topic: Medicinal Plants

topic: Medicinal Plants

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Traditional healers in Philippines keep their ‘forest pharmacy’ standing
- The island of Siquijor in the southern Philippines is famed for its traditional healing practices; less well known is the role its healers play in conserving the island’s forests.
- Traditional practices and beliefs encourage respectful and sustainable harvest of medicinal plants.
- The island’s healers’ association also collaborates with researchers and a government reforestation initiative to monitor and cultivate medicinal trees in the island’s forests.

Ghana’s medicinal plants, the ‘first aid’ for communities, are under threat
- Forest communities in southwestern Ghana use 70 species of medicinal trees to treat up to 83 ailments, according to a recent study.
- These plants contain high levels of bioactive compounds with pharmacological benefits, but many are also threatened by factors including overharvesting and agricultural expansion in the area that drives large-scale deforestation.
- Due to a lack of access to Western medicine and cultural perceptions, traditional medicine is the primary source of treatment for many forest-fringe communities.
- The authors say government-led conservation programs and preserving traditional knowledge is important to conserving these medicinal tree species.

Bangladeshi farmers eye moringa as a climate and economic solution
- Farmers in Bangladesh are increasingly turning to the fast-growing, drought-resistant moringa (Moringa oleifera) tree, which is indigenous to South Asian nations such as India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan.
- Researchers say moringa is beneficial for human health, as both the leaves and the fruits are rich in nutrients and minerals.
- Researchers also suggest that moringa cultivation could be a part of smart agriculture as climatic patterns change, as the plant can tolerate extreme heat and cold.
- A Bangladeshi entrepreneur has been working to create a social movement and entrepreneurship in moringa cultivation and marketing since 2017; so far, he has engaged some 5,000 farmers in 20 districts of Bangladesh.

‘Immense body of knowledge’ at stake in Cambodia’s Prey Lang as deforestation soars
- Researchers have launched a new book that catalogs hundreds of plant species from Cambodia’s Prey Lang Wildlife Sanctuary that have known medicinal uses.
- The book draws on the knowledge of Indigenous communities who have found a use for these plants over the course of generations, and whose livelihoods and cultures are closely intertwined with the fate of these species.
- The book also serves to highlight the imperiled situation of Prey Lang and its native species as deforestation by politically linked timber-trafficking networks continues to destroy vast swaths of this ostensibly protected area.
- “If the current trends of deforestation continue,” the authors warn, “an immense body of knowledge about nature will be lost, reducing the resilience and adaptability of future generations.”

Traditional healers push for recognition and licensing of age-old Himalayan practice
- Traditional healers from Nepal’s Himalayas are trying to preserve Sowa Rigpa, an ancient medicinal system based on ethnobotany, which has been gradually disappearing as youths move to urban areas and the species used in medicinal formulas are at risk.
- Sowa Rigpa includes traditional knowledge of the properties of hundreds of endemic species and local varieties of plants, fungi and lichens, as well as dozens of types of minerals.
- Two associations of Sowa Rigpa healers are trying to get the medicinal practice officially recognized by the Nepali government as a way to protect it, and are seeking official medical licenses for new practitioners.
- The healers, known as amchi, are partnering with a university, NGO and the government to further research, conserve and find potential substitutes for threatened plant and animal species used in Sowa Rigpa.

Bangladesh ‘Village of Herbs’ profits from planting rather than cutting trees
- According to the World Health Organization, 88% of all countries are estimated to use traditional medicine; more than 40% of pharmaceutical formulations are based on natural products, and many landmark drugs originated from traditional medicine.
- According to the Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute, there are 722 species of medicinal plants in Bangladesh.
- Locals who once cut down trees are now actively planting and cultivating medicinal trees. Large pharmaceuticals, Ayurvedic, and Unani medicine manufacturers collect raw materials from this market.

‘A psychedelic renaissance’: How hallucinogens can aid conservation
- Mind-altering substances from plants and fungi, such as ayahuasca, are having a moment in popular culture, but they’re also starting to gain attention from the medical and conservation communities.
- Famed ethnobotanist, conservation advocate and best-selling author Mark Plotkin joins the Mongabay Newscast to talk about what he dubs the “psychedelic renaissance” and how this moment can be a hook to inspire conservation.
- Many Amazonian plants and fungi have medicinal properties understood by traditional healers, but can also be frequently abused if applied improperly.
- Plotkin talks about the importance of protecting this traditional ecological knowledge, both for the responsible application of these plants, and for realizing their potential as a vehicle for conservation.

Deforestation in Borneo threatens three endangered, endemic plant species
- The rampant deforestation for monoculture plantation and logging in western Indonesian Borneo has exacerbated the extinction risks of three plant species endemic to the island’s riparian lowland rainforests, a new study said.
- The researchers are calling for stricter protection of the forest fragments as a key conservation strategy for the three plant species and for further research to be done to better understand the species’ population status so as to improve their management.
- The island of Borneo, which is split between Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei, has for the last few decades lost more than a third of its forests due to fires, logging, mining and industrial plantations, particularly oil palms.

‘War with weeds’ lacks ecological understanding and empathy (commentary)
- ‘Weeds’ are plants with special botanical and ecological attributes that allow their rapid establishment in disturbed areas, helping to reduce erosion of soils.
- Many weedy species have also proven their usefulness as medicines and food, going back several millennia. Wildlife, too, can benefit from such plants.
- Yet these plants are often the focus of a ‘war on weeds’ which is unfortunate and misguided, the author of a new book on the topic argues. “Can weeds be appreciated for their critical ecological roles? Can they be managed in situations where they may become problematic?” he asks.
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily of Mongabay.

