Bioactive pectic polysaccharides from Glinus oppositifolius(L.) Aug. DC., a Malian medicinal plant, isolation and partial characterization

Abstract

Glinus oppositifolius(L.) Aug. DC. (Aizoaceae) is a Malian medicinal plant used against various types of illnesses related to the immune response, like joint pains, inflammations, fever, malaria and wounds. Two pectin type polysaccharides, GOA1 and GOA2, being isolated from a 50◦C water extract from the aerial parts of Glinus oppositifolius were investigated for their activity towards the complement system and

different leukocyte subsets because of the assumed effects on conditions related to the immune system. The polysaccharide polymer in GOA1 was shown to contain considerable amounts of the neutral sugars arabinose (26.4 mol%) and galactose (42.9 mol%), and methylation analysis indicated the presence of arabinogalactans type I (AG-I) and type II (AG-II). GOA2 was rich in galacturonic acid (68.3 mol%), along with rhamnose, arabinose and galactose. Structural studies indicated that rhamnose and galacturonic acid might constitute a rhamnogalacturonan backbone, often found in pectic substances, with side chains consisting of arabinose and galactose. Both GOA1 and GOA2 were shown to exhibit potent dose-dependent complement fixating activities, and induced chemotaxis of macrophages, T cells and NK cells.

More at:

http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/ncmh/harding_pdfs/Paper291.pdf

ISSUES LINKED TO CONVENTION ON BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY IN THE WTO NEGOTIATIONS IMPLEMENTING DOHA MANDATES.

IN THE WTO NEGOTIATIONS IMPLEMENTING DOHA MANDATES.

ISSUES LINKED TO CONVENTION ON BIOLOGICAL

DIVERSITY IN THE WTO NEGOTIATIONS
IMPLEMENTING DOHA MANDATES.

Author(s): Eugui, D.V.

Produced by: Center for International Environmental Law
(CIEL) (2002)

This document analyses the content of TRIPS and CBD related
mandates contained in the Ministerial texts approved at
Doha. It aims at providing developing countries with
suggestions for common action in the relevant WTO bodies.
While most attention is given to the Ministerial
Declaration, issues of crucial importance for developing
countries are found in the Decision on Implementation
Related Issues and Concerns, and in the Compilation of
Outstanding Implementation Issues.

The author concludes that:
* Negotiations on implementation are the fastest vehicle
for generating changes in the TRIPS Agreement in relation to
CBD. Tiret 15 of the outstanding list of issues is the
strongest mandate for obtaining transitional measures while
the TRIPS agreement is finally reviewed.

* It is possible to link negotiations on implementation and
the work on mandated and reviews under articles 27.3b) and
71.1. due to similar coverage in certain points.

* The relation between the CBD and the TRIPS Agreement and
protection of traditional knowledge (TK) should be included
as specific items under this review independently if they
fall under Article 27.3(b) or 71.1 or paragraph 12 of the
Doha Ministerial Declaration.

* For a more comprehensive review of the TRIPS Agreement in
light of the CBD and the ITGRFA, Article 71.1 seems to be a
more suitable vehicle.

* Gaps among the developing countries on different
approaches on the relation between CBD and TRIPS and the
protection of TK need to be reduced in order to preserve
possibilities for amending the TRIPS Agreement.

* The preparation of a list of common objectives, a common
minimum agenda and clarity on the expected results coming
from the review process can make developing countries tasks
easier.

* The Ministerial declaration strengthens the advisory role
of the Committee on Trade and Environment (CTE) but fails
to provide sufficient authority to permit true reform of
rules. In relation to the negotiations on the WTO rules and
specific trade obligations in MEAs (and more precisely the
CBD) a more circuitous road is created for obtaining
changes in the relevant WTO Agreements.

* The CBD and The ITGRFA have created a new system for
access to genetic resources (GR). Coherence with the work
already undertaken in CBD and FAO will be necessary to
avoid confusion and to obtain a horizontal recognition of
the international system for access to GR in the WTO and
WIPO.

* Participation of the CBD and the FAO secretariat in
the WTO and WIPO will provide useful experiences for the
implementation of these agreements.

Available online at:
http://www.ciel.org/Publications/Note_CBD_EDITEDversion.pdf

------------------------------------------------------------
GENETICALLY MODIFIED CROPS IN AFRICA: IMPLICATIONS
FOR SMALL FARMERS

Author(s): Kuyek, D.

Produced by: Genetic Resources Action International
(GRAIN)(2002)

This briefing looks at the push to bring genetically
modified (GM) crops and technologies to Africa and shows
the implications for farmers in Eastern and Southern Africa.
What will the introduction of GM crops mean for Africa and
its small farmers in particular? Is there any reason to
believe that the new 'gene revolution' will be any more
successful than the failed Green Revolution in Africa?

The author looks at who is pushing the technology and who
is asking for it; it analyses whether GM crops are safe and
questions whether African farmers really need it. The
report provides several case studies that look at some of
the GM crops that are being used to lead the charge into
Africa. Case studies include:

* the use of Bt Cotton in southern Africa
* the development of non-biotech varieties of sweet potato
* traditional and biotech control of maize pests

These examples suggest that in addition to offering little
to Africa's small farmers, they threaten to further
undermine the fragile agricultural systems that these
farmers depend upon. The briefing does not share the
optimism of the proponents of genetic engineering. Rather,
it views genetic engineering as an extension of the Green
Revolution paradigm that failed to address the needs of
Africa's small farmers and served only to exacerbate their
problems.

[authors]

Available online at:
http://www.grain.org/publications/africa-gmo-2002-en.cfm

------------------------------------------------------------
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS IN AFRICAN
AGRICULTURE: IMPLICATIONS FOR SMALL FARMERS

Author(s): Kuyek, D.

Produced by: Genetic Resources Action International
(GRAIN)(2002)

This paper looks at the choice facing African policy-makers
over which of two opposing models of agricultural R&D to
choose to support. One is driven by multinational companies
in the North and relies upon private monopolies and
genetically modified crops. The other is led by farmers,
with support from the public sector, and is based on the
collective use of knowledge and resources for sustainable
agriculture.

The author argues that Africa's small farmers and the seed
industry have completely different needs when it comes to
supporting their innovation, and intellectual property
rights (IPR) are only designed for one of them. If African
governments adopt IPR regimes on agricultural biodiversity,
then they are choosing a corporate model of plant breeding
and, subsequently, a re-organisation of agriculture
according to the interests of Northern seed companies - not the
food security of Africa or the well-being of the continent's
farmers.

The briefing aims to provide rural community workers,
farmers and policy makers in Africa with information that
will contribute to their understanding of the implications
of IPRs on plant genetic resources for small farmers in
Eastern and Southern Africa. It situates the emergence of
IPRs on plant genetic resources within a larger history, in
which the innovative strength and traditions of African
farming communities have been consistently disregarded.

It concludes that the emergence of IPRs in African
agriculture is highly detrimental to local food production
and small farming systems, and that a reorientation of
policies is urgently needed.

[authors]

Available online at:
http://www.grain.org/publications/africa-ipr-2002-en.cfm

------------------------------------------------------------
AMENDED PATENTS ACT AND ACCESS TO MEDICINES AFTER
DOHA

Author(s): Cullet, P.

