Plant Diversity ›› 2013, Vol. 35 ›› Issue (4): 407-423.DOI: 10.7677/ynzwyj201313006

• Articles • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Maintaining Resources for Traditional Medicine: A Global Overview and a Case Study from Buganda (Uganda)

 Alan Hamilton1, Yildiz Aumeeruddy Thomas2   

  1. 1 Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming 650201, China; 2 Centre d′ Ecologie Fonctionnelle
    et Evolutive, UMR 5175, CNRS, 1919 route de Mende, F34293 Montpellier Cedex 5, France
  • Received:2013-01-14 Online:2013-07-25 Published:2013-05-07

Abstract:

 Presentations at a session of the 13th Congress of the International Society for Ethnobiology (ISE, May 2012) provided a global overview of ‘maintaining resources for traditional medicine’. Two themes received special attention, transmission of traditional medical knowledge and conservation of medicinal plants. The consensus at the wellattended session was that traditional medicine can play a useful role in primary healthcare, including for chronic complaints and spiritual problems. However, the use of traditional medicine is declining in many places. Some practical efforts at maintaining resources for traditional medicine are described. A case study for Buganda (Uganda), given in greater detail, shows that progress in maintaining resources for traditional medicine can be impeded by forces not directly related to its intrinsic merits. The value of making efforts to maintain resources for traditional medicine is discussed in relation to its contribution to biocultural conservation, much needed today to counterbalance the homogenising and ecologically destabilising influences of globalisation.

Key words: Traditional medicine, Biocultural conservation, Buganda

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