Conservation

As a matter of priority, any strategy must address the plight of the increasing number of wild medicinal plants threatened with extinction. Some Western countries have adopted protective legislation to control collection and limit the demand of their own species by imposing export restrictions. (This has occurred with ginseng in the forests of United States, for example.) In the developing countries, similar legislation is desperately needed, at least for certain species.

It seems likely that some nature reserves and protected areas can provide a sustainable supply of plant materials for sustaining health. Local people will cooperate in conserving a habitat if their own self interest is enhanced. Allowing them to gather herbs in the forests, as they have done traditionally, could be an incentive to protecting the whole ecosystem, such as a rainforest. These plants are not like field crops; many can be profitably harvested on small scale and with little disruption to the natural environment. American families, for instance, have for centuries scavenged forests from North Carolina to Wisconsin in search of ginseng. Protected areas containing reservoirs of medicinal plants might similarly be exploited on a sustainable basis. Not only may this reduce the damage from illegal harvesting, it might perhaps even provide financial resources to build up the native resource.