Produced by: International Environmental Law Research
Centre (IELRC) (2002)

This article examines the amended India Patents Act which
passed into law shortly after the Doha declaration on TRIPS
and access to medicines. The paper examines the
requirements of the TRIPS agreement which forced the
amendment to India's Patent Act and the dual processes of
securing the Doha Declaration and the amended Act.

The original Patents Act as adopted in 1970 reflects India's
long held policy attempting to link the fundamental right
to health and the introduction of patents in the health
sector. As such, the author argues, the extent to which the
amended Act closely follows TRIPS is surprising. The key
benefit to India is the potential for growth overseas of in
it's own pharmaceutical industry however the change is
likely to cause restricted access to medicines for Indians.

One more crucial moment will come in 2005, when the Patents
Act will have to be again amended to allow product patents
on medicines. This still leaves several years for further
open debate concerning the final response to be given to
TRIPS in the health sector.

Available online at:
http://www.ielrc.org/Content/N02051T.html

-----------------------------------------------------------
WORLD BANK PHARMACEUTICALS DISCUSSION PAPER

Author(s): Govindaraj, R.; Reich, M. R.; Cohen, J. C.

Produced by: World Bank Publications (2000)

There is a profound gap between the benefit that
pharmaceuticals have to offer and the reality that for
millions of people - particularly poor and disadvantaged
people - medicines are unavailable, unaffordable, unsafe or
improperly used. As part of its mission to fight poverty
the World Bank has become a significant player in
pharmaceutical policy and financing for low and middle-
income countries in recent years, however it has not had an
explicit strategy to guide it's activities in this sector.
This discussion paper, in conjunction with the World Bank
pharmaceutical procurement guidelines ("Standard Bidding
Documents and Technical Note for the Procurement of Health
Sector Goods"), is an attempt to offer a more coherent
approach.

Following a review of the World Bank's engagement in
pharmaceutical activities five major pharmaceutical policy
issues that are relevant to the World Bank's development
activities are identified and discussed:

* Pharmaceuticals represent a significant proportion of
government and private out-of-pocket expenditures in many
developing countries, and provide a motivation for health
sector reform

* Governments in developing countries commonly lack
adequate institutional capacity to regulate pharmaceutical
activities effectively

* The inefficient use of pharmaceutical resources in many
developing countries substantially reduces access to
essential drugs and potential health benefits

* There is limited funding for new pharmaceutical products
in developing countries, resulting in limited access for
groups who might benefit therapeutically. The limited
access is compounded by the tendency for pharmaceutical
companies to set prices close to developed country prices

* Developing countries represent a relatively small
proportion of the global pharmaceutical market, providing
limited market incentives for the development of new drugs
specific to diseases of those countries (including many
tropical diseases).

Based on these five development themes, six strategic
directions to give greater structure and focus to the World
Bank's pharmaceutical activities are proposed:

* The Bank should support policy dialogue with client
governments for sustainable pharmaceutical reform

* The Bank should promote comprehensive assessments of
pharmaceuticals during project development in the HNP
sector (particularly when the pharmaceutical components
constitute a significant proportion of the HNP project
lending), and a continuous and systematic evaluation of the
Bank's pharmaceutical portfolio

* The Bank should support control of corruption, greater
transparency, and increased accountability in its
pharmaceutical lending activities

* The Bank's lending for pharmaceutical procurement should
be restricted to projects that promote policy and systems
development and target the poor

* The Bank should promote public-private partnerships to
expand access to traditional and new essential drugs for
the poor, and encourage governments to use the private
sector as a technical resource

* The Bank should expand its efforts to promote incentives
for pharmaceutical R&D targeted at critical diseases of the
poor.


Available online at:
http://wbln0018.worldbank.org/HDNet/HDdocs.nsf/c840b59b6982
d2498525670c004def60/386444f3d32e6a828525697d006d53a1/$FIL
E/Govindaraj%20-
%20WB%20Pharmacuetical%20Discussion%20paper.
pdf

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browser]

EARTH SUMMIT: FOCUS ON BIO_PIRACY IN AFRICA

JOHANNESBURG, 30 Aug 2002 (IRIN) - Africa stands to lose
huge benefits from its biodiversity for lack of legal
protection against bio-piracy, concluded the Second South-
South Bio-piracy Summit held last week in Johannesburg
during the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD).

"Legislation is required and it is required yesterday," said
Nolwazi Gcaba, a South African patent and copyright
attorney, referring to her country's legislative vacuum on
this matter.

Biodiversity - the fifth thematic area of WSSD - is Africa's
richest asset. The knowledge its people have developed over
centuries on the properties of plants, seeds, algae and
other biological resources is now coveted by scientists for
medicinal, agricultural and other purposes.

Biopiracy is the theft of biological matter, like plants,
seeds and genes. In the absence of laws regulating access to
these resources, pharmaceutical, agrochemical and seed
multinationals exploit Africa's biological wealth and obtain
rights of intellectual ownership to the resources and
knowledge of communities.

Multinationals make huge profits from African biodiversity
but do not share these with the communities who discovered,
kept and transmitted the knowledge, activists argue.

"They are stealing the loaf and sharing the crumbs," said Dr
Tewolde Berhan Egziabher, a leading expert on the topic at
the Institute for Sustainable Development in Ethiopia.

Thousands of patents on African plants have been filed. To
name just a few: brazzeine, a protein 500 times sweeter than
sugar from a plant in Gabon; teff, the grain used in
Ethiopia's flat "injera" bread; thaumatin, a natural
sweetener from a plant in West Africa; the African soap
berry and the Kunde Zulu cowpea; genetic material from the
West African cocoa plant.

Increasingly, developing countries are going to court over
patents on their indigenous plants. India overturned
American patents for basmati rice and wound-healing
turmeric. Thailand is appealing against a patent on jasmine
rice.

The latest patent to make headlines involves the Hoodia
cactus from the Kalahari desert. For centuries, the San
people of Southern Africa have been eating pieces of the
cactus to stave off hunger and thirst.

Analysing the cactus, the parastatal Council for Scientific
and Industrial Research (CSIR) in South Africa found the
molecule that curbs appetite, and sold the rights to develop
an anti-obesity drug to pharmaceutical company Pfizer. It
could be worth billions of US dollars.

The San complained. Their council threatened a lawsuit.
Earlier this year, the CSIR agreed to share eventual
royalties, and the Hoodia cactus became a landmark case for
indigenous communities wishing to stake a claim on their
knowledge and profits derived of it.

"Western medicine is protected. Wildlife is protected. But
our knowledge isn't, like it's worth nothing," said T.J.
Matiba, a Venda traditional healer, founder and president of
South Africa's Council of Traditional Healers since 1985.

Paradoxically, the poorest people in the world live in the
world's biodiversity hot spots. If they could derive a
benefit from their natural resources and indigenous
knowledge, they would be keen to protect them. That
approach, however, is in conflict with world trade rules.

The UN Convention on Biological Diversity, ratified by 183
countries and in force since 1993, recognises the
sovereignty of states and communities over their genetic
resources.

But the Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights agreement
(TRIPS) of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) does not.
Since 1995, WTO has required its member countries to comply
with TRIPS.

This contradiction creates "schizophrenia between patent
legislation and protection of indigenous knowledge," said
Rachel Wynberg, a South African researcher on biodiversity
now with the University of Strathclyde in the UK.

