First conceived of by British ecologist Norman Myers in 1988, and subsequently comprehensively updated by Conservation International, in collaboration with Myers and others, the biodiversity hotspots concept has been among the most important and influential biodiversity priority-setting approaches in conservation over the past 15 years.
Now, some five years since the last update, the concept has been revisited to take advantage of a wealth of new information that has become available. In February 2005, Conservation International will launch the results of the latest analysis, conducted over a four-year period and involving more than 400 specialists, some 200 of whom are authors of various chapters presented in a new book, Hotspots Revisited , to be published by CEMEX. The updated study reaffirms the importance of the biodiversity hotspots concept, and provides updated information on the existing individual hotspots, refines and reconfigures their boundaries, and adds nine new hotspots to the list of 25 presented in the first hotspots book in 1999. The new analysis also presents some significant advances, among them the inclusion of data on freshwater fishes for all hotspots, as well as the number of vertebrate genera and families occurring in and endemic to the hotspots -- an initial attempt to better understand the enormous importance of the hotspots in maintaining global evolutionary history.
As before, much emphasis in the new analysis is placed on threats to the hotspots. The new analysis will unveil some startling facts, in particular, the fact that nearly one-third of the world's human population occurs within the borders of the hotspots (and many live very close to existing protected areas), that many hotspots coincide with areas of violent conflict, and that some three-quarters of the most threatened terrestrial vertebrates are endemic to the hotspots. The Biodiversity Hotspots website will be updated with all of the new information.
At a recent meeting in Suzhou, China, UNESCO recognized the importance of this region by declaring it a World Heritage Site for its "outstanding universal significance to humanity." Eight protected areas together comprise the Cape Floristic Region World Heritage Site, one of which includes Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden , the first time that a botanical garden has been recognized as a world heritage site for its biodiversity. The areas included in the world heritage site are Table Mountain, Baviaanskloof, De Hoop Nature Reserve, Boland Mountain Complex, Groot Winterhoek Wilderness Area, Swartberg Complex, Boosmansbos Wilderness Area, and Cederberg Wilderness Area. These eight separate protected areas total more than 553,000 hectares, making this World Heritage Site the richest for plants in the world on a per area basis. This recognition by UNESCO of the Cape Floristic Region's remarkable biodiversity brings the total number of world heritage sites in South Africa to six.
The Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism, Marthinus van Schalkwyk, sees this world heritage designation as an excellent opportunity for the region: "the world's heritage is our heritage, and the recognition of the Cape Floristic Region as world class not only underlines our responsibility for ensuring its wise use into the future, but puts us in an excellent position to expand responsible tourism and generate much needed employment throughout the region." According to the Cape Action for People and the Environment (C.A.P.E.) , which will focus conservation activities on the Site, the UNESCO listing will help to encourage the 'biodiversity economy' in the region. It will promote eco-tourism and better planning and management of the region's incredibly rich natural resources, protected areas, and scenic landscapes for the benefit of all South Africans.
Almost as unexpected was the concurrent sweeping declaration of a 3,600-square-kilometer Togean Islands National Park by the Indonesian Ministry of Forestry on 19th October. Conservation International-Indonesia , with support from the Global Conservation Fund , has been working for eight years to try to establish community-based marine protected areas in the Togeans. However, the extent of the newly declared park and inclusion of over 250 square kilometers of terrestrial habitat – including areas in which the new owl is known to occur – exceeded all expectations. After this success, the challenge ahead will be to break new ground through successful co-management of the national park's marine resources between the government and local communities.
A South African indigenous medicinal plant may hold the key to the treatment of millions of poor people living with HIV and Aids, helping them relieve the symptoms of Aids.
For the first time in South Africa's medical history, the plant, Sutherlandia frutescens, sub-species Microphylla, is to undergo clinical trials to assess its immune-boosting properties.
The Medical Research Council will conduct the trials early next year and results are expected within three to six months.
Anecdotal evidence is already mounting, suggesting that this plant can improve the quality of life of thousands of people both with HIV and full-blown Aids.
Sutherlandia Frutescens grows wild in the Western Cape and in the hills of Zululand.
Cancer bush
A particular variety of the plant has been used for centuries as a potent medicine by South Africa's indigenous San people who call it "Insisa" - the one that dispels darkness. They used it as an energy booster and a powerful anti-depressant.
