Sustainable harvest of Medicinal and Aromatic species should become an
important conservation strategy for the long term survivability of medicinal plant
resources. Presently medicinal plants are mainly collected from the wild (90%) and 70%
is through destructive harvesting. This paper presents a community model policy
involving Medicinal and Aromatic Plants (MAP) Resource management by Local Self
Government (LSG) & Biodiversity Management Committee (BMC), which will ensure
sustainable utilization of medicinal plants and fair benefit sharing. Stricter enforcement
of biodiversity legislations and mandatory registration for collectors from wild and
herbal shops is recommended with proper inventory, and monitoring of harvesting
impacts. Focus is on strengthening LSG & BMC for Resource Management and
formation of medicinal plants trading society. The collected materials are to be properly
tagged with local and trade name, and source of collection in order to support
traceability to collection area. It is recommended that Good Manufacturing Practices
(GMP) certification should be linked with traceability of MAP and the development of
Live Green label for materials harvested sustainably is proposed. Sustainable harvesting
of MAP is intricately connected with conservation of unique habitats benefitting the
local ecosystem greatly and facilitates development of a strong sense of stewardship in
the communities which would help in sustainable management of the habitats and
biodiversity conservation at the same time ensuring rural livelihood.
Keywords: Ayurvedic industry, benefit sharing, biodiversity legislations,
biodiversity registers, commercial utilization, conservation, destructive harvesting,
fair trade, GMP certification, habitat loss, herbal shops, medicinal plants, overexploitation,
quality medicines, resource management, scientific management,
sustainable harvest, trading society, traditional knowledge, traditional remedies.