Documenting Nepal’s plant-based medical tradition: Q&A with Ram Prasad Chaudhary
- Ram Prasad Chaudhary is an ethnobotanist who for decades has studied how various communities throughout Nepal use medicinal plants and pass on this knowledge.
- One pattern he’s noticed is that communities living at higher altitudes tend to make more use of herbal remedies than those living on the plains, with the latter having easier access to Western medicine — a situation he calls ironic.
- With younger generations of Nepalis increasingly viewing ethnobotanical traditions as superstition, Chaudhary says it’s imperative to instill in them the belief that the practice is based on centuries of knowledge generation.
- He also points to the case of China, where the practice of both Western and traditional medicine is complementary rather than competing, saying this is “the best way to go about it.”

Encircled by plantations, a Sumatran Indigenous community abides changing times
- Residents of the village of Talang Durian Cacar on Indonesia’s Sumatra Island are struggling to earn decent incomes from unproductive oil palm trees.
- Jakarta-based NGO Kaoem Telapak described the community’s switch to growing oil palm trees as an “ecological, social and cultural consequence of their marginalization.”
- The community, part of the Talang Mamak Indigenous group, can access its customary forest through a corridor bisecting oil palm plantations.

Indigenous agroforestry dying of thirst amid a sea of avocados in Mexico
- A rich tradition of cultivating and collecting medicinal plants in Mexico’s Michoacán state is at risk, as the Indigenous community behind it loses access to water.
- Avocado farms–mostly supplying the U.S. market–dominate water resources in the town of Angahuan, forcing Indigenous P’urhépecha healers to buy clean water by the gallon from shops to keep their medicinal plants alive.
- These healers, known as curanderas, have for generations grown a wide variety of such plants in agroforestry gardens that also combine fruits and vegetables, timber trees, and flowers.
- The P’urhépecha healers are resisting the impacts of avocado farms by planting trees in the hills to build up water resources while launching a natural pharmacy business in town, efforts for which the collective has already won an award from the state government.

Legal and illegal cannabis: A cause for growing environmental concern
- Legalization of cannabis for medicinal and recreational use is an expanding global trend in the U.S. and globally, while the illicit market continues to feed large swaths of demand.
- Both the legal and illegal markets are linked to environmental challenges such as freshwater use, land-use change, toxic and nutrient pollution, and climate change-contributing CO2 emissions.
- Emerging legal cannabis businesses in the U.S. are subject to strict regulation, but many operate in ways that can contribute to environmental harms.
- While the scope of damage from booming legal growing operations is now being better assessed, the impacts of illicit clandestine operations remain mostly undetermined.

Saving medicinal plants a village cause in Indonesia
- Residents of the Sumatran village of Muara Jambi are working to preserve their ancient practice of cultivating and using medicinal plants.
- The village is also home to an ancient Buddhist temple complex that may be linked to the medicinal plant tradition, but some fear government plans to restore the site could threaten the plants growing there.
- Other threats come from oil palm plantations and coal mines operating nearby.

Ethnobotanist Mark Plotkin: Indigenous knowledge serves as a ‘connective tissue’ between nature and human well-being
- As a best-selling author, the co-founder of the award-winning Amazon Conservation Team, and an acclaimed public speaker, Mark Plotkin is one of the world’s most prominent rainforest ethnobotanists and conservationists.
- His experiences in Amazonian communities led Plotkin, along with Costa Rican conservationist Liliana Madrigal, to establish the Amazon Conservation Team (ACT) in 1995. ACT took a distinctly different approach than most Western conservation groups at the time: It placed Indigenous communities at the center of its strategy.
- ACT’s approach has since been widely adopted by other organizations, and its philosophy as a whole is now more relevant than ever as the conservation sector wrestles with its colonial roots.
- Plotkin spoke of his work, trends in conservation, and a range of other topics in a January 2022 interview with Mongabay founder Rhett A. Butler.

Indonesian research center for medicinal plants displaces incense harvesters
- Incense harvesters in Indonesia’s North Sumatra province say the construction of a new center for research into medicinal plants threatens their livelihoods.
- The government says the center will boost Indonesia’s food and drug security, and maximizing the economic potential of Indonesia’s wealth of medicinal plants.

Not your ordinary houseplant: World’s tallest begonia found in Tibet
- While surveying in the warm and rainy forests of southern Tibet, researchers spotted a begonia twice as tall as a person.
- The new species, which they named Begonia giganticaulis, is the tallest begonia in the world.
- Because fewer than 1,000 individual plants are estimated to live in the fragmented forest habitat, the species has been classified as endangered.
- China is home to some 300 begonia species, many of which are illegally collected and overharvested for ornamental or medicinal use, a trend driven by increased internet commerce.

Between land and sea: Agrobiodiversity holds key to health for Melanesian tribes
- Residents of Baniata village on the Solomon Islands’ Western province practice an ancient agroforestry system that intercrops 20 edible species and features the ngali nut, a delicacy sold in domestic and international markets.
- The community’s traditionally self-sufficient and biodiverse diet features 132 species, notably the fe’i banana, a Melanesian specialty that contains 100 times the vitamin A of a typical banana.
- The resilient food system and diet is increasingly affected by climate change, imported crops, processed foods, and the loss of traditional knowledge in younger generations.
- This article is one of an eight-part series showcasing Indigenous food systems covered in the most comprehensive FAO report on the topic to date.

Study confirms anti-inflammatory property of traditional Samoan remedy
- Aided by traditional Samoan healers, researchers isolated the bioactive compounds from the leaves of a small, tropical tree called Psychotria insularum.
- The leaf extract, along with the isolated compounds, was recently discovered to prevent the production of inflammatory molecules in immune cells as well as ibuprofen did.
- Despite opinions that Indigenous knowledge is merely superstitious, Samoan researchers say it is the product of centuries of empirical testing, careful observation and the conservation of their natural resources.
- Researchers and Samoan traditional healers have set up gardens to protect traditional medicinal plants with therapeutic potential from the impacts of climate change and environmental destruction.

