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Conservation and sustainable use of medicinal
plants in Ghana 1999-2002 |
Identifying the need for work on medicinal plants Medicinal plants play a vital role in the maintenance of human health throughout the world and notably in the tropics. They are of critical importance in poor communities where even relatively cheap western medicines remain prohibitively expensive. Medicinal plants also play an important cultural role as well as an important economical role. Knowledge of their use is widespread and their efficacy is trusted, based on a long history of use. The availability of medicinal plants particularly affects women. Women are frequently responsible for the collection of medicinal plants and have to walk increasingly greater distances to gather these as availability diminishes. Women also have a real need for medicinal plants due to the role women play as primary health carers in the family and for the importance of these plants in treating gynecological illnesses. Despite the long tradition of usage of medicinal plants, their proven efficacy, and lack of affordable alternatives, the continued availability of many of these plants is in jeopardy. Habitat destruction and over-collection means sources of medicinal plants are becoming increasingly scarce. For areas largely reliant on oral rather than written tradition, loss of medicinal plants means not only an immediate loss of effective remedies but also a rapid erosion on knowledge of their use. This is a process that is then particularly difficult to halt. Action is therefore urgently required to implement measures to ensure the continued availability and use of medicinal plants. Measures should involve varied approaches, including cultivation of plants in home gardens to remove pressure on wild populations, limiting trade in medicinal plants to sustainable levels, halting the destruction of plant habitats, and documenting and promoting medicinal plant use. All these approaches benefit from information products which this project has provided. Identification of Ghana as host country In October 1997, a West Africa Regional Workshop in Biodiversity Information Management was run by UNEP-WCMC (then WCMC), hosted by the Centre for Remote Sensing and Geographic Information Services (CERSGIS) (then RSAU), University of Legon, Ghana. During the workshop, visits and discussions with local institutions demonstrated the urgent need to build local capacity in medicinal plant data management in support of in-situ and ex-situ conservation measures. Ghana has a particularly strong tradition in using medicinal plants and they play an important cultural and economic role in poverty alleviation, particularly through the involvement of fetish priests - people of significant status in villages throughout the country. Appreciation of the importance of medicinal plants at government level is increasing, and government policy now promotes the integration of traditional health systems with conventional health systems. An indication of the importance ascribed to medicinal plants is given by the existence within the Ministry of Health of a Director for Traditional Medicine. Strong botanical support for the project was available from the (then) curator of the Herbarium at the Department of Botany, University of Ghana, Daniel Abbiw, author of Useful plants of Ghana: West African uses of wild and cultivated plants, and George Owusu-Afriyie, Director of Aburi Botanic Garden. Development of a medicinal plant garden at Aburi, based on available information, was a central feature of this project. Ghana therefore was a clear candidate as a pilot country for this initiative. Conservation priorities of Ghana Ghana is a signatory to the Convention on Biological Diversity and as such has a responsibility to identify and monitor the state of medicinal plants within the country, including in situ and ex situ conservation actions, to identify processes having an adverse impact on these plants, and to maintain and organise relevant data. Under the National Biodiversity Data Management Strategy, the Ghana Biodiversity Data Management System (GBDMS) has been proposed, and this project fitted well into this. Assistance to Ghana in meeting obligations to CBD The project has a direct role in assisting Ghana to meet articles 7, 8j and 9 of the CBD, relating to data management and ex-situ conservation, respectively, and Article 26, the completion of national reports on actions the country has taken to meet CBD obligations. The project has helped build capacity to facilitate management of data on medicinal plants, including details relating to value, usage, occurrence, threat and conservation status. This provides a sound basis for the development of information products, designed to influence decision-makers at both local and national levels, as well as to support outreach activities promoting practical steps in the cultivation, conservation and sustainable use of medicinal plants.
In what ways can this project be considered a Darwin project? The project meets Darwin objectives in supporting the Biodiversity Convention by helping build capacity to manage and use biodiversity data that has a direct impact on the quality of life for local people. Medicinal plants play a very important role in the alleviation of poverty in a country where even simple western medicines remain prohibitively expensive. Ghana has a relatively rich flora but is poor in financial resources. The project draws on expertise in Britain from Cambridge, London and Edinburgh, and is fundamentally collaborative, with three organisations in the UK and three in Ghana involved in the project. By establishing a database, reports on medicinal plants and a demonstration garden, the project will have a lasting impact. Ghana is a pilot country for the study and it is anticipated that a successful outcome will act as a catalyst in establishing similar initiatives throughout the region. The overall objective was to promote the conservation and sustainable use of medicinal plants in Ghana. This was achieved in two main steps:
Training was a major focus of this project. Staff members from partner institutions in Ghana were trained in the management of information using the plant collections software BG-BASE, through and initial training workshop held at CERSGIS in January 2000 and during subsequent follow up visits from UK staff to Ghana and Ghanaian staff to UK in October 2000, February 2001 and January and March 2002. Staff also received training in cultivation techniques and production of the manual and ethnobotanical survey. How is the work of the project expected to continue after the end of grant period? Legacies to this project: Established plant conservation databases at the Herbarium, University of Ghana and Aburi Botanic Garden which will benefit from a five year maintenance contract to provide technical backstopping and support. These will allow the continued management of data on medicinal plants as a basis for future planning. Developed medicinal plant gardens at Aburi and the University of Ghana which are viewed as strategic and long-term investments by management. These will provide the basis for the on-going establishment of village home gardens. Development of further proposals based on (i) emerging priorities and needs in Ghana and (ii) possible extension of the model to other countries |