The root problem is that the existing system of intellectual
property rights and patents does not accommodate non-Western
systems of knowledge ownership and access.

"It [TRIPS] serves the interests of industrialised countries
and fails indigenous communities and holders of traditional
knowledge," said Tom Suchanandan of South Africa's Human
Sciences Research Council.

Under international law, an invention qualifies for patent
protection only if it is new and involves an inventive step.
This excludes traditional products, developed and handed
down over generations. The system is rooted in the European
industrial and scientific tradition. It views knowledge as a
commodity owned by an individual or a company with the goal
of trade.

Indigenous knowledge has a trans-generational, communal and
cultural nature.

"There is no way in which the intellectual property system
can protect indigenous knowledge," said Gcaba. "We can't
hijack it. We must create a new system."

The first line of defence, said Tewolde, was for developing
countries to freeze biopatents, or patents on living things,
from seeds to plants to genes.

At the WTO meeting in Seattle in 1999, the African group
took the lead in opposing the patenting of life and
protecting community rights over their agricultural and
biological heritage.

They are inspired by the African Model Law adopted by the
former Organisation of African Unity. It protects the rights
of farmers, breeders and local communities to their
biological resources, traditional knowledge and
technologies. Their collective rights prevail over
individual or corporate monopoly interests. The patenting of
life in any of its forms violates these rights.

Last but not least, the state should ensure that at least
half of the benefits derived from commercial use of
biological resources are channelled back to the local
community.

African countries must now debate this model law and pass
their own.

"After centuries of unjust and unfair extraction of our
resources that continues today, this is a step towards
justice," said Tewolde.

Available online at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=29628


Contact details:

Tracy Zussman-Kay
ELDIS Programme
at the Institute of Development Studies, Sussex
Brighton BN1 9RE, UK

Email: eldis@ids.ac.uk

Tel: +44 1273 877330
Fax: +44 1273 621202
WWW: http://www.eldis.org/ipr

CONSERVATION AND PRODUCTION OF TRADITIONAL MEDICINAL PLANTS IN HOME GARDENS: THE CASE OF ETHIOPIA

CONSERVATION AND PRODUCTION OF TRADITIONAL MEDICINAL PLANTS IN HOME GARDENS: THE CASE OF ETHIOPIA


By:

Zemede Asfaw

Department of Biology, Addis Ababa University,

P.O. Box 3434, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia



<<<Text modified by the Moderator according to the Phytomedica

posting requirements >>>.



ABSTRACT



The role of the farming system of the home garden in maintenance, production, conservation and utilization of traditional medicinal plant resoources was studied. Survey data on home gardens in Ethiopia were inspected with special focus on their contribution to traditional medicine. The plants species with medicinal value wewre categorically examined to reflect on the level of popularity and use by families/communities. Of the species purposely maintained in Ethiopian home gardens, those cultivated primarily their medicinal value accounted for about 6% while, about30% were cultivated primarily for food (spices/herbsetc). A number of common garden weeds and live ence species also have medicinal use Parallelism between the traditional modern healing systems pertaining to the hierarchical nature and medicines is described. The medicinal flora of the home garden is more improtant for safe home - neighbouring level treatment executed by mothers and elderly community memnbers, while professionl traditional healers useually attend to more serious health problems using plants material mainly obtined secretly from amont those growing wild in secluded places. Prospects for optimizing the use fo the existing home garden medicinal flora, gradusl incorporation fo suitable wild species, setting up special medicinal plants gardens, and other options are discussed. The advantages offered by home gardens are perceived from the view points of biodiversity and indigenous innovations plus vorizing the medicinal plant industry. Integration of different conservation approaches with a bias on home gardens is anticipated to result in comparative advantages in the development of the medicinal plants sector. The paper also emphasizes the special strategic role of the home garden for in-situ conservation of crops (on farm), wild relatives of crops and useful threatened systems. Regional and international cooperation would serve conservation and equitable resources and innovations through intellectual property rights and patent regimes. It is sustainable farming system, worthy of research and development efforts, is yet to be achieved to attract respect and courtesy of scientists, rural development groups and the national policy environment.



Key words: Home garden, medicinal plants, conservation, and production



INTRODUCTION



Home gardens are traditional farming systems wherein indigenous crops of various categories are regularly cultivated and new crips are recureited and domesticates. In the course of embracing different categories of plants for domestication and subsequent cultivation in home gardens, families/communities have developed diverse intuitive criteria to help their decision making. Some of the criteria for taking a plant into cultivation, in the home garden, must have included extent of satisfying basic needs, multiplicity of use, diverse agromorphologic features, safeness and whether the knowledge on he plants was public/open or individual/restricted. One of several motive forces for maintaining home gardens is provided by the medicinal value of plants that are essential components of home gardens in different parts of the world (Christianity 1990, Cabarello 1992, Zemede Asfaw and Ayele Nigatu 1995). The claim in Ethiopia becomes more founded upon extrapolating information on garden plants used in traditional medical lore (Mesfin Tadesse 1986, Gelahun Abate 1989, Mesfin Tadesse and Sebsebe Demissew 1992), and those of regional na dglonbal importance (Boulos 1983). Some plant species are purposely grown in home gardens for use in traditional medicine, a good number of he remainin species that are improtant in traditional remedy are plants grown primarily for non medicinal purposee. Boulos (1983), in his book on Medicinal Plants of North Africa, compiled some 50 cultivated medicinal plant species, almost all cultivated in Ethiopia home gardens, and about the same number (49 species) are included in Gelahun Abate's (1989) book titled "Etse Debdabe" (Letters on Plants or Communication on Plants).



The more significant medicinal use of home garden species is at the level of the family and the neighborhood while the wild "supermarket", as it is sometimes called, is a natural reservoir of many medicinal plants in addition to edible, utility and other categories which are mostly used in formulations of traditional healers.



There are problems of continuity and sustainability faced by the medicinal plants sector as a result of loss of taxa and cultures in the changing world. The resolution of the problems requires interventions geared to conservation and development of the biodiversity and associated indigenous innovations, practices and knowledge systems. This was brought up strongly in the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD 1994), wherein conservation of indigenous useful plants through maintenance of indigenous taxa, innovations, practices and knowledge systems was discussed and legislated in Articles 8 and 9 on in - situ and ex - situ conservation in general and paragraph 8(j) on knowledge, innovations, and practices of indigenous and local communities in particular (CBD 1994). The home garden farming system with the indigenous plants maintained in and its environs and the associated innovations, practices and knowledge systems offers a special opportunity for implementing the relevant provisions of the Convention. Traditional medicinal plants found in developing countries also face problems of unjust exploitation by individuals and companies in the developed world through intellectual property rights and patent laws that fail to consider the rightful owners of the resources and associated knowledge.



Where as the cultivated medicinal plants are traditionally conserved on-farm, individually and collectively, medicinal plants that continued being used from the wild flora have been threatened by unsustainable resource use habits. There is a growing demand for medicinal plants which when seen together with the rate of destruction of natural habitats alludes to enhanced conservation and protection strategies. The home garden is a very strategic and ideal farming system of conservation, production and enhancement of medicinal plants with the associated indigenous knowledge. Concerted national, regional and global efforts are key elements in consolidating actions to improve the sector.