For some Indigenous, COVID presents possibility of cultural extinction, says Myrna Cunningham
- COVID-19 has devastated communities around the world, but for some Indigenous groups, the pandemic posed an existential threat.
- Few people are better placed to speak to the impact COVID is having on Indigenous communities than Myrna Cunningham, a Miskitu physician from the Wangki river region of Nicaragua who has spent 50 years advocating for the rights of women and Indigenous peoples at local, regional, national, and international levels.
- Cunningham’s many achievements and accolades include: First Miskito doctor in Nicaragua; first woman governor of the Waspam autonomous region; Chairperson of the PAWANKA Fund; President of the Fund for the Development of Indigenous Peoples of Latin America and the Caribbean (FILAC); Advisor to the President of the UN General Assembly during the World Conference of Indigenous Peoples; member of the Board of Directors of the Global Fund for Women; Deputy of the Autonomous Region of the North Atlantic Coast in Nicaragua’s National Assembly; president of the Association for Women’s Rights in Development; and the first Honoris Causa Doctorate granted by the National Autonomous University of Mexico Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México to an indigenous woman, among others.
- Cunningham spoke about a range of issues in a recent interview with Mongabay founder Rhett A. Butler.

Extinction of Indigenous languages leads to loss of exclusive knowledge about medicinal plants
- A study at the University of Zurich in Switzerland shows that a large proportion of existing medicinal plant knowledge is linked to threatened Indigenous languages. In a regional study on the Amazon, New Guinea and North America, researchers concluded that 75% of medicinal plant uses are known in only one language.
- The study evaluated 645 plant species in the northwestern Amazon and their medicinal uses, according to the oral tradition of 37 languages. It found that 91% of this knowledge exists in a single language, and that the extinction of that language implies the loss of the medicinal knowledge as well.
- In Brazil, Indigenous schools hold an important role in preserving languages alongside cataloguing and revitalization projects like those held by the Karitiana people in Rondônia and the Pataxó in Bahia and Minas Gerais.

Climate change threatens to squeeze out Indonesia’s medicinal plants
- More than half of medicinal plant species in Indonesia won’t be able to grow in most of their current range by 2050 due to climate change, a new study says.
- Researchers say medicinal plant species on the islands of New Guinea, Java and Sulawesi will see the largest reduction in distribution area, in part due to sea level rise in these regions.
- The economic value of medicinal plants in Indonesia, coupled with other threats and a lack of resources for their conservation, makes it urgent that active conservation programs be put in place, the researchers say.
- Medicinal plants are valuable species not only for personal health but also for their economic value as they are traded by local and Indigenous communities.

Traditional healers are preserving their knowledge, and with it, the biodiversity of Brazil’s savanna
- The Brazilian savanna contains almost a third of Brazil’s biodiversity but less than 10% is officially protected and its native vegetation is threatened by a rapidly-advancing agricultural frontier.
- Much of the flora and fauna remain unknown to conventional science.
- A network of traditional healers is at the forefront of finding ways to protect, sustainably manage, and document the biodiversity based on their in-depth knowledge of medicinal plants.
- Experts say that finding ways to value the savanna more, such as through recognizing its immense botanical and pharmacological value, could aid in its conservation.

An economic case for competing in the XPRIZE Rainforest contest (commentary)
- In 2019, XPRIZE Rainforest opened its doors and challenged the world to develop new biodiversity assessment technologies by offering a $10 million prize for the best one.
- In this commentary, Jonah Wittkamper, President of the Global Governance Philanthropy Network and co-founder of NEXUS, makes an economic argument for participating in the contest.
- Wittkamper says a great deal of value could be unlocked with the ability to rapidly assess rainforest biodiversity.
- This post is a commentary and does not necessarily reflect the views of Mongabay.

Protesters hold back military takeover of Balkans’ largest mountain pasture
- A 2019 decree by the government of Montenegro sets forth the country’s intention to set up a military training ground in the highland grasslands of Sinjajevina in the northern part of the country.
- But the pastures of Sinjajevina have supported herders for centuries, and scientists say that this sustainable use is responsible in part for the wide array of life that the mountain supports; activists say an incursion by the military would destroy livelihoods, biodiversity and vital ecosystem services.
- A new coalition now governs Montenegro, one that has promised to reevaluate the military’s use of Sinjajevina.
- But with the country’s politics and position in Europe in flux, the movement against the military is pushing for formal designation of a park that would permanently protect the region’s herders and the environment.

Colombia, ethnobotany, and America’s decline: An interview with Wade Davis
- Wade Davis is a celebrated anthropologist, ethnobotanist, photographer, and author who has written thought-provoking accounts of indigenous cultures around the world. Through his writing, Davis has documented the disappearance of indigenous languages and cultures, the loss of which is outpacing the destruction of the world’s rainforests.
- Davis’s newest book, Magdalena: River of Dreams: A Story of Colombia, traces the path of the Magdalena River as a vehicle to tell the story of Colombia, including the nation’s tumultuous recent past, the tenuous peace of its present, and its future promise. Colombia holds a special place for Davis: it trails only Brazil in terms of biodiversity, is geographically and culturally diverse, and has gone to great lengths to recognize indigenous rights and protect its forests.
- Davis’s research into Colombia, indigenous cultures, and other societies has given him an unusually broad perspective with which to evaluate recent developments in the United States, which he compared to a collapsing empire in a commentary he authored in August for Rolling Stone.
- Davis talked about his career path, his new book, and the decline of America in an October 2020 interview with Mongabay founder Rhett A. Butler.

A Philippine tribe’s plant-based medical tradition gets its moment
- A newly published study highlights the importance of medicinal plants that thrive on the ancestral lands of the Manobo Indigenous group in the southern Philippines.
- The Manobos of the highland Agusan region have for generations depended on their vast compendium of ethnomedicinal plants to treat a wide range of ailments.
- The popularity of this folk medicine has spread beyond the members of the tribe, with many of the treatments showing similar properties to established Western medicines.
- Further documentation and study of these ethnomedicinal plants could help in the preservation and conservation of the Indigenous group’s lands, say the authors of the recent study.

