Capacity Building for Access and Benefit Sharing and Conservation and Sustainable Use of Medicinal Plants Project

Tesfaye Awas (PhD)National Coordinator

Medicinal Plant Project Management Unit Ethiopian Biodiversity InstituteP. O. Box 30726, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia E-mail: absmp@ibc.gov.et

GEF funded Projects under Execution by EBI

• Mainstreaming Agro-biodiversity Conservation into Agricultural Production Systems of Ethiopia– May 2011 to June 2016.– USD 386360

• Capacity Building for Access and Benefit Sharing and Conservation and Sustainable Use of Medicinal Plants in Ethiopia– September 2012 to August 2016.

Mainstreaming Agro-biodiversity

• GEF/UNDP• Three components

– Enabling policy– Marketing– Conservation

• Three crops– Teff– Enset– Durum wheat– Coffee

Capacity Building for Access and Benefit Sharing and Conservation and Sustainable Use of Medicinal Plants Project

Tesfaye Awas (PhD)National Coordinator

Medicinal Plant Project Management Unit Ethiopian Biodiversity InstituteP. O. Box 30726, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia E-mail: absmp@ibc.gov.et

• UNEP/GEF funded four year project which was launched in September 2012.

• The goal of the project is to safeguard Ethiopia’s medicinal plants biodiversity, which are also globally significant.

• The objective is to ensure conservation and sustainable use of medicinal plants and the effective implementation of national access and benefit sharing (ABS) regime.

Project Cost

• Cost to the GEF Trust Fund in Cash US$ 2,047,000 (45%)• Co-financing-In-kind, GoE US$ 2,500,000 (55%)• Total US$ 4,547,000 (100%)

Landscape and ecosystem diversity

–High rate of species diversity and endemism

• 6500-7000 plant species– About 12 % are endemic– About 14% are used as medicinal plants

Figure 1. Published volumes of the Flora of Ethiopia and Eritrea.

EBI •2744 samples (accessions)

•51 medicinal plant species

Total Holding of EBI

73786 accessions

Medicinal plants are about 4% only

Cold Room Field Gene BankYear No. of

speciesNo of samples

No of species

No of samples

2003 31 662 115 3232014 51 2744 630 822

Component 1• Will focus on the in-situ and ex-situ conservation

and sustainable use of medicinal plants in selected conservation and production sites

• by – Improving the conservation status of threatened

medicinal plant species; – Ensuring sustainable use of medicinal plants and – Providing new and diversified livelihoods

opportunities for local communities in the project sites.

Tesfaye Awas (PhD), IBC

Conservation

• Four Sites: 313,031ha under in situ conservation • Nursery: A total of 8 nurseries were established and

made operational. – Seedlings were supplied for enrichment plantation in buffer

areas of in situ conservation sites and Home Gardens

• Medicinal Plant Field Gene Bank– 2 Medicinal Plant Field Gene Banks conserving

strengthened• 630 Samples• 400 species

– 3 New Medicinal Plant Field Gene Banks and– 1 Botanical Garden are under establishment

Vegetation (and Land use) in Bale Mountains National Park and Surrounding Areas

Agarfa -August 2003 17

25

Albizia malacophylla-Oxytenanthera abyssinica

Wetlands f

ound

in gaps

Habitat of many rare plants & animals

Drosera madagascariensis-Insectivorous The risk of Malaria is 3 times higher in degraded area

Component 2• Will deal with the enabling policy and

institutional framework for in situ and ex situ conservation of medicinal plants biodiversity and will –Carry out review of existing policy, law

and legislation for medicinal plants; –Strengthen ABS capacity and–Raise awareness about ABS issues.

Policy/legal issue

• Local bylaws documented and utilized – Implementation of Management plan of in situ

conservation• Eg. Field crop and animal production is not allowed in

Zegie Forest

– Establishment of Medicinal Plant Marketing Association

Policy/legal issue

• Existing legal documents in three sectors (health, agriculture and environment) were reviewed – Conservation EBI– Regulation of Traditional Medicine MOH– Research on Traditional Medicine (dosage, safety and

efficacy) – No provision for production- Focus on Food production – No system to encourage Traditional Medicine– Good initiatives for conservation, but there is

institutional gap

Institutional Issue

• Ethiopian Biodiversity Institute – PGRC/E from 1976 to 1998– IBCR through the proclamation No. 120/98 and 167/1999 (as revised).

• There were ten technical departments during IBCR– Medicinal Plant Genetic Resources Department – Horticulture– Crop– Forest– Forage and Pasture– Animal– Microbial– Ethno biology– Biotechnology– Ecosystem

Institutional Issue

• The current institutional structure of EBI– ABS– Animal– Microbial – Crop and horticulture– Forest and Rangeland Biodiversity

• Currently the responsibility for medicinal plant conservation and sustainable use is blurred

• The need of a plat form to link Medicinal Plant Conservation, Production, Marketing and Research (dosage, safety, efficacy)

• Traditional medicine

Component 3

• Deals with markets for medicinal plants friendly products by–Increasing markets by at least 50%

through expansion of value-chains, national and international markets that will

–Promote farmer uptake of medicinal plants conservation imperatives.

Knowledge, innovations and practices of indigenous and local communities embodying traditional lifestyles related to medicinal plants provides opportunities for the development of new products e.g. pharmaceuticals, which in turn have implications for income generation.

Children and women are the social group that sell medicinal plants mainly along streets. The contribution of this economics to household income and food security is significant.

Children selling endemic medicinal plant- Thymus schimperi gathered from Bale Mountains National Park

Children selling endemic medicinal plant- Echinops kebericho gathered from Central Highlands of Ethiopia

Children and women gathering the young shoots of Oxytenanthera abyssinica for food (Western Ethiopia)

• Marketable plants were identified• Farmers were organized in Medicinal Plant Marketing

Associations• Moringa Marking from local to national-has benefited

farmers• Challenge: link to national and international markets-

Lack of legal provision due to issues related to– Certification– Safety– Efficacy– Dosage

Market

Component 4

• Will build capacity through strengthening institutional frameworks for –the wider application of ABS

measures in Ethiopia and, –for the conservation and

sustainable use of medicinal plants biodiversity in particular.

Conservation and sustainable use

• Trainings – Wild seed handling techniques– Botanical Garden

• Facilities

ABS capacity

• Nagoya protocol, existing ABS national law and regulation were translated into three local languages

• Dissemination of legal documents

• Awareness raising workshops

• Training on Negotiation Skill

•Thank you