A Study to Prepare a National Database on Medicinal Plants Available in Himalayan Region (Indian Part)
by Mita Dutta, India
The importance of traditional medicinal plants in the conservation of biological diversity merits attention. The UN Secretary General’s message on International Day for Biological Diversity on May 22, 2004 reverberated this while explaining this year’s theme: Biodiversity: Food, Water and Health for All “which underlines the importance of biodiversity in ensuring food security and ….in protecting a wide array of traditional medicines… based on world’s biological riches”.
It is against this backdrop that developing countries need to promote proper policy mechanisms for the conservation and promotion of the cultivation of medicinal plants. Subsequently arises the need to develop a substantial and comprehensive database of medicinal plants, which highlights the properties of those species and keeps a strong vigil on endangered species. This repot is a diligent and sincere effort to fill in the gap of reliable information on the quantity of collection and cultivation of medicinal plants, their commercial potential, existing marketing mechanisms and ensures promotion and conservation and rational utilization of medicinal plants.
The areas covered under this study are four states of Central and North Eastern Himalayas in India. The states are Uttaranchal, Himalchal Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh and Meghalaya. The research goes deep into finding out the growing importance of medicinal plants in the world economy. Its contribution to the livelihoods of mountain communities and provides a brief overview of why a large number of medicinal plants are threatened with extinction.
The study dealt with detailed descriptions of 35 of the most important medicinal plants found in the above states and their medicinal properties. It concluded with some major recommendations like providing the farmers with better marketing facilities, preparing comprehensive biodiversity registers facilitating the role of civil society by government in strengthening the medicinal plant sector etc.
It has been hoped that the efforts in bringing out this treatise will help the mountain farmers of the Hindu Kush Himalayan region in their strive towards sustainable livelihood and development and also create awareness among the various other stakeholders.
Access, Benefit Sharing, Prior Informed Consent and Intellectual Property Rights
by Avanthi Weerasinghe, Sri Lanka
For centuries Sri Lanka has been known as an agricultural country. Being an agriculture based society for over 2500 years, Sri Lanka is highly rich in agro bio diversity. The continuous selection of plant varieties with special traits, which suit different uses and different agro climatic conditions by the Sri Lankan farmers over centuries, and the availability of a wide range of agro – ecological conditions have led to the creation of a high wealth of agro bio diversity. However the intellectual property rights regime as embodied in the TRIPS agreement, especially article 27(3) b, which provides for patenting of components of bio diversity including micro organisms, plants, animals and plant varieties could result in the technology rich Northern countries having private monopolistic rights over biological resources of the South.
While rejecting the TRIPS agreement the developing countries herald the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA) as conventions favourable to the rights of farmers. The CBD came into force in 1993 with the main objective of conservation of biological diversity, sustainable use of its components and fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising out of the utilization of genetic resources. Accordingly, the CBD has marked a watershed in the international legal regime by addressing issues relating to biodiversity conservation and bio piracy.
It is admitted that while the objectives of the CBD could be heralded as quite salutary, developing countries have to be somewhat wary in implementing the access and benefit sharing provisions of the CBD through national laws. The access and benefit sharing occur between large corporations in the developed world who would be the recipients of the biological material and Governments of the developing countries who would be the providers. The access is given to these profit oriented corporations for commercial purposes and invariably there is a inherent danger in doing so as nothing much can be expected from the altruistic impulses of the profit oriented large corporations.
This paper deals at length with the impact of the above conventions and the enabling draft legislations under them on the rights of Sri Lankan farmers. The last and the concluding section consists of some recommendations that Sri Lanka could adopt in drafting enabling legislation under these conventions so as to avoid possible adverse consequences of those conventions.
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