FRLHT Pioneering In Situ Conservation Strategies for Medicinal Plants & Local Cultures

FRLHT Pioneering In Situ Conservation Strategies for Medicinal Plants & Local Cultures, Bangalore, India

India’s Foundation for the Revitalization of Local Health Traditions
Pioneering In Situ Conservation Strategies for Medicinal Plants and Local Cultures
by Sarah K. Khan, N. Mohan Karnat, and Darshan Shankar--first published in HerbalGram 2005

As medicinal plant use has become more popular worldwide, concern about plant conservation and sustainability has increased. According to the Medicinal Plant Specialist Group of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN), more than 20,000 plant species are used medicinally worldwide. Nearly half of these species are potentially threatened by either over-harvest or loss of habitat.1
     Biological diversity includes a wide spectrum of types and levels of biological variation. This spectrum ranges from genetic variability within a species, to the plant life of some selected region in the world, to the number of evolutionary lineages and the distinctness among them, to the diversity of ecosystems and biomes on the earth.2 Southwest American native culture and botanical expert Gary P. Nabhan argues that most biodiversity on Earth today occurs in areas where cultural diversity also persists.3 This principle is also recognized in the Declaration of Belem produced at the International Congress of Ethnobiology in Belem, Brazil, in 1988.4 Nabhan states that 60% of the world’s remaining 6,500 languages are spoken in 9 countries. Of the 9 countries, 6 of them are centers of mega-diversity for flora and fauna: Mexico, Brazil, Indonesia, India, Zaire, and Australia. In short, where many cultures have coexisted within the same region, biodiversity has also survived.3
     India is among the most important countries regarding ancient healing traditions. Its rich array of medicinal plants is used both in commerce and by local populations. Unfortunately, only a small percentage of these medicinal plants are cultivated. The rest are often destructively collected from the wild with little attention to conservation. This short-term plant collection strategy poses a serious threat to the viability of already threatened Indian medicinal plant species. One leading scientist in the field of medicinal plant conservation, Peter Raven, PhD, Director of the Missouri Botanical Garden, concludes that in situ (natural habitat) conservation of medicinal plants is the conservation method of choice.5
     India has responded with a solution that may serve as a model for other countries. The Foundation for the Revitalization of Local Health Traditions (FRLHT), founded and directed by the third author of this paper (Darshan Shankar), is engaged in the field of in situ conservation of India’s medicinal plants with a multi-faceted, innovative approach. Against the backdrop of increasing world attention on the need for sustainability of medicinal plants, the authors present the story of FRLHT’s pioneering in situ conservation project to promote the future of India’s rich biodiversity.