This paper focuses on the role home gardens play in Ethiopia, particularly as they relate to traditional medicinal plants and delivery of traditional medicine. The current contributions of home gardens are examined, gaps and constraints reviewed and conceivable interventions voiced in light of the potential and prospects. Protection and increased production of traditional medicinal plants in home gardens is discussed in the context of improving community health, family income and conservation of biological diversity together with the associated indigenous knowledge, innovations and practices.



SOURCE OF INFORMATION AND METHODS



This paper is mainly based on data recovered from previous studies, conducted over the past few years, on Ethiopian home gardens (see Zemede Asfaw 1992, Zemede Asfaw and Ayele Nigatu 1995, Zemede Asfaw and Zehurin Woldu 1997). Information retrieved from the National Herbarium about medicinal plants cultivated in home gardens has also been included. Personal experience on how the traditional healing process operates at the rural village level and plants featuring in the system was reconstructed and included in the discussion part. Traditional medicinal plants of Ethiopia reported in monographs and papers/articles (e.g. Jansen 1981, Mesfin Tadesse 1986, Gelahun Abatae 1989, Mesfin Tadesse and Sebsebe Demissew 1992) were screened to list out those found in home gardens. Examinations of home garden plants and traditional medicinal plants allowed the screening of the common medicinal plants of the home garden; including those that are found in its immediate environs to reflect on species used and believed to be important in Ethiopia's traditional health care system. Traditional medicinal plants that are common elements of the home garden flora were examined against the entire medicinal plants of Ethiopia, categorized and analyzed to show the current contribution of the farming system to conservation and production of medicinal plants. The analyses and discussions have been linked to relevant sections of the Convention on Biological Diversity.



RESULTS AND DISCUSSION



Medicinal Plants in Home Garden Farming System



Home gardens are small scale traditional farming systems practiced around the house. They are primarily for growing various crops for home consumption and on-farm conservation as well as for experimental planting of new recruits. Studies show that the agro biodiversity in tropical Africa, including Ethiopia, is highest near the home (Okigbo 1994). Traditionally families plant many species they considered useful close to their living quarters. Such observations have directed special focus on home gardens as strategic units for in-situ conservation of the agro biodiversity and for maintenance of indigenous knowledge, practices and innovations.



Depending on the agro ecology of the area, staple crops, supplementary crops, additives, tree crops and non food plants of various utility classes including medicine are grown in home gardens in tropical and subtropical areas of the world (Christanty 1990, Okigbo 1994, Cabarello 1992). In Ethiopia, home gardens range from non-existent, through rudimentary existence to well developed stages (Zemede Asfaw and Ayele Nigatu 1995). They are very versatile in their uses so that their intensity, major purposes and productivity varies with agro ecology, locality and traditions and needs of social groups. It is also observed that experimental growing, maintenance of planting materials, seedling raising, on-farm conservation and improvement of crop through selection for specific traits are some of the rather subtly or keen purposes of traditional home gardens. Many garden crops are multipurpose and one of these purposes is medicinal value. Ensete ventricosum is one of the most frequent indigenous home garden crops which is valued as food, fodder, fibre, medicinal and general utility crop. It is reported that twelve out of forty-two and seventeen out of forty - three clones of this species have medicinal value in Sidamo and Gurage, respectively (Ansketch Woldentensaye 1997.



It is speculated that home gardening in Ethiopia is probably as old as agriculture itself, which is estimated to have started at about 7000 years ago (Ehret 1979, Brandt 1984). A study made in southern Ethiopia (Zemede Asfaw and Zerihun Woldu 1997) showed that the home garden is by far a place for production of food crops as revealed by the family nutritional calculus that surfaced out when the nutritional complement of the species grown together was taken into account. Though the primary target of home gardens in human nutrition, medicinal functions are also embodied. Out of 30 most frequent crops in 18 randomly selectd homes gardens, 15 (50%) are used medicinally, showing that crop clusters of home gardens have multiple functions, food and medicine being the most frequent combinations for rural communities.



Home Garden Medicinal Plants in Traditional Health Care



Crop species primarily cultivated for purposed of medicinal purposes in home gardens (Tables 2) are presented to reflect the level of popularity. In addition to about 6% of those primarily considered medicinal, traditional medicinal plants are obtained from all crop categories but more so from spices and herbs, fragrances, stimulants, fruits and others. Most of the medicinal plants of home gardens are meant for instant use and their medicinal effect may sometimes depend on the vitamins and minerals that they supply. During a recent study in a semi - urban town in southwestern parts of Ethiopia, Families affirmed that about 75% of Ruta chalepensis and Cariandrum sativum they harvest from home gardens were either used or sold for medicinal purposes. Some of the traditional medicines are actually given with food or tea and some times serve like the prophylactics of modern medicine.



The medicinal plants frequently used by rural families are obtained from plants purposely cultivated in the home garden primarily for their medicinal value, those cultivated primarily for non - medicinal use but widely known to have additional value as medicine when the need arises and those that occur in gardens as weeds and live plants of garden fences. A large number of the medicinal flora that occurs spontaneously in the general area of the homestead outside the garden proper and far out. The medicinal value of some crop species (e.g. Ruta chalepensis, Foenicuulum vugare, Allium sativum, Lepidium sativum, Nigella sativa, Zingiber officinale, Thymus serulatus, Coffea arabica, Linum usitatisimum, Rhammus pronoides, Citrus aurantifolium, Cucurbita pepo, Ensete ventricosum, Carica papaya) is a common public knowledge in Ethiopia as these are frequently prescribed by ordinary people for a variety of minor health complaints. Animal health and pest controls is also simple and are attended by the low level medication at family and neighborhood levels.



Medicinal Plants and the Traditional Healing System



Hierarchy and Ethics in Traditional Medical Delivery



There is a parallelism in the medical ethics adopted by the traditional and modern delivery and healing systems, both in medication and operation. It appears that the toxicity of the plants, the seriousness of the health problem for which medication is sought and the application procedure determine both the hierarchy of medication and the class of plants. Treatment of the health problems of domestic animals follows the first line of operation. The first line can be seen to be analogous to minor drugs sold openly or to simple first aid like treatments of modern medicine while the second is analogous to drugs sold and used under strict prescription by doctors or administered under intensive medical care. This is probably one reason, in addition to knowledge monopoly and protection from law, for traditional medicinal medicine being secrete and mythical in many instances while open and clear at family level. The professional knowledge is not available to all, but only passed over to one of the healer's trustworthy relations through long time training under an apprenticeship system. The medicinal plants of the home garden are, by contrast, well known to many, and their proper prescription is usually sought from amateur mothers and elderly women.



The delivery system, which is handled by people of different levels of competence is also structured like that of modern hospital system. At the lowest level mothers take care of simple medication within the family. If they find it not easy to handle, a more competent woman or a man in the neighborhood is looked for and usually there is no charge at this level. If it is found to be serious by the village level, it is automatically referred to a specialist healer, usually a man who uses combinations of plants which only he knows and does not show to any one, but only to his close relation, to whom he is going to pass his wisdom. This level of medication is usually paid for either in cash or kind unless one is a relative or the healer. It may also be that some of the plants that he uses are deadly poisonous and he has to handle them carefully by keeping them secret and prescribing the right amount of doses. Growing such plants in home gardens may not be advisable for the simple reason that desperate people may harm themselves through self of amateur treatment. No one except w well recognized healer would dare to treat a person bitten by a mad dog or one with jaundice. In my own village the hierarchy in healing went from my mother (frequent family healer), to Hadadem (village healer) and Abiyendinget (the specialist healer for many villages as a kind of referral system). The plants used, the combinations, the problems attended to the level of secrecy involved vary with the healing level as depicted in Fig 2. The level of specialization and the difference in gender roles comes out to a clear view in this scheme, which has been reconstructed by visualizing the traditional system.