Zulu sangomas or traditional healers know it as "Unwele", the great medicine that was used to ward off the effects of the devastating 1918 influenza pandemic which claimed 20 million lives worldwide.
The Tswana people know it as "Mukakana" for its power in treating gonorrhoea and syphilis, while the Afrikaners call it the "Kankerbossie" or cancer bush, because of its properties in treating people suffering with internal cancers and wasting.
Molecular combination
A local company specialising in the development of indigenous plant medicines, Phyto Nova, first started researching the bio-chemical properties of Sutherlandia about three years ago.
A multi-disciplinary team headed by Dr Nigel Gericke, a botanist, medical doctor and indigenous plant specialist, found that Sutherlandia contained a powerful combination of molecules which have been identified and used in the treatment of patients with cancer tuberculosis, diabetes, schizophrenia and clinical depression and as an antiretroviral agent.
Phyto Nova were so convinced that Sutherlandia could be used as a tonic for people infected with HIV and Aids, that they contracted farmers to plant acres of the bush, to prevent wild supplies being over-harvested. They have been manufacturing high quality Sutherlandia tablets, gel and powder.
Having determined that the product was safe when administered with a balanced food diet, the company distributed Sutherlandia to Aids patients.
Quality of life
"Anecdotally we are accumulating evidence that wasted patients with Aids, TB and cancer pick up weight, regain energy and appetite," says Dr Gericke.
"The claim we are making on the basis of this, is that we can significantly and dramatically improve the quality of life of many ill Aids patients... We are certainly not making the absurd claim that Sutherlandia is a cure-all or a cure for Aids."
Whatever comes of the clinical trial, word of the plant's properties is already spreading among South Africa's traditional healers.
At the same time as Phyto Nova was conducting its research, one of the country's most venerated traditional healers, Dr Credo Mutwa, 80, was using Sutherlandia to treat Aids patients.
"My aunt Minah, who is 103 years old, told me that we should use the great medicine against Aids," said Dr Mutwa. "I said to her: 'But aunt, the white people tell us there is no cure for this disease'.
"And my aunt said: 'For every disease there is a treatment. Try this medicine'. And I tried it."
'Near-miraculous'
"I have treated people who were told by the doctors at the hospital to 'go home and die' and they are still alive today, three years after they should have died. This plant is near-miraculous, I can say that with certainty," he says.
Testimony to the efficacy of the plant continues to mount.
Anne Hutchings, an ethno-botanist and lecturer at the University of Zululand has been using Sutherlandia, together with a range of other indigenous plant medicines, to treat Aids patients who attend the weekly Aids clinic at Ngwelezane Hospital.
She has 176 patients who all testify that Sutherlandia has helped them to live a fuller, healthier and more productive life.
No response
In the Northern Cape town of Kuruman, nurse and sangoma, Virginia Rathele is using Sutherlandia at her clinic to treat more than 300 Aids patients.
She says an integral part of the treatment is to tell patients to eat healthily. "Sutherlandia does not work properly just on a diet of porridge. You have to have vegetables," she said.
One client, who weighed 26kg and was close to death in April this year, now weighs 45kg and is helping Ms Rathele run the clinic.
Patents cannot be taken out on plants which have well-documented folk use, which means that Sutherlandia should remain accessible to anyone.
At present, one month's supply of Phyto Nova tablets costs a little under $2.50 and two months' supply of the powder form of the medication can be bought for under 50 cents.
Phyto Nova has approached the South African Government in a bid to persuade them to grow the plant on a massive scale for use in public health treatment.
So far they have had no response.
In the forests of Maharashtra, a UNDP prize-winning initiative is helping to preserve the region's indigenous medicinal plants. The Medicinal Plants Conservation Centre maintains and protects biodiversity with the involvement of the local community |
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In recent years, the huge demand for herbal and ayurvedic preparations in the urban market, coupled with massive deforestation, has taken its toll on the country's natural medicinal plant resources. Since these resources are the mainstay of the rural healthcare support system in India, where modern healthcare is both expensive and often inaccessible, it has become vital to preserve local health traditions.
