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MEDICINAL PLANT BIODIVERSITY, LOCAL HEALTHCARE AND THE MDGS
By Gerard Bodeker
In the developing world, a large proportion of the rural population depends on forest biodiversity for their livelihoods, nutrition and health. Clearing forest land for agriculture may, in the short term, slightly enhance the nutritional status of some people, but at the same time leads to a loss of important medicinal plants. Due to ecosystem imbalance it can also increase human exposure to a range of diseases including malaria, cholera and schistosomiasis. Human health, biodiversity, and poverty reduction represent a nexus of interrelated issues that lie at the centre of human development, with biodiversity in turn being dependent upon human health (Epstein et al. 2003). It is a clear implication then, that conserving forest biodiversity by valuing and harnessing it as medicine is consistent with efforts to achieve the health related Millennium Development Goals, namely, Goal 4 – to reduce child mortality, Goal 5 – to improve maternal health, and Goal 6 – to combat HIV/AIDs, malaria and other diseases.
Recent policy interest in the importance of traditional medicine in meeting the health needs of the developing world has underscored the significance of this topic for the health of the poor and indigenous groups, as well as in meeting the pluralistic health requirements of more affluent consumers internationally.
Issues pertinent to local, national, regional and international communities
Local: Throughout the non-industrialised world, hundreds of millions of rural households are estimated to use medicinal plants for self-medication. While reliable data is scarce, it has been estimated that in India approximately two million traditional health practitioners use over 7500 species of medicinal plants (FRLHT 2002).
However, unsustainable harvesting practices by herb gatherers, often for commercial purposes, has resulted in the depletion of many medicinal species in otherwise healthy forests. This shift from a subsistence to a commercial focus in harvesting is also accompanied by a lengthy marketing chain that offers very low rates of return to gatherers. In Mexico for example, collectors are reported to receive a mere 6% of the consumer price for medicinal plants (Parrotta 2002). These low rates of return have discouraged gatherers from cultivating their own plants and have led to large volumes of wild plant material being harvested.
National: While forestry policies have focused on trees and the forest canopy as priorities for conservation, for the most part, they have overlooked the forest under-storey and ground level non-timber forest products including medicinal plants.
If local gatherers are to secure a fair price for their work and participate willingly in sustainable harvesting and local cultivation, new models of trade are called for which will shorten marketing chains. Cooperatives of gatherers supplying direct to manufacturers, or linked chains of local bioenterprises combining cultivation with managed wild harvesting and value-added processing, may offer new directions. Intiatives such asthese could offer enhanced returns to local communities and hence a moresound basis for the sustainable management of medicinal plant resources.
Other national factors of significance include inadequate regulatory infrastructure, absence of legal protection, including intellectual property rights (Bodeker 2003), and inadequate access to appropriate technology for harvesting and plantation development. Steps to redress this could include identification and protection of threatened medicinal species through national legislation and implementation of international trade regulations via CITES, as well as promotion of good-practice regimes within industry that are supportive of long term sustainability rather than simply short term sustainable production.
Regional and international: Improved transportation networks near and into areas of tropical forest biodiversity have increased trade, thus creating national and international supply chains and increasing human dependency on forests to meet health needs and development indicators. There is a high medicinal plant use across regions, with Asia representing the greatest volume of production (to meet domestic and export demands) and use. India , which reportedly harvests 90% of its medicinal plants from uncultivated sources, has an estimated 9000 manufacturing units with an annual domestic market valued at almost US$1 billion.
Emerging and current trends
A World Bank commentary observes that despite the small scale of medicinal plant cultivation ‘this activity is poised for “dramatic growth” in the coming decade'. In Namibia , the NGO, CRIAA SADC is seeking to redress the minor role of cultivation projects in international trade by assisting rural communities to establish quotas and sustainable harvesting techniques for high quality production. Results indicate that despite conditions of extreme poverty, communities are willing to harvest their resources sustainably (Lombard 2001).
In China , cultivation of high demand species has been initiated by the Chinese Ministry of Agriculture. Over 300,000 hectares are now under cultivation with seabuckthorn ( Hippophae rhamnoides ) alone employing 10,000 people and generating over US$40 million annually. In South Africa , parts of Asia and the Caribbean , manufacturers of herbal medicines and plant-derived pharmaceuticals have entered into contracts with local communities for large volume production of certain species. In India , the Gram Mooligai Company Ltd. (GMCL), together with local NGOs has organised rural cultivators and collectors into groups that are eligible to buy shares and supply direct to GMCL. In 2000/1 GMCL organised cultivation of 400 acres and around 1000 acres in 2002.
NGOs are playing the lead role in this work, with countless small projects underway constituting an as-yet-undocumented series of models for ex situ conservation. Clearly, a strategic international audit of this field is needed in order to establish a frame of reference within which decisions can be made on conditions and strategies for optimal conservation and production. Throughout the world, there are now moves towards certification of sustainably sourced medicinal plant products and eco-labelling to bring consumers in as a market force in support of conservation.
Next steps
To achieve real progress towards the health related Millennium Development Goals, there is a pressing need to actively conserve the world's medicinal plant biodiversity. This will serve to maintain the resource that has sustained human health for time immemorial, to meet the prospects for new enterprise with viable actions at the local level, and to support the economic hopes of nations for participating in a burgeoning new industry.
In this current day spirit of inter-sectoral development, management and conservation of forests must be integrated with programmes in other sectors: in health, to foster better use of plant materials; in education, to build awareness of the need for protection and judicious development; and in agriculture, to strengthen farmer extension methods for plant cultivation. Such a strategy would give priority to ensuring affordability in local health care through sustainable medicinal plant production. At the same time, it could also help support a demanding export trade driven by the health needs of the world's more affluent countries.
While small scale projects are the crucible for new direction and progress at the community level, the importance cannot be underestimated of developing networks across biodiversity zones, reflecting integrated and well managed local, national and regional integrated strategies. New funding mechanisms and commitments will be needed to support such developments. Nothing less than this is called for if the MDGs are to become a reality.
Further information:
Gerard Bodeker
Division of Health Sciences & Institute for International Development
University of Oxford ,
UK
Dept of Epidemiology,
Mailman School of Public Health
Columbia University,
USA
Email: gerry.bodeker@green.oxford.ac.uk
Note:This article is abridged and adapted from a paper first published in International Forestry Review, 2005 – “ Forest , Medicinal Plant Biodiversity & Local Healthcare: Sustainable Use & Livelihood Development”