Plants for life: - Sacred Seeds Sanctuary

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Access and benefit sharing (ABS)One of the three fundamental objectivesof the CBD is to promote the fair andequitable sharing of the benefits arisingout of the utilisation of genetic resources.One way of doing this is by confirmingthe sovereign rights of the State over itsbiological resources. The bioprospectingof plants for potential new drugs raisesissues about the protection of traditionalknowledge and the mechanisms toensure that indigenous peoples benefitfrom uses of their resources.• The UNCTAD BioTrade Initiative(launched in 1996) promotes thesustainable use of goods and servicesderived from biodiversity, in support ofthe objectives of the CBD(www.biotrade.org/).• The eight Millennium DevelopmentGoals (MDGs) were agreed by worldleaders in 2000, providing an agendafor reducing poverty and improvinglives through environmentalsustainability by the target date of2015. Any measures which enable thesustainable use of natural resources toimprove livelihoods will contribute tothe MDGs. The MDGs can be viewedat www.un.org/millenniumgoals/.• The Millennium EcosystemAssessment (MEA) assessed theconsequences of ecosystem change onhuman well-being, gathering data from2001 to 2005 and providing a scientificappraisal of the condition and trends inthe world’s ecosystems and theservices they provide, as well as thescientific basis for action to conserveand use them sustainably(www.millenniumassessment.org).• The Doha Declaration of 2001 aimedto ensure that the TRIPS agreementand the CBD support each other;“allowing for the optimal use of theworld’s resources in accordance withthe objective of sustainabledevelopment, seeking both to protectand preserve the environment and toenhance the means for doing so in amanner consistent with their respectiveneeds and concerns at different levelsof economic development”.• In 2002 the CBD adopted the GlobalStrategy for Plant Conservation(GSPC), which specifies 16 outcomeorientatedtargets for delivery by 2010.See Annex 3 and www.plants2010.org.• The 2002 World Summit onSustainable Development aimed topromote a global commitment tosustainable development, improving thelives of the world’s poorest people aswell as reversing the continueddegradation of the global environment.For the latest developments seehttp://www.un.org/esa/sustdev/index.html.• The WHO launched their TraditionalMedicine Strategy in 2002, discussingthe role of traditional medicine in healthcare systems. View at http://www.who.int/medicines/publications/traditionalpolicy/en/.• In 2004, the Addis Ababa Principlesand Guidelines to the CBD detailed 14interdependent practical principles andoperational guidelines that govern theuses of components of biodiversity toensure the sustainability of such use.These can be viewed on the CBDwebsite, as before.• Also in 2004, a new paragraph wasadded to the Convention onInternational Trade in EndangeredSpecies of Wild Fauna and Flora(CITES) Resolution Conf.8.3 statingthat the Conference of the Partiesrecognizes that implementation ofCITES listing decisions should take intoaccount potential impacts on thelivelihoods of the poor. Seewww.cites.org for further information.Homalanthus nutans• Homalanthus nutans (the mamala tree)is native to the rainforests of the SouthPacific island of Samoa. It hastraditionally been used to treat anumber of conditions; from back painto hepatitis, diarrhoea and yellow fever.Researchers at the University ofCalifornia, Berkeley, in the US identifieda promising AIDS drug (Prostratin) inthe bark of the tree. Samoa thereforedeclared sovereign rights over thespecies, including the actual genesequences, and signed an ABSagreement with the University in 2004(picture above). The agreement givesSamoa and the University equal sharesto any commercial proceeds resultingfrom the genes. Samoa’s 50% sharewill be allocated to the government, tovillages and to the families of traditionalhealers. Another facet of theagreement is a requirement that anysubsequent commercialised drug mustbe supplied to developing countriesfree, at cost or at very nominal profit.Plants for life: Medicinal plant conservation and botanic gardens 11