World’s plants and fungi a frontier of discovery, if we can protect them: Report
- The “State of the World’s Plants and Fungi 2020” report, released this week, was born of the collaborative effort of 200 scientists from 42 different countries and delves into a global assessment of plants and fungi as food, fuel, medicine, tools for urban resilience, and more.
- In 2019 alone, 1,942 plants and 1,886 fungi were newly described by scientists, some closely related to known medicinal species and potentially new sources of medicine.
- More than 7,000 edible plants hold potential as future crops, according to the report, meeting the criteria of being nutritious, robust and historically used as food.
- Nearly 40% of plant species are estimated to be threatened with extinction.

Indigenous Ashaninka launch fundraiser to help Amazon neighbors amid pandemic
- In early July, the Ashaninka indigenous people launched a fundraising campaign to encourage food production in communities living near the Kampa do Rio Amônia Indigenous Territory, in the Brazilian state of Acre.
- The “Ashaninka for the Peoples of the Forest” campaign plans to raise 1 million reais (about $200,000) to distribute food, farming tools and fishing gear to 1,800 local families, both Indigenous and non-Indigenous.
- There have been no reports of any Ashaninka being infected with COVID-19 to date; isolated by barriers they set up in the river leading to their village, they’re surviving on their traditional farming techniques.
- Nearby communities, however, depend on food aid and lack medical care in highly complex cases, prompting the Ashaninka to launch the fundraising campaign out of a sense of duty.

The wild plants in your pantry—where did they come from?
- Wild-harvested plants seldom come from large, corporate operations. The first point in the supply chain tends to be local harvesters. Around 3,000 medicinal and aromatic plant species are traded internationally and anywhere from 60% to 90% of these are collected from the wild, according to a new report by the non-profit TRAFFIC.
- The COVID-19 pandemic appears to have increased demand for herbal remedies, some containing plant species that already face pressures due to over-harvesting.
- Plant and animal parts and products intended for medicinal use comprised 23% of all seizures of illicit trade items reported by EU member states in 2018 — the largest reported category.
- TRAFFIC is encouraging individuals to look for the wild plant ingredients in products and companies to use voluntary market mechanisms, such as the FairWild Standard, to help with providing evidence of sustainable and equitable trade.

‘In the plantations there is hunger and loneliness’: The cultural dimensions of food insecurity in Papua (commentary)
- Sophie Chao is an anthropologist who has spent years studying the Marind people of southern Papua.
- As palm oil companies take over their land, the Marind, she writes, are struggling to feed themselves.
- Photographs in this article feature Marind, Mandobo and Auyu tribespeople in southern Papua and were taken by Albertus Vembrianto.

Panic buying amid pandemic drives scarcity in medicinal herbs in Sri Lanka
- With Sri Lanka under lockdown to mitigate the spread of COVID-19, panic buying has resulted in an artificial shortage of several herbs, popular as home remedies.
- Supermarkets and smaller retailers have run out of ginger, coriander, turmeric, yellow vine and lime, and Ayurveda practitioners warn there may not be enough supplies to produce the wide range of indigenous medicinal products that many Sri Lankans trust over Western medicine.
- Authorities say the current scarcity caused by panic buying will eventually result in overexploitation and overpricing of common herbs.

Madagascar’s president promotes unproven herbal cure for COVID-19
- Madagascar’s president, Andry Rajoelina, unveiled an unproven cure for COVID-19 that is derived from a plant, Artemisia annua.
- His comments at a launch of the herbal remedy on April 20 suggested that the remedy, called COVID-ORGANICS, would act both as a cure and a vaccine.
- No evidence from any clinical trials was shared to back up the claims.
- The World Health Organization did not respond to Mongabay’s questions about COVID-ORGANICS, but the agency has warned against the spread of misinformation and purported miracle cures.

The unrecognized cost of Indonesia’s fires (commentary)
- As Indonesia’s forests go up in smoke, the world may be losing a lot more than we currently understand, argues Mongabay founder Rhett A. Butler in this commentary that was originally published in Singapore’s Straits Times on September 30, 2019.
- In one instance, deforestation in Borneo nearly eradicated a potential anti-HIV drug before it was discovered. The near-miss with the drug, Calanolide A, provides one vivid illustration of what is at risk of being lost as Indonesia’s forests are cleared and burned.
- Other local and regional impacts from continued large-scale destruction of Indonesia’s forests may include hotter temperatures, more prolonged droughts, and increased incidence of fires.
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily Mongabay.

Study reveals a fragile web of knowledge linking plants to people
- To understand how indigenous knowledge is structured, researchers chose to focus on communities’ use of palm plants, which are used across the world for a range of economically important needs — from medicine to rituals, roofing to flooring, hair products to handy tote bags.
- The primary goal of the research was not to document the uses of the palms, but to study how knowledge is held in communities and how it might change.
- The team concluded that cultural heritage is just as important as the plants themselves in our realization of nature’s services.

In Ethiopia’s Addis Ababa, Gullele Botanical Garden captivates city dwellers
- Gullele Botanic Garden (GBG) is the first of its kind located in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
- Officially inaugurated and opened to the public in January 2019, it has become increasingly popular among the city’s residents and educators.
- On a smaller scale, similar initiatives such as Shashemene Botanical Garden are being undertaken elsewhere in the country.

In the Solomon Islands, making amends in the name of conservation
- The Kwaio people of the Solomon Islands have been working with scientists to protect their homeland from resource extraction and development.
- But violent clashes in 1927 between the Kwaio and the colonial government created a rift between members of this tribe and the outside world.
- To heal those old wounds and continue with their conservation work, a trio of scientists joined the Kwaio in a sacred reconciliation ceremony in July 2018.
- Kwaio leaders say that the ceremony opened the door to a more peaceful future for their people.

