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<TITLE>Re: [MPWG] Mission Impossible statement??</TITLE>
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What course would that be?<BR>
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-Patricia<BR>
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Patricia S. De Angelis, Ph.D.<BR>
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Myron will be out of the office starting 1/6/2004 and will not return until<BR>
01/12/2004.<BR>
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I am out of the country on an<U> undercoverinternational assignment</U> and will respond to<BR>
your message when I return. Assuming I am not killed.<BR>
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Just Joking. The short answer to the question regarding the "necessary course" (IMHO) concerns CONSERVATION of medicinal plants.<BR>
To quote from the home page of the PCA-MPWG (and Dodge the responsibility- Sorry but the articulated mission as stated is better than any solitary opinion I could now attempt ...and the review seems necessary):<BR>
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"Because native plant habitats are destroyed almost daily, many medicinally valuable plants will be gone before scientists can even investigate them.<BR>
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</FONT></FONT><FONT FACE="Arial"><H2><I>How many medicines have we already lost?<BR>
</I>What Does The Medicinal Plant Working Group Do?<BR>
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</FONT><FONT FACE="Arial">The primary focus of the Medicinal Plant Working Group is facilitating action on behalf of medicinal plants native to the United States that are of particular conservation concern.<BR>
How can scientists, manufacturers, wildcrafters, conservationists and others work together to anticipate trends and safeguard wild populations before commercial overharvesting reduces their numbers? To a large extent, the hope lies in commercial farming, which should help decrease collection pressure on wild populations.<BR>
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</FONT><FONT FACE="Arial">The role of MPWG is to forge partnerships with industry, government, academia, tribes and environmental organizations to facilitate sustainable use and conservation of medicinal plants. While our focus is on medicinals native to the United States, our membership includes international players, reflecting the fact that medicinal plants face similar challenges on a global scale.<BR>
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The group's primary focus is to facilitate action on behalf of species of particular conservation concern as a means to balance biological and commercial needs and, in the long term, minimize regulatory intervention. "<BR>
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I have cobbled these quotes together to reflect the issues I (personally) feel need to be focussed on within the e-mail list. Recent contributions from Robyn, Cafesombra, herbdatanz, Niki, Mr Leonard and others (some by proxy) have remained true to these concerns. Nowhere on the MPWG pages was there mention of any individual therapeutic discussions. But as I've mentioned before such "seeds" could feasibly fuel discussions on conservation in a more heuristic manner (as they have here?).<BR>
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Another curiosity : It is worth noting that the individuals "who ordinarily lurk in the sidelines" that have responded to the pressing needs of the plants and conservation are actually the one's who often respond. What's curious is that NONE of these people are ever "out of the office" because they are people who are not IN the office, in the first place. They are, as far as I can tell, individuals providing a voice from their respective localities AND, I have a sneaking suspicion, ACTING within their communities to further the same goals of the PCA-MPWG. Probably on a shoestring. I am wondering if there could be more input from people who were in a position to do something in a more central location. Obviously there are "bioprospecting" conferences and the like (which RSVP: I regret I will be unable to attend) providing a great deal of discussion, perhaps even proposed legislation, but I'll hear nothing in the form of a re-cap in this e-mail forum. I make this point not to suggest (directly, at least ) that the concerns of the PCA are not being addressed with the tangential(?) discussion of herbal therapeutics. Rather, I am wondering what may be done to facilitate the communication between the local and central divisions of this virtual "community". This is not an accusatory tone, as my own participation is severely hobbled (as much by ignorance of the issues as time, I will admit) but rather a desparate plea to the lurkers for broader participation that something might actually come forth to further the stated goals of the MPWG<BR>
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mjh</BLOCKQUOTE>
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