The Medicinal Plants Conservation Centre (MPCC), based in Pune, Maharashtra, has initiated a conservation venture to tackle the problem. The centre, set up by Rural Communes, a Mumbai-based NGO, has, with help from the Maharashtra forest department and the Union ministry of environment and forests, identified and managed 13 Medicinal Plant Conservation Areas (MPCA) adjoining forest lands across the state. These MPCAs were selected to represent different eco-climatic and altitudinal zones, and plant species diversity.
The MPCAs constitute just 0.05 per cent of the state's total forest area. Yet, they house 30 per cent of its plant diversity. Each MPCA is an average of 250-300 hectares in size.
The MPCC has also set up a network of nurseries to raise 50,000 plants belonging to 50 different species. Four production centres have been established to process herbal products.
“On each MPCA the in situ (in their natural habitat) conservation of medicinal plants, documentation of species, detailed floristic studies and value and use of various plants is being undertaken,” says Rajashree Joshi of the MPCC.
Satish Elkunchwar, project director and senior IFS officer says: “The first objective was the planting of medicinal plants on degraded forest lands.” Most medicinal plants are naturally found in forest habitats. The co-operation of the Maharashtra forest department was essential for this, since most MPCAs are adjacent to forest land. Six of them lie within national parks or sanctuaries.
The project was initially implemented in three MPCAs -- in Vidarbha, Junnar and Amba -- from 1997 onwards, based on a structure and technical inputs provided by the Foundation for Revitalisation of Local Health Traditions. The Bangalore-based Foundation has piloted similar projects throughout peninsular India. The project was funded by the Sir Dorabji Tata Trust.
Based on the success of the initial project, in 2000 MPCC received funding for a two-year pilot project from the UNDP-sponsored Country Cooperation Fund-1 Project on Medicinal Plants Conservation And Sustainable Utilisation. The Maharashtra forest department has been the implementing agency for this project.
“It is unique because it is a public, private, government and NGO partnership, something one does not see very often,” explains Elkunchwar who became involved with the conservation project at this stage.
Besides preserving the gene pool and documenting the medicinal use of each plant, the project's goals include prioritising medicinal plants for focused conservation action, and developing plans for the specific recovery and enrichment of critically endangered and economically valuable species. Also, crucially, involving local communities in the conservation of medicinal plants whilst ensuring community benefits through innovative schemes for the sustainable utilisation of medicinal plants.
MPCC has undertaken several activities towards this end. One of them is the adoption of villages that fall within the boundaries of the MPCA. Local management committees are set up to ensure proper utilisation of the benefits that accrue to the village through the programme. Help from the community is sought to protect and preserve the MPCA.
MPCC has also trained several ‘barefoot botanists' (residents of the village) who are able to identify local plant species and are aware of their traditional uses. These botanists have helped in the second phase of the MPCC project -- detailed botanical documentation, including the collection of basic ecological data, that is being done by trained botanists from the centre. “They can visit the MPCA all year round and therefore observe the plants at each stage of (their) flowering and fruiting, thus assisting the work of the botanists who are engaged in documentation,” observes Joshi.
MPCC regularly conducts ‘vaidu sammelans' or meetings of traditional rural healers from the various MPCAs. “We have identified and kept contact with these traditional healers who have a vast knowledge of traditional healing methods and the uses of various plants, which has been passed down through the generations and many of which remain undocumented,” says Joshi. “At the sammelans these healers share their knowledge with each other and with us. Through our own research we have also found other uses for the herbs and plants they know of,” she adds. For example, the narkhya tree, grown in the Amboli MPCA, has anti-carcinogenic properties, a fact the villages were unaware of earlier.
Local people have been trained to collect and process various herbs and plants, turn them into oils, medications, foodstuff etc, and package and sell them, albeit on a small scale.
According to Elkunchwar, eco-tourism could be another outcome of the conservation drive. It has, in fact, already begun in a small way, in the setting up of demo-gardens next to the MPCA, where visitors can see examples of plants indigenous to the area, study their botanical details and learn about their usage.
Looking into the future, Elkunchwar would “like to see a time when the preservation of these plants becomes the alternative source of livelihood for these villagers, not merely an additional one”.