Indigenous communities in post-FARC Colombia struggle to destigmatize sacred coca leaf
- Like many mountains of Colombia, the Sierra Nevada’s thick vegetation, isolation, and deep valleys and canyons made it easy for illegal armed groups to find shelter and resources among the trees during the country’s civil war. These mountains have been home to many indigenous groups, including the Arhauco, Wiwa, Kogi and other peoples, for thousands of years.
- The 2016 agreement between President Juan Manuel Santos and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) ended the 52-year civil war in Colombia, giving Indigenous communities control of their coca crops once again. But the coca leaf still faces stigmatization given its association with the illegal narcotic cocaine.
- The coca leaf has been used extensively as a sacred plant in rituals, medicine, food, religion, social interactions, and other aspects of life in the Andean Region of South America for at least 8,000 years. But in 1961, the United Nations Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs declared “coca leaf chewing must be abolished within twenty-five years from the coming into force of this Convention.”

Social media, e-commerce sites facilitate illegal orchid trade
- Wild orchids are collected for their beauty and are also used in traditional foods and medicines. This demand has left the plants prone to illegal trafficking.
- Despite having some of the best legal protections afforded to plants, wild orchids remain under immense threat globally for the illegal trade.
- While many orchids sold online are grown in greenhouses and have proper documentation, wild orchid traffickers are increasingly poaching the plants from protected forests, posing grave risks to the impacted species.
- There is often an overlap between legal and illegal online orchid sales, sometimes involving the same platforms, buyers and sellers, and little enforcement to prevent illegal transactions.

For Kenya’s Yiaku, medicinal herbs are their forest’s blessing and curse
- The Yiaku, hunter-gatherers turned herders who live deep inside Mukogodo Forest in central Kenya, have relied on herbal remedies for ages, with knowledge passed orally from one generation to the next.
- However, high demand for the herbs from neighboring communities is exposing the forest to new threats — a trend mirrored across the country.
- Recognizing that traditional knowledge is crucial to forest conservation, the government has taken steps to protect it, at least on paper. However, the Yiaku have received little support, even as their most knowledgeable elders pass on and their community becomes increasingly assimilated to their pastoral neighbors.
- This is the third story in Mongabay’s three-part profile of the Yiaku’s management of their ancestral forest.

More than one-third of critically endangered plants cannot be conserved in seed banks
- New research finds that seed banking alone is not sufficient to conserve the world’s threatened plant and tree species.
- According to a paper published in the journal Nature Plants this month, researchers at the UK’s Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew found that 36 percent of critically endangered species produce “recalcitrant seeds,” which means that they cannot tolerate being dried out and thus can’t be frozen at -20°C, the process required for them to be preserved in a seed bank.
- On the other hand, very few wild relatives of crop species and medicinal plants were found to be unsuitable for conventional seed banking.

Reliance on natural healing cultivates respect for nature in Indonesian village
- A small village in the Indonesia island of Sulawesi is keeping alive a tradition of healing based on remedies derived from locally grown herbs and other plants.
- The importance of traditional medicine to the community means the villagers have long been diligent about protecting the forest in which the plants grow.
- This has translated into hefty fines for unregulated logging or poaching of local wildlife, including the maleo, a bird found only in Sulawesi.

Audio: Amazon tribe’s traditional medicine encyclopedia gets an update, and conservation effectiveness in Madagascar examined
- On today’s episode, we’ll get an update on an ambitious effort to document traditional indigenous healing and medicinal practices in the Amazon and speak with the reporter behind Mongabay’s popular new series on conservation efforts in Madagascar.
- Our first guest on today’s episode of the Mongabay Newscast is Christopher Herndon, who, as co-founder and president of the group Acaté Amazon Conservation, has supported the Matsés people in planting healing gardens, which are basically living pharmacies as well as classrooms, and to document their traditional healing and plant knowledge in an encyclopedia.
- Our second guest is Mongabay contributor Rowan Moore Gerety, the writer behind our recent series on the effectiveness of conservation interventions in Madagascar.

Orangutans process plants into medicine, study finds
- Scientists have observed Bornean orangutans chewing on the leaves of the Dracaena cantleyi plant, producing a soapy lather they then spread onto their skin.
- A new study finds D. cantleyi has anti-inflammatory properties, suggesting the orangutans are using it to self-medicate.
- Indigenous communities also use D. cantleyi as a pain reliever.
- The researchers say their study provides the first scientific evidence of deliberate, external self-medication in great apes.

Conservation leaders in Africa call for a crackdown on biopiracy
- Indigenous rights groups and others have long criticized the lack of benefit sharing between bio-prospectors and the local communities that inhabit the places where the organisms are found, calling such acts “biopiracy.”
- The African Union (AU) Strategic Guidelines for the Coordinated Implementation of the Nagoya Protocol in Africa was adopted by the AU Assembly at its 25th Ordinary Session, which was held in South Africa in 2015. The guidelines aim to provide a roadmap for implementation of the Protocol and Access and Benefit Sharing system at national and regional levels.
- But while the Nagoya Protocol and its AU implementation guidelines address many issues, some stakeholders remain worried about those not covered – such as off-site synthesis using information previously collected and the use of materials cultivated abroad.

What would you do if you had “nature’s pharmacy” in your backyard?
- Though most cures are not medically proven and scientific experts remain skeptical of their benefits, others say that indigenous peoples’ long-accumulated wisdom of the forest and what grows in it is undeniable.
- In Ecuador, knowledge of the medicinal properties of the Amazon have been passed down throughout the generations by Yachaj, or medicine men, who spend years living with the forest, meditating and listening to nature.
- Training to become a Yachaj takes three to ten years and involves long separations from loved ones and society.

Scientists say Amazon biodiversity could help fuel Fourth Industrial Revolution
- A team of researchers led by climatologist Carlos Nobre of Brazil’s National Center for Monitoring and Early Warning of Natural Disasters published an article today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) arguing for “a new development paradigm” in the Amazon.
- Nobre and his co-authors write that the dominant economic paradigm of today, which entails intensive use of the Amazon’s natural resources, has led to “significant basin-wide environmental alterations” over the past half-century.
- Nobre is leading a multidisciplinary group comprised of science and technology experts who aim to set up public-private partnerships among key actors in Brazil and other Amazonian countries in order to bring together research and development centers, universities, and businesses to make economic use of the Amazon’s diversity of living plants, animals, and insects.

