job creation and social impacts of the programme in the context of efforts to overcome South Africa's deeply entrenched socio‐economic disparities and high poverty levels. Despite impressive growth in production and exports during the global financial crisis, there have been mixed outcomes in terms of benefits to stakeholders at the upstream end of the supply chain. The paper concludes by considering the extent to which local initiatives operating under the framework of ethical trade possess the potential to facilitate effective social and economic upgrading.

Global decisions versus local realities: Sustainability standards, priorities and upgrading dynamics in agricultural global production networks

“…Social upgrading refers to improvement in working conditions and rights in GPNs (Barrientos et al, 2011;Bek et al, 2017), while environmental upgrading focuses on eco-efficiency and embedding green philosophies into products (De Marchi et al, 2019;De Marchi et al, 2013).…”

“…Economic upgrading is focused on the economic aspects and is described as a process of improving the ability of a firm to move to more profitable and/or technologically sophisticated capital and skill‐intensive economic niches (Gereffi, 1999: 51). Social upgrading refers to improvement in working conditions and rights in GPNs (Barrientos et al., 2011; Bek et al., 2017), while environmental upgrading focuses on eco‐efficiency and embedding green philosophies into products (De Marchi et al., 2019; De Marchi et al., 2013).…”

More than floods and droughts: Understanding emergent water risks in South African fruit production networks

“…Global dynamics that contribute to the emergence of new water risks in South Africa include neoliberal market restructuring and trade liberalisation, which inserted many agricultural producers into global production networks in the late 1990s (Bek et al, 2017). South Africa's democratisation and the subsequent deregulation of its horticulture industry coincided with the rising hegemony of European supermarkets within global trade.…”

Conservation in the context of wildflower harvesting: the development and implementation of a Vulnerability Index on the Agulhas Plain of South Africa

“…The main biome is known locally as fynbos ('fine-leaved bush'), however one third of the original area of fynbos has been lost, 3343 species are of conservation concern and 1839 species are threatened (SANBI, 2017). Indeed, the CFR is one of most threatened reservoirs of plant and animal life on earth (UNDP, 2003) The main threats to the natural fynbos include land conversion for agriculture, infestation by alien plant species, and the impacts of climate change (Bek et al 2017). Poor harvesting practices increase the threat to locally endemic, rare or already threatened species (Binns, et al 2001;Heydenrych, 1999;Turpie, 2004;Laubscher et al 2009).…”