THREE GOVERNMENTS TO SUPPORT RESEARCH IN HERBAL MEDICINE (SPREAD)

The governments of the United States of America, Japan and Switzerland have together released $400,000 to support research work on the conservation and utilisation of medicinal plants in three major ecological zones in Ghana.
The project, which aims at documenting endangered species of medicinal plants and the common ones among them, also seeks to train forest fringe communities on biodiversity conservation and propagation and management techniques on the sustainable harvest and utilisation of medicinal plant species in the country.
Some researchers from the Forest Research Institute of Ghana (FORIG) are undertaking the project, which is expected to be completed in three years’ time.
The selected ecological zones, made up of the evergreen forest, moist and dry forest areas, are located in five administrative regions, namely, the Western, Eastern, Central, Ashanti and Brong Ahafo regions.
Three districts will be selected from each of the administrative areas and five communities will also be selected from each of the three districts, meaning that in all 75 communities in the forest zones will be selected for the project.
The selection of the communities will be based on their closeness to a forest protected area, a sacred grove, a national forest reserve, registered traditional medical practitioners, as well as the presence of herbalists, fetish priests, among others.
The Project Co-ordinator, Dr E. Owusu-Sekyere, who announced this at a workshop organised to sensitise stakeholders at Fumeasua last Friday, noted that the project was key to the sustainable socio-economic development of Ghana, stressing, "The loss of medicinal plants means the immediate loss of livelihood and the rapid erosion of the knowledge and efficacy of their use."
He explained that just as "in orthodox medicine where pharmacies or chemical shops are close to hospitals, medicinal plants such as those located at sacred groves, gardens and forest zones rich with medicinal plants should also be close to the practitioners of herbal medicines".
He noted that as part of the project concept, "endangered medicinal plant species will be protected, propagated and multiplied to ensure that their collection, harvesting and utilisation become sustainable".
"Herbarium samples of very rare species will be stored, while planting materials of highly ranked or preferred medicinal plant species will be made available for planting," he said.