Habitat Modeling for Health Sovereignty: The Case of Muskrat Root in Northern Maine

Contributed by Michelle Baumflek Medicinal plants and fungi play important roles in the health of Maliseet people from northern Maine, USA. A critical aspect of health sovereignty for this community is being able to locate and have access to these plants.  Commercial development on their traditional gathering sites and restricted access to privately owned lands… Read more »

Healing Agriculture: Medicinal Plants in the Semien Mountains of Ethiopia

Contributed by Morgan Ruelle Subsistence farmers in the Semien Mountains of Ethiopia maintain a rich legacy of plant diversity, including many plants they know how to use as medicine. These farming communities are encountering a number of complex changes, including population growth, new road construction and local effects of global climate change. Favorable market prices… Read more »

Medicine for the Trees: Biological Control of Chestnut Blight in Azerbaijan

Contributed by Jeffrey Wall                            In the fourth century BCE, the Greek traveler Xenophon reported that chestnut was a prominent food for people of the Caucasus (Xenophon [1895]).  The tree and its use as food and timber first spread from this region around the Black Sea and eventually to Central and Western Europe (see Figures 3… Read more »

The Role of Schools in Conserving Medicinal Plants: Findings from Eastern Nepal

Contributed by Rajeev Goyal When the foothill region, known as the “Chure Bawar” or “Little Himalayas,” was first settled, Amrit Bahadur Rai founded the Sawitri Primary School in Yangshila village in 1969, and served as its first headmaster and teacher. Today, Amrit Baaje (“Grandfather Amrit”), as he is known, is also the most knowledgeable medicinal… Read more »

Indigenous Knowledge and Health Sovereignty

Contributed by Karim-Aly Kassam Indigenous peoples have the right to their traditional medicines and to maintain their health practices, including the conservation of their vital medicinal plants, animals and minerals. Indigenous individuals also have the right to access, without any discrimination, to all social and health services (United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous… Read more »