Sharif Ahmed Mukul

Status, Indigenous Uses and Population Dynamics of Decreasing Medicinal Flora in a Biodiversity Hotspot Area of Bangladesh

A medicinal plant in the forest.

The mixed evergreen forests of Lawachara National Park.

Age old (90 yr.) Garo herbal practitioner sharing his ethnomedicinal knowledge.

In front of Mr. Sangam’s medicinal plant garden supported through Rufford.

Distribution of medicinal plants.

Town/RegionCountryCategoriesDate
Kamalgonj Upazila, Moulvibazar District, Sylhet DivisionBangladeshIndian Sub-continent, Plants and Seeds7 Jul 2009

Plant based remedies have regularly been used for healing ailments by indigenous communities for centuries. In Bangladesh, the traditional knowledge of such communities has also made an outstanding contribution in the origin and evolution of many effective herbal therapies. However in previous years due to rapid environmental and social change the stock and abundance of many medicinal plants in country’s natural habitats, and their associated indigenous knowledge system becomes vulnerable. The situation has further hastened by poor conservation consensus among rural herbal healers, unawareness, rapid and unplanned commercialization, and faulty harvesting of many useful medicinal plants.

This pilot project will consist of two major parts - a preliminary ethno-botanical study following by a complete ecological survey. The project also expected to lead country’s one of the pioneer and elaborate ecological investigation to realize the dynamics and population status of declining medicinal flora in one of the most diverse forest patch of Bangladesh – Lawachara National Park (GPS location: 24°30'-24°32'N and 91°37' - 91°39'E). The park comprise of some 1,250 ha of mixed evergreen to wet evergreen tropical forests and home of a number of globally important wild fauna including critically endangered hoolock gibbon (Hoolock hoolock).

Several ethnic communities having shared dependency on the national park live in and vicinity of the park. They also believed to hold a rich ethno-medicinal knowledge and have been relying on medicinal plants collected locally from the park area for their primary healthcare. The preliminary ethno-botanical survey will aim to document the disappearing traditional herbal knowledge of these indigenous communities inhabiting park and surrounding reserved forest. Project finally will contribute in raising community awareness and formulate an action plan for participatory conservation, use and sustainable harvesting of medicinal plants from the park and adjacent areas.

For further information contact sharif_a_mukul@yahoo.com or www.aboutsamukul.tk

Project Update: November 2009

Read about the latest progress of this project in the interim report below.

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Interim Report496.5 KB
Project Update: July 2010

During the last couple of months with two research/field associates I conducted an extensive ecological survey in the Lawachara National Park area. We surveyed about 200 sample plots of 2m X 2m size using hand-held GPS (Global Positioning System) and other standard field instruments. Species composition, medicinal plants, and their status were recorded. We used a local indigenous healer also to help us to identify the unknown and medicinally useful species.

Our present task now is to compile all the information we have already, and organize some awareness programmes in the vicinity of the national park (i.e. Lawachara National Park) mostly amongst the indigenous inhabitants, and to distribute information to all the related stakeholders (i.e. Forest Department, local NGO’s etc).

Project Update: November 2010

In the last months we have organised several awareness programmes amongst the people living in the vicinity of our study area, Lawachara National Park. Our focus was mainly on the ethnic Garo community since from our study it revealed that they hold the richest ethno-botanical knowledge and highest dependency on the nearby forest. We involved local traditional healer Mr. Sreenath Sangma, representatives from local educational institutes and non-governmental organisations in our awareness programmes to raise awareness of the usefulness of medicinal plants, their status and necessity of conservation both in situ and ex situ. Schoolchildren from local ethnic communities were integrated in the programme aiming to enrich their ethno-medicinal and conservation knowledge.

Each programme also consist a 3-hour workshop headed by Mr. Sangma to train school going students uses of medicinal plants to cure some primary ailments. Additionally seedlings of locally available and useful medicinal plants were distributed amongst the students, and local educational institutes. Mr. Sangma was also supported to raise a medicinal plant garden in his yard to conserve and secure a source of decreasing medicinal plant species outside their natural habitat.

We are now working on compiling all the primary information we have collected, with taxonomical identification, and working for a guideline for sustainable use and conservation of medicinal plants based on inputs gathered from the community meetings, during awareness programmes, discussion with local healers, and representative from responsible organisations.

Final Report

Read more about the activities undertaken and findings of this project in the final report below.

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Final Report764 KB

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