• In October 1991, the Costa RicanAsociacion Instituton Nacional deBiodiversidad (INBio), a private, nonprofit,scientific organization andMerck, a U.S. multi-nationalpharmaceutical corporation, signed atwo year agreement. In the agreement,INBio would supply Merck withsamples among the plants, insects andmicroorganisms collected from CostaRica’s protected forests. Merck thenwould have the right to use thesesamples to create new pharmaceuticalproducts. Merck paid one milliondollars to INBio for the right to analyzean agreed-upon number of indigenousplant and animal samples. Merck (it isbelieved) will pay INBio between one tothree percent royalties for any productdeveloped through the agreement.Ten percent of the initial one milliondollars and fifty percent of any royaltywill be invested in biodiversityconservation through Costa Rica’sMinistry of Natural Resources. (Tradeand Environment Database, no date).Clearly such agreements are beneficial inmany ways to countries rich in biodiversitybut without the capacity to develop theseresources. However, there are concernsthat such legislative measures may restrictaccess to plant resources for noncommercialuse such as research,conservation, education and display.Considering the key role that botanicgardens play in educating the publicabout medicinal plant use, access tomedicinal plants for education and displaypurposes as well as for conservation andresearch activities, is important. Botanicgardens have in recent years beenworking to develop harmonisedapproaches to implementing the ABSprovisions of the CBD. Two voluntaryapproaches have been developed,the Principles on Access to GeneticResources and Benefit-Sharing (thePrinciples) and the International PlantExchange Network (IPEN).• The Principles provide a framework tohelp guide gardens when developingtheir own individual policies.• IPEN establishes a system of facilitatedexchange for a network of gardens thathave signed up to a Common Code ofConduct. The IPEN system only coversnon-commercial use of livingcollections.Non-monetary benefits resulting fromplant exchange can include knowledgetransfer, technical support, staff exchangeand capacity building to strengthenconservation work in the country of originof the plant material.Further information can be found atwww.bgci.org/abs.Cultivation versus wild harvestCultivation has long been suggested as apossible mitigation to the unsustainablewild harvest of medicinal plants,simultaneously taking the pressure offwild stock whilst boosting commerce.Along an agronomic model, modernmethods of plant breeding, propagationand post-harvest processing techniquesPanax quinquefoliusPanax quinquefolius (Americanginseng) has been heavily traded inNorth America for over a century;“We were down in the Tennesseemountains when there came slowlydown the mountain trail a dilapidatedspecimen of humanity, slouch hat,bare foot, coat hung on one shoulder,and a sack, of unknown origin, in hishands. He saw us, heard us as wegreeted – but without turning the headslunk on like some phantom creatureinto the forest labyrinth. ‘Humph’,said the guide. ‘You might a’ known.You can’t expect nothin’ of a ginsengdigger.’”(Koch, 1910).It is highly prized as a universal remedy ineast Asia, where more than 95% ofharvested roots end up. Traded ginsengtypes include wild, wild-stimulated,cultivated woods-grown and cultivatedfields-grown. Field-grown ginseng rootsreach a size in three years that can only beattained by 15-30 years of growth undernatural forest conditions, and are very palein colour compared to wild-grown roots.Wild ginseng root has the greatestperceived medicinal value of all theginseng types and this is reflected inprice – from as much as US$1300/kg forwild roots to as low as US$44/kg forfield-cultivated roots (Pierce, 2002).Though there is a move towards gradingthe roots according to the quantity ofactive chemical content, buyers primarilygrade roots according to physicalcharacteristics; size (the bigger thebetter), shape (the more ‘man-shaped’and thicker the better), age (the olderthe better) and colour (the darker thebetter) (Sinclair, 2005).Illegal wild harvest is known to occur;10,515 illegally harvested roots wereseized between 1991 and 1999 in theGreat Smokey Mountain National Parkalone (Pierce, 2002). Conservationefforts have therefore includedemploying marker technology to enabledistinction between cultivated and wildroot, as well as research into the activecompound content. P .quinquefolius iswidely cultivated commercially, andrecorded in eight botanic gardencollections (PlantSearch database).12Plants for life: Medicinal plant conservation and botanic gardens
Page 4: ContentsMagnolia denudata.Flower bu
Page 7 and 8: 3. Medicinal plants for healingMedi
Page 9 and 10: 4. Medicinal plants for livelihoods
Page 11: 5. Approaches to medicinal plantcon
Page 15 and 16: Hoodia spp.Hoodia spp. are slowgrow
Page 17 and 18: Questionnaire responses illustrated
Page 19 and 20: Working with local authorities, Oax
Page 21 and 22: 7. Recommendations for medicinal pl
Page 23: 4. ConserveThe role of plant and se
Page 29: Lydecker, M., Silverman, M. & Lee,
Page 32 and 33: Annex 2 - Source data for list of m
Page 34 and 35: Annex 3 - Medicinal plants question
Page 36 and 37: Within the 35 priority list 5 gener
Page 38 and 39: Other medicinal plant species sugge
Page 46 and 47: Annex 6: The 2007 IUCN Red List of
Page 48 and 49: SOUTH ASIA• India, Sri LankaIt is
Page 50: This publication is supported by th

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