Local communities rush to save Kenya’s only lowland rainforest
- Kakamega Forest is the only forest of its kind in Kenya, home to plants and animals found nowhere else in the country.
- For decades, the forest has been shrinking due largely to poverty-driven logging, harvesting of medicinal resources, and agricultural expansion.
- To address these issues, local communities around Kakamega have formed groups that promote more sustainable livelihoods.

The miraculous Moringa tree: potential solution for world malnutrition
- A growing population and the effects of climate change are threatening and destroying agricultural lands vital to feed the 7.3 billion people now inhabiting the planet.
- Dr. Mark Earl Olson of the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México proposes in-depth research into the cultivation of the humble Moringa tree as a solution to the growing nutritional crisis.
- Known for its spicy taste, high protein, iron, and vitamins A and C content, the Moringa’s leaves offer a potential solution to global famine and malnutrition.

Economic models for forests often neglect value of biodiversity

Tropical forests provide countless goods and services that help sustain human life. Given the rapid conversion of forests to agricultural lands, scientists say it is critical that we prioritize conservation of forest ecosystems. While economists have attempted to quantify the economic value of tropical forests, these estimates may overlook the intricacies of the landscape. According […]
What we can learn from uncontacted rainforest tribes

Mark Plotkin speaking at TED Global in October in Brazil. If you have ever wondered about the connection between giant hallucinogenic frogs, uncontacted peoples, conservation, and climate change — and who hasn’t? — check out this TED talk from ethnobotanist Mark Plotkin: What the people of the Amazon know that you don’t. An ethnobotanist by […]
Helping the Amazon’s ‘Jaguar People’ protect their culture and traditional wisdom

Portrait of a Matsés woman. Photo by Alicia Fox. Tribes in the Amazon are increasingly exposed to the outside world by choice or circumstance. The fallout of outside contact has rarely been anything less than catastrophic, resulting in untold extinction of hundreds of tribes over the centuries. For ones that survived the devastation of introduced […]
Livelihoods depend on the environment in the Western Ghats

Red mangroves of Uttar Kannada. Photo by: Viraj Singh. In the Uttar Kannada district of the Western Ghats, the livelihood of the average individual depends largely on the well being of the environment. Six months ago, before large-scale mangrove planting of the area, if someone were to walk through the banks of the mangroves in […]
Amazon plant yields miracle cure for dental pain

The world may soon benefit from a plant long-used by indigenous people in the Peruvian Amazon for toothaches, eliminating the need for local injections in some cases. Researchers have created a medicinal gel from a plant known commonly as spilanthes extract (Acmella Oleracea), which could become a fully natural alternative to current anesthetics and may […]
Zoopharmacognosy: how self-healing animals could save humans

Red-and-green macaws (Ara chloroptera) eating clay in order to aid digestion. Photo by: Rhett A. Butler. As humans we take many things for granted. When we come down with a sore throat, a fever, or the dreaded stomach flu, we drag our aching bodies into our cars and visit the doctor. Animals have no such […]
Chemotherapy tree facing extinction

A yew tree in the Himalayas that produces the chemotherapy drug, Taxol, is in danger of extinction. An update to the IUCN Red List, has moved the tree, named Taxus contorta, from Vulnerable to Endangered. Overharvesting for medicine and fuelwood have placed the species in serious danger. Craig Hilton-Taylor with the Red List told the […]
Shamans and indigenous spiritual leaders unite in Malibu

Just north of Los Angeles on a bluff overlooking the Pacific Ocean is a special piece of ancient tribal land. Prehistoric artifacts and burials indicate that occupation occurred there as early as 6000 BC. It was this primeval site on a crisp October night recently where the Wishtoyo Foundation and the Chumash people, in cooperation […]
Monarch butterflies medicate their sick kids

A new study in Ecology Letters has discovered that monarch butterflies employ medicinal plants to treat their larva. Researchers found that certain species of milkweed, which the larva feed on, can reduce the threat of a sometime deadly parasite. However, even more surprising: “we have also found that infected female butterflies prefer to lay their […]
Losing nature’s medicine cabinet
- In all the discussions of saving the world’s biodiversity from extinction, one point is often and surprisingly forgotten: the importance of the world’s species in providing humankind with a multitude of life-saving medicines so far, as well as the certainty that more vital medications are out there if only we save the unheralded animals and plants that contain cures unknown.
- Already, species have provided humankind everything from quinine to aspirin, from morphine to numerous cancer and HIV-fighting drugs. “As the ethnobotanist Dr. Mark Plotkin commented, the history of medicine can be written in terms of its reliance on and utilization of natural products,” physician Christopher Herndon told mongabay.com.
- Herndon is co-author of a recent paper in the journal Biotropica, which calls for policy-makers and the public to recognize how biodiversity underpins not only ecosystems, but medicine.

Hutan Hujan Australia Hasilkan Kemungkinan Pembunuh Kanker
Obat yang diperoleh dari tumbuhan asli hutan hujan Australia bisa saja menjadi senjata baru melawan kanker, menurut AFP. QBiotics Ltd telah mengeluarkan pernyataan yang mengumumkan bahwa sebuah obat yang terbuat dari bibit semak-semak hutan hujan telah berhasil mengobati tumor di lebih dari 150 hewan, dan perusahaan ini sekarang sedang mempersiapkan menguji obat tersebut pada manusia. […]
Ketika alam selamatkan nyawa Anda