MPCC has been so successful in implementing its objectives that it is one of the three Indian recipients of the inaugural Equator Initiative Prize 2002. Awarded for Innovation in Poverty Eradication and Sustainable Development, the award carries a cash prize of US $ 30,000. The centre plans to put the money into a corpus fund to further its project.
Though happy about the award, Elkunchwar says he views it more as recognition for the movement, rather than as individual success. He credits the remarkable structure of the project, as conceived by Darshan Shankar of the FRLHT, as being largely responsible for this success.
Meanwhile, MPCC is optimistic that the 21-month project which has ended will soon receive funding from UNDP under its Country Cooperation Fund–2 Project.
Contact: F-3, Radhakrisha Apartments,
Second Floor, 425/84,
Tilak Maharashtra Vidyapeeth Colony,
Mukundnagar, Pune 411037.
Tel: 4266629/4270216
Email: rcmpcc@vsnl.com |
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WWF and Qarshi Industries, a leading producer of herbal medicines, have established a National Herb Centre in Hattar, for the conservation of medicinal plants, in Pakistan.
This Centre hosts all information on medicinal plants, especially on their cultivation methodology and tissue culture provides resources to develop the capacity of scientists, researchers and students. Iqbal Qarshi, Chief Executive of Qarshi Industries, has extended support on working side by side with WWF-P, on various aspects of medicinal herb conservation, training of plant collectors, establishment of herb nurseries and restoration of degraded habitats.
Communities were provided support in cultivating species of high economic returns like Apium greveolens , Ephedra gerardiana., Bonicum percicum,,Sassuria lappa, Crocus sativus, Glyceriza glabera ,Chamomila recocata.
Ethnobotany Project, WWF - P facilitates training in medicinal plants cultivation, harvesting and post harvest care and providing linkages with industry for high economic returns. Qarshi Industries provides seeds and subsidy for commercialising medicinal plants as minor crops and purchases the produce from the local communities at market rate.
Collaboration with PCSIR and NRCP
WWF- P and Medicinal and Botanic Centre (MBC) of Pakistan Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (PCSIR), are collaborating together to increase value addition of herbal products. Under this partnership, MBC will share production and post harvest technology, lab facilities for bioassay and evaluation of active constituents and on-form technology transfer of medicinal plants. While WWF - P will share its, publications on the conservation of medicinal plants, field facilities and provide support in organising training workshops and other R&D activities regarding medicinal plants.
WWF - P, ethnobotany team is actively pursuing its conservation efforts at Ayubia National Park (ANP). For sustainable plant use through capacity building, the Natural Resource Conservation Project and WWF - P have agreed to raise environmental education levels at Gilliat. Both organisations would work together in coordinating school clubs, developing extension material, promoting field level interventions like Fuel Efficient Stoves, medicinal plants, eco-tourism and management of ANP.
Partnership with MINFAL
Recognising the effectiveness of initiating joint ventures, WWF - P and MINFAL (Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Livestock) Islamabad have jointly decided to address, broad areas of promotion of cultivation of medicinal plants, enhancement in seed production of medicinal plants and aromatic herbs and development and dissemination of collection technology for wild plants. MINFAL will provide financial support and help in coordinating various activities. Likewise, WWF - P will provide support in community organisation and technical assistance in various activities regarding conservation and sustainable use of plant resources.
Contact:
Habib Ahmad,
wwfpsh@brain.net.pk
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The latest IUCN-World Conservation Union biodiversity report indicates that Malaysia has more endangered plant species than any other country in the world - 681.
IN the last 50 years, about two per cent or about 170 of the estimated 8,500 species of flowering plants in Peninsular Malaysia became extinct.
This figure in itself doesn't sound alarming. But if the present rate of rainforest felling continues, the extinction rate could rise to 20 percent or more.
And there is reason to worry: in the 1960s, 73 per cent of our total land area (24 million hectares) was forested. By the 1990s, it had already dropped to 58 per cent (19 million ha).
Former Universiti Malaya ecology department head Professor Dr E. Soepadmo says only 40 per cent of the peninsula's natural forest cover still exist and the proportion is even lower in Sabah and Sarawak.
This is most unfortunate because the Malaysian rainforest, especially lowland rainforest, is incredibly where rich in biodiversity and that is where the greatest amount of deforestation has taken place.
