I just came across the two articles below published on-line in January
2004, regarding the global demand for medicinal plants. Does anyone have an
Internet URL to the final published report referred to below, either
through WWF or the journal, Biodiversity and Conservation?
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Worldwide Demand for Herbal Remedies Threatens Plants -
Study
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UK: January 9, 2004
LONDON - Worldwide demand for herbal remedies is
threatening natural habitats and endangering up to a fifth
of wild medicinal plant species which are being harvested
to extinction, a leading science magazine said on
Wednesday.
A study to be published later this year by the conservation
organization WWF warns that between 4,000 and 10,000 plants
may be at risk.
"It's an extremely serious problem," study author Alan
Hamilton told New Scientist magazine.
According to the research, the market for herbal remedies
has risen by 10 percent a year for the past decade in North
America and Europe and is now thought to be worth at least
11 billion pounds ($20 billion).
The findings are based on an analysis of the number of
species at risk on the World Conservation Union (IUCN) Red
List of threatened plants. Two-thirds of the 50,000
medicinal plants being used are harvested from the wild.
Hamilton, a member of the IUCN's Medicinal Plant Specialist
Group, also contributed to a report which will be unveiled
by the conservation organization Plantlife International
next week.
Among the threatened plants are tetu lakha, a tree found in
south India and Sri Lanka and used for anti-cancer drugs in
Europe; an Indian root called saw-wort which is used for
skin disorders and tendrilled fritillary, a Chinese plant
used to treat respiratory infections.
"With demand and commercialization growing fast, the future
of the wild plants which have helped most of humanity for
centuries is now more uncertain than it has ever been,"
Martin Harper, of Plantlife, told New Scientist.
The group, which says the problem has been looming for
years, blames the herbal medicinal industry for not
guaranteeing the sustainability of supplies.
"It is time for the industry to join forces with
environmental organizations to ensure that herbal harvests
have a sustainable future," Harper added.
REUTERS NEWS SERVICE
TERRA.WIRE
Homeopathy boom threatens plant species: study
PARIS (AFP) Jan 08, 2004
A worldwide boom in herbal medicine could
destroy thousands of plant species and
jeopardise the health of millions of people in
developing countries, according to a
forthcoming study reported Thursday in New
Scientist.
As many as 10,000 out of the 50,000 known
species of medicinal plants may be at risk, the
study says.
The force for this is a fast-expanding demand
for herbal remedies, a market that in North
America and Western Europe has been growing by
about 10 percent a year over the past decade
and is now worth at least 11 billion
poundsbillion euros, 19.9 billion dollars) a
year, it says.
"Many of the plants are harvested by poor
communities in India and China whose
livelihoods will suffer if the plants die out,"
the report said.
The species most threatened include the African
cherry, the bark of which is popular in Europe
as a treatment for prostate enlargement.
Whole forests of this species have been felled
to meet demand, and so many trees have been
destroyed that the market has virtually
collapsed.
The author of the study is Alan Hamilton, a
plant specialist from the global environment
network WWF who is also a member of the World
Conservation Union's Medicinal Plants
Specialist Group.
The study will be published later this year in
a specialist journal, Biodiversity and
Conservation, New Scientist said.
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