Home garden Medicinal Plants in the Hierarchy of Traditional Healing



The plants of the Home Garden were more that often used by the rather informal and amateur healing system exercised at the family and neighborhood levels. The medicinally well-known home garden plants are frequently used by the family level treatment and after being sold in the open market, usually for non-medicinal purposes. Women are almost the sole venders of these aromatic plants also used as medicinal. In traditional lifestyle the kitchen and the hospital looked so close as many of the pot herbs and spices are prescribed for some health complaints. The mother is the food maker and the family doctor, while few elderly women in the village act as village doctors. The role of traditional medicinal plants is visualized in this hierarchical medical delivery structure, which reveals differences in the plants and the level of competence in dealing with serious health matters.



The class of medicinal plants delivered by mothers and semi-specialist women in the village are mostly obtained from the crops of the garden. These are mostly for instant use, usually for external applications and use with food and tea. Such plants usually have one- to - one correspondence with a health problem. Thus mothers prescribe rue, garlic, basil and others for specific health complaints, which they apply by including in food, tea, soups or smoke, rub the skin, or smear the affected part as the case may be. The plants frequently used by specialist healers are usually obtained from secluded places and administered after an elaborate diagnosis and complex mixing an intensive treatment and by the specialist himself.



Efforts Geared at Traditional Medicinal Plants



These are studies conducted on various aspects of traditional medicinal plants in Ethiopia. However, well focused studies targeted to both research and development are still missing. The documentation of traditional medicinal plants appears to be in a better stage with the recent publication of four volumes of flora of Ethiopia and extensive collection of plants throughout the country. However, these collections do not have sufficient ethno botanical information as the collections did not primarily focus at documenting medicinal plants. Over the years, attempts have been made to recover the species with medicinal value as could be seen in Mesfin Tadesse 1986, Gelahun Abate 1989, mesfin Tadesse and Ssebsebe Demissew 1992. The utilization aspect has also been studied by the department for traditional medicine while conservation is to be seen as part of forest and nature conservation in some zones. The GEF supported project on a dynamic farmer-based approach to the conservation of Ethiopia's plant genetic resources, which envisages establishment of botanic gardens in project sites, is being implemented by the Biodiversity institute. The recent report indicates that there are attempts to demarcate places for botanic gardens at two sites. Since Ethiopia is a big country with diverse agro ecologies, these efforts are far too shorter than the needs. The strategic role of the home garden has for long escaped sights of appropriate development/conservation schemes and has not been targeted for modern conservation production of traditional medicinal plants. A project, now at the stage of writing a proposal, is being initiated in the country and it appears to be multidisciplinary and keen on the role of home gardens.



Constraints and Gaps in Conservation and Use of Traditional Medicinal Plants



Many plants used in traditional medicine are harvested from natural stands and some of these are becoming more and more limited in distribution as a result of agricultural expansion and habitat shrinkage (e.g. Hagenia abyssinica) and overuse at least in some cases (e.g. Taverniera abyssinca, clausiena anisata). A major current concern, therefore, is to enhance not only conservation but also production of medicinal plants. The potential of home gardens in the conservation and use of medicinal plants is considered high and would need to be integrated with other options. While some medicinal plants are cultivated for other purposes and do not as such face conservation problems, those that used to be common weeds in gardens are being abandoned as a result of intensification of the home garden farming system. A major observation made during the study was that plants cultivated primarily for their medicinal value are very few and the traditional medical lore depends to a great extent on wild grown plants. It appeared that the role of home gardens for continuously domesticating new plants, the medical efficacy of which is acknowledged by the society, has not been encouraging being related to the knowledge system and the healing practice that evolved over generations. The other problem is connected with the pre eminent function of the home garden which is more of food and economy oriented in addition to the fact the at the space is mostly limited and cannot be expanded to incorporate many new plants. Modern agriculture failed to see the home garden as a production and conservation facility of the traditional agricultural system. The new movement in the country for crop on-farm in-situ conservation will ultimately lead to the recognition of the value of home gardening for conservation of the agro biodiversity including wild and weedy crop relatives.



Need for Improvement of the Traditional Medicinal Plants Sector



In order to improve the situation of medicinal plants in Ethiopia, a number of options come to mind. These can be seen under production, conservation, improvement, processing and exchange systems. The home gardens will be a good target of attention to positively respond to many of the needs of traditional health care system that exists in Ethiopia today. One very important strategy, therefore, will be to enhance the farming system of the home garden to enable more production and effective conservation of medicinal plants. However, for a comprehensive approach the medicinal plants industry would need to consider other options of cultivation and conservation outlined below as well as improvement of the delivery system to include market incentives.



Enhancement of Cultivation of Medicinal Plants in Home Gardens



In order to enhance the role of traditional medicinal plants in the community, the home gardens are central targets for in-situ conservation of existing species and ex-situ conservation of wild species through domestication and cultivation. Many home gardens in Ethiopia are not optimally used with respect to space and niching the growth forms. In some areas the space surrounding the house is not utilized while in others there are unused spaces. Even well developed home gardens can find some places for important medicinal plants if families are convinced about their uses in domestic health care and income generation. It is possible to fit many new medicinal plants into the home garden faming system. However, there may be space limitation in some of the already overburdened home gardens.



Farmers usually plant few plants on experimental basis closely observing them before production. This testing period allows seeing if the new plants are in some way detrimental to other garden crops. Since some wild plants are disease reservoirs, domestication of wild medicinal plants should be handled professionally with the assistance of farmers. Furthermore, it should be noted that some wild plants are adapted to marginal poor soils and fail to fit in the fertile home garden environment. Unworked plots within the home garden can be devoted for growing wild medicinal plants for gradual domestication. The introduction of new medicinal plants into the home garden must also pay particular attention to ethical issues concerning toxicity.



Enhancement of Traditional Medicinal Plants by other Means



The home garden is one major avenue for enhancement of conservation and use of medicinal plants. However, since medicinal plants are many in number and also very diverse in their botany and ecology, other conservation and production methods including those discussed below need to be motivated.



Establishment of Small - Scale Special Medicinal Plant Gardens



Some traditional healers have started establishing small compound gardens where they grow most of the medicinal plants they need for their work. Below ( Fig 3) is a sketch and description of one such garden seen in the compound of a nature clinic in Addis Ababa. This is kindly shown to us by the owner, who has already set a good example not only in the large number of plants he has managed to grow continuously but also in the style of cultivation he adopted. Most of the medicinal plants are grown in a plot wherein the pattern of planting is more or random and there is no weeding so that the plot appears like a natural stand wherein weedy medicinal plants get incorporated spontaneously and many of them regenerate naturally. In another plot in the same compound other species are planted with vegetables under intensive care. At the back of the house there are profusely growing medicinal plants including Achyranthes aspera, Ricinus communis, Tropaoleum sp. and Ipomea sp. which the healer uses in his formulations. The compound has many other species growing rather informally, thus sufficiently increasing the diversity of medicinal plant without having to depend on nature alone, but optimizing the new nature cure drive.