Soepadmo says there are an estimated 12,000 to 15,000 plant species in Malaysia compared to 5,000 in the whole of Europe, a land mass 20 times bigger. So, we stand to lose a much greater number of plant species when, say, a 500ha tract of rainforest is felled as compared to the equivalent area of forest in Europe.
"When a habitat is changed by intensive logging or conversion to other forms of vegetation, many plant species immediately fall into the endangered category," adds Soepadmo, who is now a research officer at the Forest Research Institute of Malaysia.
The incredible biodiversity found in the rainforest is due to the amazing range and variety of habitats and local conditions found within even a small area of the rainforest which allows many new variants of plant species to evolve, specialise and survive.
A unique feature of the rainforest, says Universiti Malaya Rimba Ilmu co-ordinator Associate Professor Dr Wong Khoon Meng, is that many plant genera found in rainforests are represented by many different species.
A census of a 50ha forest study plot in Pasoh, in the peninsula, recorded 22 different species of Aglaia, 14 species of Shorea, 13 Aporusa, 10 Artocarpus, 11 Baccaurea, eight Calophyllum, five Canarium, five Castanopsis , six Chisocheton, five Cinnamomum, etc.
On Mount Kinabalu alone, botanists have recorded 73 plant genera that are each represented by 10 or more species, including 30 genera that are represented by 20 or more species! What's more, there are a total of 98 different species of figs, 88 species of Bulbophyllum orchids, 66 species of the jambu-relative Syzygium and 46 species of Lithocarpus oaks on the mountain.
And, unlike other forest types, Wong says, the rainforest also has a wealth of rare plant species. A plant species is said to be rare when its population is small and can be found only in one or very few places. It is also considered rare if it is only represented by a few individuals over a large area. In the 50ha study plot in Pasoh mentioned early, nearly 20 per cent of the tree species were represented by only 20 or fewer individuals and nearly 10 per cent had only five or fewer individuals.
Also, because many of these plant species are endemic, they easily become endangered when the habitat is disturbed or changed in any way. A species is said to be endemic when it is found naturally in only a single geographical area and nowhere else. For example, the genus Aleisanthia (which belongs to the coffee-family or Rubiaceae) is endemic to the peninsula.
There are only two known species of this genus: one, A.sylvatica, is only found in lowland forest in Ulu Kelantan, while the other, A. repestris, occurs only on the Klang Gates quartzite ridge, north-east of Kuala Lumpur. More than 26 per cent of Peninsular Malaysia's 2,830 tree species and anywhere between 20 and 40 per cent of the more than 3,500 tree species in Sabah and Sarawak are endemic. Some 70 per cent of these endemic tree species are endangered.
As much as 43 per cent of the 212 palm species in the peninsula and 40 per cent of the 290 palm species in Borneo are endemic. Another major reason why the ICUN report lists such a high number of threatened plant species for Malaysia, says Wong, is the fact that we have more information about our flora than most of the other tropical countries.
So, he adds, it is possible that some of these tropical countries may have more endangered species than we do but it's not known because there's not been enough research and documentation.
"The situation is bad but we are not necessarily the worst country in the world. The problem is not restricted to Malaysia. It's true for all countries with high biodiversity.
"A lot of it has to do with the fact that Malaysia and a few other countries like Brazil and Costa Rica are better documented than the other tropical countries.
"For instance, there is so little Information coming out about the state of biodiversity in Indonesia. We need to appreciate this background before we can explore the issue in the right way," adds Wong. He says it is important to conserve as many large forest areas as possible to ensure that we preserve as many breeding populations as possible and not just one or two specimens of a plant species.
Thus, it is crucial that scattered patches of unspoiled "forest islands" are conserved within disturbed areas such as logging areas because a single patch of forest cannot capture the incredible range of habitats and environments that support the biodiversity of the rainforest.
"It is not enough to merely have a big Taman Negara here and an Endau Rompin there," adds Wong.
He also adds that fragments of forest that are too small may gradually become modified and lose their original species and character as more aggressive and light-loving weedy species start spreading in from the edges. Island-type habitats such as limestone hills, quartzite ridges, mountain peaks and areas of special vegetation, which are surrounded by very different environments, adds Wong, are of great importance and great care must be taken to conserve them as they are special centres of biodiversity.
