Ethnobotany is the study of the use of plants by people with an academic history spanning
centuries following rigourous scientific guidelines and approaches. Carl Linnaeus
is famous for his ethnobotanical studies to identify plants that are useful as medicines
and his development of naming systems for the plants, animals, and rocks. Across centuries
ethnobotanists have discovered many of the most useful pharmaceuticals and medicinal
plant products but the consideration of respectful use of traditional knowledge, access
and equitable benefit sharing, conservation, sustainable uses and education programs
are relatively recent. In 1989, the Samoan community of Falaelupo signed a ground-breaking
agreement for benefit sharing from the commercialization of a traditional tea produced
from plant Homolanthus nutans for treatment of hepatic viruses. The resultant drug, Prostratin, was patented by
the National Institutes of Health and commercialized as a pharmaceutical with 20%
of all profits returning to Samoa. A follow-up agreement in 2006 protected the genomic
information of the species and ensured benefit sharing from any biotechnology products.
Many of the concepts developed in Falealupo are also found in recent CBD-compliant
agreements for modern ethnobotanical studies. This talk will highlight several examples
of approaches for fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from traditional
knowledge and genetic resources. In particular, the talk will examine how this paradigm
is working in the contemporary global trade system and will examine how traditional
knowledge is affecting current sustainability practices at the interface of modern
producers of botanical materials and natural products.