There are many traditional healers in Addis Ababa but most of them use plants mostly collected from nature. Only some of them are keen in cultivating some plants that are common components of traditional home gardens. The plants observed in the compound of one well-known healer were Ruta Chalepensis, Laggera sp., Ocimum lamifolium and Vernonia amygdalina. Use of medicinal plants from nature by professional healers cannot be sustainable particularly when the species is rare and its habitat is narrow. Women by contrast cannot grow more of the traditional home garden crops partly as spices and partly as medicines even in urban areas like Addis Ababa.



In one rural home garden 20 of the species grown for various purposes are known to have medicinal value. Together with the medicinal species of the fences and garden weeds the number available to families is considerable, but the use is limited by the healing system. Even in this village the preparations of the professional traditional healer are obtained from his own garden or elsewhere. When the healer has to prepare the medicine from the customers garden he makes sure that he goes alone in the garden and comes back with meshed up plant material such that no one would know what plant it came from.



Conservation of Traditional Medicinal Plants in Nature Reserves



Some traditional plants may have to conserved in - situ in their natural habitats due to difficulty for domestication and management or failure to produce the desired amount and quality of the active principles under cultivation (Franz 1993).



Large Scale medicinal Plant Farms



Depending on the level of development of the medicinal plant industry, large-scale private medicinal plant farms can be established to produce plant material for analysis. This will turn out to be a lucrative business since mostly vegetative material (leaves, etc.) are harvested, without having to wait for fruiting.



In - situ Conservation of the Biodiversity of medicinal Plants in Special Places



Medicinal plants can also be conserved by ensuring and encouraging their growth in special places, as they have been traditionally, within the cultivated landscape including in places of worship (churches, mosques, grave yards, etc.), sacred grooves, farm margins, river banks, roadsides, rocky outcrops in fields, trees in fields/villages, live fences of gardens and fields, etc., where native species thrive. It may also be possible to conserve tree and shrub species of medicinal plants by using them in afforestation and hillside plantation programmes of re - vegetating hillsides.



Conservation of Medicinal Plants by Conventional Ex-Situ Methods



Alongside the above methods of conservation and conventional ex-situ methods including gene banks, botanical gardens and field gene banks should be considered.



Domestication/Cultivation of Medicinal Plants in Home Gardens



Most medicinal Plants of Ethiopia and the world at large are wild. The development of the medicinal plants industry without endangering biological diversity can only come if the important wild medicinal plants are domesticated. This is what has been arrived at many international forums (Franz 1993). Three main advantages of this strategy are conservation, large-scale production and standardization of products through growth manipulations and genetic improvement. This will also preserve the indigenous knowledge on the conservation and use of medicinal plants. Though domestication of wild species is a tedious process, it has to be made. To overcome this problem, the traditional knowledge and practice could be useful and should be adopted through a partnership with local farmers and farming communities. Given the long tradition in Ethiopia of crop domestication and introduction, the domestication of selected wild medicinal plants will not be a problem to farmers as long as they are convinced about their uses. Efforts to domesticate wild growing medicinal plants in home gardens can adopt the following procedure (Franz 1993) in addition to practices of local farmers.



* Study of the natural habitat, botany/ethnobotany, ethnomedicine, soil, climate, growing, natural distribution and propagation (much information from indigenous knowledge) of important wild - grown medicinal plants

* Collection of wild grown plants, seeds and phytochemcal screening

* Plant propagation, vegetative/seed. Plantlet cultivation, in-vitro methods

* Genetic improvement, variability, selection, breeding, phytochemical investigation

* Cutivation treatments, growing site, fertilization, crop maintenance and cultivation

* Duration of cultivation, harvest/post-harvest handling, phytochemical control of produce

* Apply procedure for introduction of new crops blended with farmer methods

Economic evaluation and calculations



The cultivation of newly domesticated medicinal plants and introduced ones will be essential in order to increase the contribution of medicinal plants in the health care system of Ethiopia.



The Path Ahead



In Ethiopia, home gardens are important traditional innovations much concerned with the continuous provision of food and other basic necessities and home gardening is a ling standing practice. Most of the crops maintained on-farm are also indigenous, but the system has also been dynamic, introducing exotic plants found to be useful, suitable and well fitting into the culture and the ecology. However, their critical importance in food security and in-situ conservation of the agro biodiversity of traditional crops and associated wild and weedy relatives seem to have eluded the necessary emphasis by modern agricultural and community development interventions. The modern agricultural system has not been able to appreciate the totality of the traditional system and the crops as a viable system for promotion. The modern system works hard to produce few high yielding international crops based on marketed seeds, while traditional home gardening is based on diversifying the tax to have little of everything which spreads the risks and maximizes the nutritional diversity being concerned not only for people but also for animals. Until modern agricultural systems consider home gardens viable and become committed to develop appropriate enhancement strategies, other parties such as non-governmental organizations can engage in participatory programmes. They can study the system, learn from it and try to positively influence it without pushing for monoculture gardens, as has been the practice earlier on. In Welayita, it was observed that with growing urbanization home gardens are evolving to a near monoculture of few tree crops (Zemede Asfaw and Zerihun Woldu 1997), being influenced by promotion from the modrn agricultural sector which emphasized on the financial returns, disregarding the diversity of products, nutritional value and the primary home-use functions.



The conservation of traditional medicinal plants must be looked at in a holistic manner so that not only in-situ but also ex-situ options are motivated. Such an approach would automatically serve the objectives envisaged by Article 8(j) of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD 1994, BIOTHAI and GRAIN 1997). This article of the convention call for respect, maintenance and preservation of knowledge, innovations and practices of indigenous and local communities embodying traditional lifestyles relevant for the conservation and enable use of biological diversity and promote wider application with approval and involvement of the holders of such knowledge, innovations and practices and encourage equitable sharing of benefits arising from utilization of such knowledge, innovations and practices. The article draws attention to the protection of many rights (IUCN 1993, BIOTHAI and GRAIN1997), and instruments developed following the wishes of the Convention should submit to its basic doctrine. When it comes to application, it is not advisable to single out this paragraph since conservation should be seen like a package of in-situ and ex-situ which are given separately for the purpose of improving clarity for implementation. The article assumes that there will be honesty and harmony in regional and global collaborations to preserve and use biological diversity and indigenous innovations in the best interest of collaborating parties. The main issue is protection of biodiversity an associated knowledge systems from individualization of benefits by such things as intellectual property rights and patent laws that exclude those who generated and maintained the resources and the knowledge through generations.



RECOMMENDATIONS



The home gardens in Ethiopia have been important in production and conservation of such critical plant species as medicinal plants. They allow for integration of medicinal plants with other categories of plants offering multiple uses. A plant which has medicinal and other uses is most likely to be quickly accepted and cultivated in home gardens by farming communities as it allows them to get multiple advantages as has been the case traditionally. A food plant with medicinal property will attract even better attention of farming families because of the added fact that there will be less risks of toxicity (the part used as medicine may be toxic) when used as medicine. Conservation and production of medicinal plants primarily in home gardens must be given priority along with other conservation options and market incentives. It is therefore imperative that the following recommended steps be realized.



