Client: ITTO
Project Duration: 2008-2012
Project Team Leader: Dr. E. Owusu-Sekyere
Background
Over 60 per cent of the population in Ghana depends on plant parts for health delivery. This is because medicinal plants are of critical importance in poor communities where even relatively cheap western medicines remain prohibitively expensive. The continued availability of many of these plants is in jeopardy. A workshop organized to solicit views on the state of medicinal plants in Ghana revealed that in several forest fringe communities, the loss of medicinal plants means not only an immediate loss of livelihood but also rapid erosion on the knowledge and efficacy of their use. Again, there is no attempt whatsoever to conserve the medicinal plants as both timber and the non-timber forest products (NTFPs). Therefore, habitat destruction and overexploitation means sources of medicinal plants are becoming increasingly scarce. In recent times, herbalists and collectors travel long hours over long distances in search for specific medicinal plants. Sometimes they travel to other ecological areas for their suitable plant species.
This project funded by the International Tropical Timber Organisation (ITTO) focuses on documenting the distribution and availability of medicinal plants (endangered, common). It also looks at conservation methods and sustainability of supply of medicinal plant from three different ecological zones. Another aspect of this project is training of forest fringe communities in conservation (both timber and non-timber forest products (NTFPs), propagation and management techniques, sustainable harvest and utilization of medicinal plant species.