Jika seseorang menyelamatkan hidup Anda, Anda akan ingin untuk mengutarakan rasa terima kasih Anda apa pun caranya — sebuah gerakan, sebuah ucapan ‘terima kasih’, atau bagaimana caranya membalasnya. Namun jika Anda berutang nyawa pada tumbuhan yang ditemukan ribuan mil jauhnya, tugas itu akan menjadi jauh lebih sulit. Sebagai perawat, telah lama saya mengetahui bahwa banyak […]
Australian rainforest plant yields possible cancer killer
A drug derived from a plant native to the Australian rainforest may prove to be a new weapon against cancer, according to the AFP. QBiotics Ltd has released a statement announcing that a drug made from the seeds of a rainforest shrub has successfully treated tumors in over 150 animals, and the company is now […]
When nature saves your life

If someone saves your life, you want to express your gratitude however you can — a gesture, a “thank you,”, or somehow returning the favor. Yet when you owe your life to a plant found thousands of miles away, the task becomes much harder. As a nurse, I’ve known for years that many life-saving medicines […]
Taking back the rainforest: Indians in Colombia govern 100,000 square miles of territory

An interview with Martin von Hildebrand, founder at head of Gaia Amazonas. Indigenous groups in the Colombian Amazon have long suffered deprivations at the hands of outsiders. First came the diseases brought by the European Conquest, then came abuses under colonial rule. In modern times, some Amazonian communities were virtually enslaved by the debt-bondage system […]
Cochabamba Climate Conference: the Coca Contradiction

In the high stakes game of geopolitics, the small and economically disadvantaged Andean nation of Bolivia has little clout. Now, however, the country’s indigenous president Evo Morales wants to establish more of a significant voice on the world stage. Recently, he has turned himself into something of a spokesperson on the issue of climate change. […]
How rainforest shamans treat disease

Physician Christopher Herndon explores how Amazon shamans diagnose and treat disease. Ethnobotanists, people who study the relationship between plants and people, have long documented the extensive use of medicinal plants by indigenous shamans in places around the world, including the Amazon. But few have reported on the actual process by which traditional healers diagnose and […]
Research into drugs derived from natural products declining

Review reports that many pharma companies have eliminated their natural product research programs in the past decade, while from 2001 to 2008 there was a 30 percent drop in the number of natural product-based drugs undergoing clinical studies. Although the majority of drugs available today have been derived from natural products, research into nature-based pharmaceuticals […]
Anti-HIV and anti-cancer drugs derived from Borneo rainforest progressing to final development stages

Two drugs derived from rainforest plants in Sarawk (Malaysian Borneo) are now in their final stages of development, reports Malaysian state media, Bernama. Calanolide, an anti-HIV drug derived from the Bintangor or Calophyllum tree, is now in the clinical trial stage, said Deputy Chief Minister Tan Sri Dr George Chan, speaking to reporters in Miri, […]
Traditional practices contribute to conservation of medicinal plants

Traditional practices contribute to conservation of medicinal plants in West Usambara Mountains, Tanzania, report Tuli S Msuya and Jafari R Kideghesho in the March issue of the open access journal Tropical Conservation Science. These practices include domestication; beliefs on sacredness of trees; beliefs on sacred forests; respect of cultural forests; protection of plants at the […]
Tropical forest tree is source of new mosquito repellent as effective as DEET

IP laws not helping indigenous people protect traditional knowledge (repost)

IP laws not helping indigenous people protect traditional knowledge IP laws not helping indigenous people protect traditional knowledge mongabay.com November 13, 2008 Indigenous knowledge has long been exploited for profit by outside groups, while local communities see few benefits. A new report suggests reform may lie in promoting self-governance rather than conventional IP laws.
An interview a shaman in the Amazon rainforest
- Deep in the Suriname rainforest, an innovative conservation group is working with indigenous tribes to protect their forest home and culture using traditional knowledge combined with cutting-edge technology.
- The Amazon Conservation Team (ACT) is partnering with the Trio, an Amerindian group that lives in the remote Suriname-Brazil border area of South America, to develop programs to protect their forest home from illegal gold miners and encroachment, improve village health, and strengthen cultural ties between indigenous youths and elders at a time when such cultures are disappearing even faster than rainforests.
- In June 2008 mongabay.com visited the community of Kwamalasamutu in Suriname to see ACT’s programs in action. During the visit, Amasina, a Trio shaman who works with ACT, answered some questions about his role as a traditional healer in the village.

Colorful insects help search for anti-cancer drugs

Colorful insects help search for anti-cancer drugs Colorful insects help search for anti-cancer drugs mongabay.com July 7, 2008 Brightly-colored beetles or caterpillars feeding on a tropical plant may signal the presence of chemical compounds active against cancer and parasitic diseases, report researchers writing in the journal Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment. The discovery could […]
Colombia creates rainforest reserve to protect medicinal plants

Colombia creates rainforest reserve to protect medicinal plants Colombia creates rainforest reserve to protect medicinal plants Rhett A. Butler, mongabay.com June 12, 2008 Colombia today announced the creation of a rainforest reserve dedicated to the protection of medicinal plants. The Orito Ingi-Ande Medicinal Flora Sanctuary encompasses 10,626 hectares of biologically-rich tropical rainforest ranging in altitude […]
Amazon conservation Team wins “Innovation in conservation Award” for path-breaking work with Amazon tribes

Amazon Conservation Team wins “Innovation in Conservation Award” for path-breaking work with Amazon tribes Amazon Conservation Team wins “Innovation in Conservation Award”for path-breaking work with Amazon tribes mongabay.com December 11, 2007 The Amazon Conservation Team (ACT) [donate] was today awarded mongabay.com’s inaugural “Innovation in Conservation Award” for its path-breaking efforts to enable indigenous Amazonians to […]
A comprehensive look at the use of animals in Brazilian medicine

A comprehensive look at the use of animals in Brazilian medicine A comprehensive look at the use of animals in Brazilian medicine Jeremy Hance, mongabay.com December 10, 2007 For millennia animals have been used in medicine as remedies. While this practice has all but disappeared in western countries, many cultures still employ traditional medicine that […]
Amazon rainforest children to get medicinal plant training from shamans

