Complexity and Conservation of Medicinal Plants: Anthropological Cases from Peru and Indonesia

摘要

The continued existence of many medicinal plants and of the knowledge of how to use them is threatened by two worldwide, inexorable processes: the rapid disappearance of tropical forests and other natural vegetation types, and the destruction or rapid change of tribal cultures and local medical traditions. While acknowledging the seriousness of these problems, in this paper we focus instead on some aspects of medicinal plant use that have received less attention. These are: the prevalence of users other than tribal people, the diversity of sources they exploit (including sources other than primary forests), and the varying effects of commercial exploitation on medicinal species. We briefly review the general problem before turning to specific cases.