Ethnobotany and Traditional Knowledge in the Modern World

Ethnobotany is the study of the use of plants by people with an academic history spanning centuries following rigourous scientific guidelines and approaches. Carl Linnaeus is famous for his ethnobotanical studies to identify plants that are useful as medicines and his development of naming systems for the plants, animals, and rocks. Across centuries ethnobotanists have discovered many of the most useful pharmaceuticals and medicinal plant products but the consideration of respectful use of traditional knowledge, access and equitable benefit sharing, conservation, sustainable uses and education programs are relatively recent. In 1989, the Samoan community of Falaelupo signed a ground-breaking agreement for benefit sharing from the commercialization of a traditional tea produced from plant Homolanthus nutans for treatment of hepatic viruses. The resultant drug, Prostratin, was patented by the National Institutes of Health and commercialized as a pharmaceutical with 20% of all profits returning to Samoa. A follow-up agreement in 2006 protected the genomic information of the species and ensured benefit sharing from any biotechnology products. Many of the concepts developed in Falealupo are also found in recent CBD-compliant agreements for modern ethnobotanical studies. This talk will highlight several examples of approaches for fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from traditional knowledge and genetic resources. In particular, the talk will examine how this paradigm is working in the contemporary global trade system and will examine how traditional knowledge is affecting current sustainability practices at the interface of modern producers of botanical materials and natural products.