Wong says almost 20 per cent of the 1,119 seed-plant species recorded on limestone hills in Peninsular Malaysia are not found anywhere else and 10 per cent are strictly limestone species. Nine of the 22 seed-plant genera endemic to the peninsula are restricted to the mountains of the Main Range.
Perak has more narrowly-restricted endemic tree species than any of the other States in the peninsula because of the large number of limestone outcrops and mountains that represent ecologically isolated, island-type habitats.
The 4,500 species of seed-plants and ferns that grow on Mount Kinabalu represent some 10 per cent of the entire vascular plant flora of the whole Malesian region. And, half of the 30 species of pitcher plants and 50 species of rhododendrons found in Borneo occur on Mount Kinabalu. Wong notes that regular disturbance to any forest system, such as logging or forest fires caused by people, will affect its biodiversity.
But habitat loss which occurs when a forested area is converted to other uses, such as plantation agriculture, is the main cause of extinction because there is no chance for rare and endangered species to survive once the natural habitat is destroyed.
There are at least three plant habitats in Malaysia that have suffered high extinction rates as a result of habitat disturbance - the Kinta region of Perak, species-rich limestone flora and montane forests. Sixty-six tree species endemic to the Kinta region have not been seen since the 1940s when forest in which it grew was cleared for opencast tin mining.
The clearing of forests surrounding species-rich limestone hills and other habitat disturbance have led to the extinction many endemic plant species. Sixteen of the plant species that were recorded in the limestone hills in the Kinta region in the 1880s have not been seen for over 50 years.
SINCE the opening up of Fraaer's Hill as a resort in the 1920s, 13 native plant species have become extinct. Commercial collecting of wild plants such as orchids, pitcher plants, tongkat ali and kacip Fatimah is also endangering the survival of these species. It is estimated that more than two per cent or about 170 of the estimated 8,500 species of flowering plants in Peninsular Malaysia have become extinct in the last 50 years.
And, if the conservation of biodiversity is not taken seriously, Soepadmo warns that, we can expect the extinction rate of our plant species to rise to 20 per cent or more. Wong stresses the importance of public awareness of the need to conserve rare and endangered plant species in their natural environment. "If members of the public are not aware, they can unknowingly cause damage.
"We should not expect rare and endangered plants to be attractive or spectacular. They may have medicinal qualities that cannot be underestimated.
Soepadmo, likewise, says serious efforts must be made to educate all Malaysians, from Ministers to the man on the street on the need to reduce the terrible toll that we are taking on the environment with our wasteful modern lifestyle in the peninsula.
"In the rural areas in Sabah and Sarawak, there are no roads, no electricity and no piped water. We shouldn't blame the people for burning the forest to grow crops because that is how they make their living.
"Sabah is especially dependent on timber and other forest products because, unlike Sarawak, it does not have oil reserves. Here in the peninsula, where we have everything, we have to have so many cars and air-conditioners in the house.
"All this requires resources and every time we have to build a dam, we have to drown the forest. We have so many highways crisscrossing the peninsula. The width of the highway is at most 10m but an average of 200m of the forest have to be cleared on both sides.
"What I am trying to say is the majority of our forested areas can be saved for future generations but only if everyone, including State Governments and the public, do their bit to help," adds Soepadmo.
Clear too much of the forest, he says, and we risk destroying the entire ecological balance with consequences such the loss of precious water supply.
It could also allow diseases that are currently confined to animal populations in remote forests to leap the species barrier and infect people.
"The forest is not merely a source of timber. Our water supply is also dependent on the forest.
"The virus which causes dengue fever was confined to mosquitoes and monkeys in the jungle faraway from populated areas. Dengue fever only began to spread widely in the 1970s when infected loggers carried it back to their kampungs."
News about man-eating tigers and elephant herds and wild boars rampaging through vegetable gardens, adds Soepadmo, are just some examples of what can happen when there is too much deforestation.
Soepadmo warns that plant species with potential medical applications could also be lost forever if we do not take serious steps to protect our natural heritage.
"Trees and wildlife cannot speak. They cannot organise protests. So we have to be wise enough to preserve some of our forest."
The loss of a species, notes Soepadmo, also results in the loss of genes that could prove valuable in the future.
Unheard of, two or three decades ago, AIDS is now a major health problem throughout the world and there is no known cure.