* Recognize home gardens as important places for conservation and production of important categories of plants such as medicinal plants and promote their intensification and enhancement,

* Study important wild growing medicinal plant with a vision for domestication in home gardens and subsequent cultivation through step by step strategy,

* Compile and build a compendium of information on each tax on of interest

* Start a two-way awareness creation scheme for development agents/NGOs and local people learning from each other,

* With the local people, identify wild-growing medicinal plants that can fit into the home garden agro-culture, considering botanical, social and ethical/factors,

* Classify the plants for short, medium and long-term domestication/cultivation in home gardens of the main agro ecological zones,

* learn from the people who have knowledge on uses of propagation methods,

* Activate conservation of medicinal plants in all possible ways in a holistic approach and for medicinal plants not recommended for cultivation in home gardens ensure implementation of one or more of the methods outlined,

* Identify families who will be willing to start experimental planting of selected species in their home gardens and initiate actual domestication and cultivation,

* For all medicinal plants in home gardens create market incentives so that the production level of families will rise,

* Develop technologies for crude extracts of medicines with keen visions for improvement to modern pharmaceutical formulations,

* Strengthen faithful regional and global cooperation to ensure conservation, development and equitable sharing of the benefits that accrue from traditional medicinal plants.



REFERENCES



Asnaketch Woldetensay (1997). The Ecology of Production of Ensete Ventricosum in Ethiopia. Acta Univarsitatis Agriculturae Sueciae, Agraria 78



Berthaud, J. (1997). Strategies for Conservation of Genetic Resources in Relation with their Utilization Euphytica 96:1-12



BIOTHAI and GRAIN (1997) . Sign posts to sui generis rigths. Resource material fromteh Internation seminar on sui generis rigths



Boulos, L. (1983). Medicinal Plants of North Africa. Library Congress, USA.



Brandt, S.A. (1984). New Perspective on the origins of food production in Ethiopia. In: From Hunters to Farmers: The Causes and Consequences of food production in Africa, Pp. 173 - 190, (J.D. Clark and S.A. Brandts eds.)



Cabarello, J (1992). Maya home gardens; past, present, future. Ethnoecologia 1(1):35-54



Christanty, L. (1990). Home gardens in tropical Asia with special reference to Indonesia. In: Tropical Home Gardens, pp. 9-20 (Landauer, K. And Brazil M. Eds), UNU, Tokyo.



Ehret, C. (1979). On the antiquity of agriculture in Ethiopia. J. African Hist. 20: 161-177.



Ensermu Kelbessa, Sebsebe Demissew, Zehurin Wldu and Edwards, S (1992). Some Threatened Endemic Plants of Ethiopia. In: Sue Edwards and Zemede Asfaw (eds). The Status of Some Plant Resources in Parts of Tropical Africa. Botany 2000 East and Central Africa. NAPRECA Monograph Series No. 2:35-55

Franz, C.(1993). Domestication of Wild Growing Medicinal Plants. Plants Research and Development 37:101-111



Gelahun Abate (1989). Etse Debdabe (Ethiopian Traditional Medicine) (in Amharic) Pp. 244.



IUCN (1993). The Convention on Biological Diversity: An Explanatory Guide. The IUCN Environmental Law Centre.



Jansen, P.C.M. (1981). Spices, Condiments and Medicinal plants in Ethiopia, their taxonomy and agricultural significance. Agricultural Research Report 906. College of Agriculture, Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia and Agricultural University, Wageningen, the Netherlands. Centre for Agricultural Publishing and Documentation.



Mesfin Tadesse (1986). Some Medicinal Plants of Central Shewa and South Western Ethiopia. SINET Volume 9 (Suppl.): 143-167



Mesfin Tadesse and Sebsebe Demissew (1992). Medicinal Ethiopian Plants:

]Inventory, Identification and Classification. In: Sue Edwards and Zemede Asfaw (eds).

Plants used in African traditional medicine as practiced in Ethiopia and Uganda. Botany 2000 East and Central Africa, NAPRECA Monograph Series No.5, Published by NAPRECA, Addis Ababa University, Addis Ababa.



Okigbo, B.N. (1990). Home Gardens in Tropical Africa. In: Tropical Home Gardens, pp. 21-40, (Landauer, K. and Brazil, M.eds).



Okigbo, B.N. (1990). Conservation and use of Germplasm in African Traditional Agriculture and Land Use Systems, In: Safeguarding the Genetic Basis of Africa's Traditional Crops, pp. 15-38, (Putter, A. Ed.), CTA, the Netherlands/IPGRI, Rome.



Thaman, R.R. (1990). Mixed home gardening in the Pacifici Islands: Present status and prospects> In: Tropcial Home Gardens, pp.41-65(Landauer, K. And Brazil, M.eds).



Zemede Asfaw (1990). Survey of indigenous food plants, food preparation from indigenous crops and home gardens in Ethiopia. Research report prepared for UN University.



Zemede Asfaw and Ayele Nigatu (1995). Home gardens in Ethiopia: Characteristics and plant diversity. SINET: Ethiopia. J.Sci. 18(2):235-266.

Zemede Asfaw and Zehurin Woldu (1997). Crop associations of home-gardens in Welayta and Gurage in Southern Ethiopia. SINET:Ethiopia J.Sci 20(1):73-90.

INNOVATIVE MEASURES REQUIRED TO PROTECT INDIGENOUS KNOWLEDGE

INNOVATIVE MEASURES REQUIRED TO PROTECT INDIGENOUS KNOWLEDGE

Paris, August 22 - International interest and demand for knowledge developed by indigenous peoples is at an all time high - politically, culturally and financially. Yet this demand often results in abuse, rather than respect, for the communities and individuals involved, according to UNESCO. Driven by the demand for new drugs, plant and animal varieties, and commercial products, scientists, corporations and governments across the globe are tracking traditional knowledge. The healing powers of medicinal plants known to the indigenous Guaymi people of Costa Rica; the ingredients used by traditional healers in South Africa that may help to stem the tide of AIDS-related tuberculosis - has, understandably, sparked much interest abroad. But the needs and concerns of the indigenous communities that hold this knowledge have often been ignored.

As controversies surrounding indigenous intellectual property rights simmer, UNESCO will hold a major event at the World Summit on Sustainable Development (August 26 to September 4) to highlight innovative approaches to protecting and sharing traditional knowledge. Indigenous peoples, Third World activists and a wide range of scientific and legal experts from Ethiopia to Thailand will lead the discussions, scheduled for August 29, at the Ubuntu Village, (Wanderers Club, Water Berry Room) from 9.30a.m. to 6.30p.m. This forum will be organized jointly with the International Council for Science (ICSU), Tebtebba Foundation (an indigenous institute for international research and policy based in the Philippines) and in cooperation with the International Chamber of Commerce.

On this occasion, UNESCO and ICSU will release a much-awaited report on traditional knowledge to resolve a heated debate within the international scientific community. Ten years ago at the "Earth Summit" in Rio, government representatives pledged to protect and respect the knowledge and practices of indigenous and traditional communities through article 8(j) of the Convention on Biological Diversity as well as Agenda 21. However, progress in this field has fallen short of expectations. Just defining the concept of traditional knowledge has proven explosive. In 1999, during ICSU's 26th General Assembly meeting in Cairo (Egypt), a small but influential group of scientists expressed concern that official recommendations concerning "traditional and local knowledge" might open the door to anti-science and pseudo-science, according to reports by the scientific journal Nature (October 14, 1999).