Amazon rainforest children to get medicinal plant training from shamans Amazon rainforest children to get medicinal plant training from shamans Grant from Nature’s Path expands cultural program mongabay.com November 21, 2007 The Amazon Conservation Team (ACT) — a group using innovative approaches to preserving culture and improving health among Amazonian rainforest tribes — has been […]
7-year old nature guide becomes Belize environmental hero as adult

The State of Forests and Ecotourism in Belize The State of Forests and Ecotourism in Belize An interview with Colin Young, a Belizean Ecologist mongabay.com November 16, 2007 A 7-year old nature guide grows up to become environmental and scientific role model for Belize Each year hundreds of thousands of nature-oriented tourists visit Belize to […]
Intellectual property rights reach indigenous communities in the Amazon

Intellectual property rights reach indigenous communities in the Amazon Intellectual property rights reach indigenous communities in the Amazon By Carolina Bruun, special to mongabay.com March 21, 2007 In an era where bio-tech companies and their patents grow twice as fast as the world economy, indigenous communities in Brazil start to think about patenting their cultural […]
70% of new drugs come from Mother Nature

70% of new drugs come from Mother Nature 70% of new drugs come from Mother Nature mongabay.com March 20, 2007 Around 70 percent of all new drugs introduced in the United States in the past 25 years have been derived from natural products, reports a study published in the March 23 issue of the Journal […]
Madagascar plant may offer new treatment for malaria
Madagascar plant may offer new treatment for malaria Madagascar plant may offer new treatment for malaria mongabay.com December 25, 2006 A plant traditionally used by healers in Madagascar may offer a new way to treat malaria, a mosquito-borne illness that kills 2-3 million people — mostly children in Sub-Saharan Africa — per year. Researchers led […]
Indians are key to rainforest conservation efforts says renowned ethnobotanist

Indigenous people are key to rainforest conservation efforts says renowned ethnobotanist An interview with ethnobotanist Dr. Mark Plotkin: Indigenous people are key to rainforest conservation efforts says renowned ethnobotanist Rhett A. Butler, mongabay.com October 31, 2006 Integrated biodiversity and cultural conservation can be more effective than traditional protected areas while delivering health benefits to local […]
Mushroom Extract May Help Fight Infection, Cancer

Mushroom Extract May Help Fight Infection, Cancer Mushroom Extract May Help Fight Infection, Cancer American Association of Naturopathic Physicians (AANP) August 9, 2006 Can the extract of a mushroom that is commonly found in the woods of North America, Asia and Europe have a beneficial impact on the human immune system? A small study using […]
Secrets of hallucinogenic mushrooms uncovered by scientists

DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC “-//W3C//DTD HTML 3.2//EN”> Secrets of hallucinogenic mushrooms uncovered by scientists Secrets of hallucinogenic mushrooms uncovered by scientists Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions July 11, 2006 Hopkins scientists show hallucinogen in mushrooms creates universal ‘mystical’ experience Using unusually rigorous scientific conditions and measures, Johns Hopkins researchers have shown that the active agent in “sacred […]
Documentary explores Borneo for possible anti-HIV medicine
Documentary explores Borneo for possible anti-HIV medicine Documentary explores Borneo for possible anti-HIV medicine mongabay.com June 27, 2006 Rainforest plants have long been recognized for their potential to provide healing compounds. Indigenous peoples of the rainforest have used medicinal plants for treating a wide variety of health conditions while western pharmacologists have derived a number […]
Cure for cancer, AIDS may be lost with Borneo’s forests says WWF

Cure for cancer, AIDS may be lost with Borneo’s forests says WWF Cure for cancer, AIDS may be lost with Borneo’s forests says WWF WWF International April 26, 2006 Gland, Switzerland — Plants that could help treat or cure diseases such as cancer, AIDS and malaria have been found in the forests of the heart […]
Medicinal value of chocolate explored by scientists

Medicinal value of chocolate explored by scientists Medicinal value of chocolate explored by scientists Mars, Incorporated release February 9, 2006 The cocoa plant (Theobroma cacao) holds tremendous potential to impact public health and improve the socioeconomic and ecological landscape of the countries where it’s grown, according to leading world scientists who convened at the National […]
Medicinal Plants could help poverty alleviation in Sub-Saharan Africa — World Bank report
Medicinal Plants could help poverty alleviation in Sub-Saharan Africa — World Bank report Medicinal Plants could help poverty alleviation in Sub-Saharan Africa — World Bank report World Bank news release November 3, 2005 NAIROBI, KENYA, October 27, 2005— Dryland areas in Sub-Saharan Africa have a niche opportunity to use selected multipurpose medicinal plants to halt […]
Anti-HIV drug from rainforest almost lost before its discovery
- Rainforest plants have long been recognized for their potential to provide healing compounds.
- Indigenous peoples of the rainforest have used medicinal plants for treating a wide variety of health conditions while western pharmacologists have derived a number of drugs from such plants.
- However, as forests around the world continue to fall there is a real risk that pharmaceutically-useful plants will disappear before they are examined for their chemical properties.
- Increasingly, it is becoming a race against time to collect and screen plants before their native habitats are destroyed. One near miss occurred recently with a compound that has shown significant anti-HIV effects, Calanolide A.

Medicinal plants explored at Conservatory of Flowers

Medicinal plants explored at San Francisco Conservatory of Flowers Medicinal powers of plants explored at San Francisco Conservatory of Flowers Rhett A. Butler, mongabay.com September 6, 2005 Kaiapo shaman in Brazil. Photo by Sue Wren Plants have long been used by humans for treating a wide range of ills from childhood leukemia to hangovers. Indeed, […]
How did rainforest shamans gain their boundless knowledge on medicinal plants?

Ethnobotanists, people who study the relationship between plants and people, have long been aware that rainforest dwellers have an astounding knowledge of medicinal plants. For thousands of years, indigenous groups have extensively used rainforest plants for their health needs — the peoples of Southeast Asian forests used 6,500 species, while Northwest Amazonian forest dwellers used […]

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