Soepadmo says pharmaceutical companies have screened thousands of plants and so far three appear to hold the potential for a cure for AIDS.
"Until now, there is no clinical method to cure AIDS, but in the past 10 years, three plants which contain compounds that can be used to slowdown or eventually cure the disease have been identified.
"One of them, the bitahgor tree (Calophyllum lanigerum var. austrocoriaceum) is native to Sarawak. It was not previously known to have any use, medical or otherwise. This illustrates the importance of conserving the biodiversity of rainforests as we cannot predict what mankind's needs will be in the future.
Soepadmo adds that it is possible that some of our 861 endangered plant species could also contain compounds that could be used to cure diseases and conditions that are currently considered untreatable.
And that's all. Many wild species may also form a gene pool for breeding resistance to diseases and pests into their domesticated relatives and have potential commercial value as ornamental plants or minor forest products.
Background |
Why should you care about plants? Well, if you've ever had a headache, been ill, or had an operation you may well have used medicines that originated from plants. Plants have been the most important source of medicine throughout human history.
We already know of dozens of plants that are vital to modern western medicine, and there are thousands more used in traditional and herbal remedies. Below are a few examples.
Plant |
Medical use |
Rosy periwinkle |
Chemical extracts enable four out of five children with leukaemia to recover |
Foxglove |
Extracts regulate the heartbeat of people with heart ailments |
Curare |
Produces a muscle relaxant used in surgery |
White birch |
Some tests have shown it may be effective in killing melanoma (skin cancer) cells |
Velvet bean |
Used in the treatment of Parkinson's disease |
Himalayan yew |
Produces taxol, which is used to treat several forms of cancer |
Willow |
Extracts inspired the development of aspirin |
Cinchona tree |
Quinine is extracted from the bark and used to treat malaria |
Wild yam |
Extracts are modified to produce oestrogen, which is used in birth control pills |
In the laboratory, scientists have been able to copy and manufacture some plant medicines such as aspirin, but in other cases such as the rosy periwinkle, this is not possible – which means the plant is the only source of the medicine. Some plant extracts, such as those from the wild yam, are modified by scientists to produce the final medicinal product.
Many of the chemicals used for medicines are produced by plants or bacteria as a defence mechanism against predators or disease. As all plants are potential food sources and can suffer from diseases, all plants are sources of biologically active chemicals which could be useful as medicines. New plant-derived medicines are most likely to be found in rainforests, as these areas are richest in plant diversity. |
Current threats & problems |
During the last minute,as you have been reading this, some 26 hectares (that's roughly the size of 37 football pitches) of rainforest have been lost due to threats such as illegal logging, land clearance for agriculture and forest fires. This means, on average, a few species of plants become extinct every day. Any one of these could potentially have given us a revolutionary new medicine. How many human lives have been unknowingly affected by this loss?
For most people in the world traditional herbal medicine forms the bulk of their primary health care. Here in the west we are using more and more herbal medicines. The market for medicinal plants is rapidly expanding, placing great pressure on natural resources. A few species of plants, such as the rosy periwinkle, are commercially grown for the pharmaceutical industry, but most species used in herbal preparations are collected from the wild. Although local use of medicinal plants does not normally cause a problem, commercial collection can take a plant to the brink of extinction. |
What WWF is doing |
WWF and its partners work on more than 300 forest conservation projects in over 65 countries. We helped to establish and now support the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), an independent body providing a credible certification scheme for well-managed forests. Products carrying the FSC logo come from forests that are managed for a long-term future and with wildlife and local people in mind.
WWF and the World Bank have set up an alliance to establish a worldwide network of protected areas, which is now making a difference in 22 countries from Peru to China by working towards increasing forest protection and improving sustainable forest management.
In 1988 WWF, the World Conservation Union, the World Health Organisation, health professionals and conservation specialists met in Chiang Mai, Thailand, to discuss, for the first time, the consequences and loss of medicinal plant diversity. This was followed up in 1998 by a further meeting in Bangalore, India, at which conservationists renewed their commitment to saving medicinal plants. Today, WWF is involved in the conservation of medicinal plants through its People and Plants programme. This work involves monitoring, developing systems for sustainable use of medicinal plants and the re-introduction of over-harvested plants. |