In particular, delegates from the United States feared that the documents and recommendations emanating from the World Conference on Science (organized in Budapest by UNESCO in 1999) could encourage the spread of creationist ideas concerning human origins, especially in schools, to the detriment of evolutionary theory. The International Astronomical Union also expressed concern that new measures to protect traditional knowledge would be manipulated to demand inappropriate support for the pseudo-scientific approach of astrology at the expense of astronomy. So, before offering blanket support of "traditional knowledge", the assembly requested that a study group offer more precise information concerning its definition and protection. This final report, prepared by ICSU and UNESCO, will be released on August 29.

In addition to the report's release, there will be three major sessions focusing on the links between traditional knowledge and natural resources management, formal education and the threats to cultural diversity as well as the need for innovative measures to protect the intellectual property rights of indigenous peoples.

The first session will highlight the most important and controversial agreement over indigenous rights that was recently brokered between the Grand Council of the Cree and the Quebec government in Canada. Romeo Saganesh of the Grand Council will lead the discussions by explaining why the Cree communities agreed in February to end 25 years of opposition to construction in the James Bay territory (northern Quebec). Since 1975, the Cree have fought a series of legal battles to thwart government attempts to further develop hydropower in this remote wilderness region. The Cree maintained that the dams would wreak environmental havoc and destroy a traditional way of life, in which hunters trap beaver, hunt caribou and moose during winter and fish and hunt geese throughout the year. The Cree mobilized tremendous international support, becoming an icon for native peoples around the world.

Yet in February, the Grand Council brokered a deal with the Quebec government in which the nine Cree villages in James Bay will receive US$16 million this year, US$30.7 million in 2003, and then US$46.5 million a year for 48 years. In return, the Cree will drop their lawsuits totalling US$2.4 billion against the government over existing hydro schemes on their land. In addition, they will no longer oppose plans to build new dams on the Eastman and Rupert rivers, subject to environmental approval. These new schemes will increase Quebec's electricity supply - much of which is exported to the US - by about eight percent. The deal also guarantees the Cree a proportion of the newly created jobs (an estimated 8,000) and greater control over logging and other sectors of their economy. Seventy percent of the Cree living in James Bay endorsed the agreement in a referendum in February.

Romeo Saganesh of the Grand Council will discuss the key points in the agreement, notably the clause assuring Cree participation in environmental assessments of the new hydro-schemes in James Bay. For Saganesh, the agreement recognizes indigenous land rights, as well as traditional knowledge of the environment. A representative of the Quebec government will also take part in the debate as will Marie Roué, of France's National Centre for Scientific Research, who headed a research team recording Cree ecological knowledge.

The second session of the event will focus on preserving traditional knowledge as a dynamic and living resource by ensuring its transmission from one generation to another. "In school, indigenous children are often confronted with sets of knowledge, world views and values that are foreign to their own. Implicitly, or explicitly, their own knowledge is denigrated, contributing to a tremendous sense of alienation that in many indigenous communities is not unrelated to a high incidence of youth suicide," says Douglas Nakashima of UNESCO. "While there is no minimizing the need for education, there is clearly a problem. If we acknowledge the importance of indigenous knowledge to sustainable development and cultural diversity, we must set ourselves the task of finding an appropriate balance between global and local knowledge in classrooms the world over." Mr Nakashima will moderate this session during which a diverse panel of experts will present their work to integrate traditional knowledge in classrooms in South Africa, Thailand and Vanuatu.

South Africa is now rolling back the legacy of apartheid in university classrooms where traditional African knowledge systems and values were systematically rejected or ignored in favour of European scholarship, according to experts like Catherine Odora-Hoppers of the University of Pretoria and Otsile Ntsoane of South Africa's Northwest University. According to both experts, the aim is not to ignore world scholarship but to assure space in the lecture halls for African epistemologies. During the post-colonial phase, there was tremendous enthusiasm for "Africanizing" education. This interest has proved difficult to apply on the ground. A two-year investigation found, for example, that there is not a single university degree programme offered primarily in an African language.

Discussions will then turn to the plight of the Karen and other indigenous peoples living in the hills of northern Thailand. Sakda Saenmi, director of the Inter-Mountain Peoples Education and Culture in Thailand Association (IMPECT), will present this NGO's efforts to offer courses specifically designed for rural Karen youth as opposed to the standard government curriculum. Karen youth are increasingly suffering from a "cultural crisis", according to Saenmi. "The number of suicides among tribal children and youth is also increasing - a clear sign of a deep conflict within. Youth are taught to respect the Thai culture of their nation, but are not equally taught to respect the culture of their peoples. A feeling of inferiority and self-denial results."

This session will also examine an ironic situation in Vanuatu. The South Pacific island nation, governed by its indigenous people, legally recognizes the importance of traditional knowledge and institutions in governing natural resources. However, the formal education system has not integrated indigenous language, knowledge and culture within the curriculum. "As a result, a worrisome incongruity exists," according to Russel Nari, a senior policy officer of Vanuatu's Environment Unit, who will lead discussions during the event. "Schooling tells indigenous children that their future is rooted, not in the knowledge of their parents and grandparents, but in the knowledge imported from a Western pedagogical tradition."

The final session of the event will focus on the politically-charged issue of bioprospecting, the continual search, primarily by multinational pharmaceutical companies, for commercially viable medicinal plant compounds. For indigenous peoples around the world, "bioprospecting is synonymous with exploitation," according to Dr Meto Leach of New Zealand, a Maori and trained biochemist. Along with Hohep Kereopa, one of the most respected Maori traditional healers or tuhonga, Dr Leach will present a unique research project to identify the active compounds of Maori medicinal plants while recognizing Maori rights to ownership.

New Zealand is rich in biodiversity and the Tuhoe Maori have developed a sophisticated repertoire of medicinal plants. This new research project formally recognizes Maori ownership of the knowledge, practical use and development of native plants used by Tuhoe. However, if any new drugs or treatments are developed and commercialized, the benefits will be shared: 40 percent will go to the Tuhoe representative body, another 40 percent will be awarded to a trust board for New Zealand's Maori, and Waikato University - Dr. Leach's employer - will receive the remaining 20 percent. Finally, the research will specifically focus on developing treatments for chronic diseases affecting the Maori, such as diabetes, high blood pressure and asthma. This sets the project apart from the vast majority - which seek to profit from indigenous knowledge of medicinal plants without sharing financial or medical benefits.

Linking Traditional and Scientific Knowledge for Sustainable Development
August 29, 9:30 to 6:30 p.m., Ubuntu Village, Wanderers Club, Water Berry Room

****
Contact:
Amy Otchet, Bureau of Public Information,
in Johannesburg, cell phone: (+27) (0)828 580 718
email: a.otchet@unesco.org

Isabelle Le Fournis, Bureau of Public Information,
cell phone: (+33) (0)614 6953 72
email: i.le-fournis@unesco.org

http://www.unesco.org/bpi/eng/unescopress/2002/02-56e.shtml