Today, instead of looking at one plant in particular and chronicling how it has or hasn’t been exploited by more powerful nations, I’d like to take a look at what is being done in response to these actions. Going back down to Central America and the Caribbean, you will find the work of the TRAMIL program, an organization made up of networks that is encouraging national health policies to incorporate traditional medicine in primary health care programs, all while conserving the traditional community knowledge (or TEK) and protecting the medicinal plant diversity in its natural habitat. However, TRAMIL doesn’t export this knowledge to other nations, but rather focuses it within Central America and the Caribbean.
The Program of Applied Research to Popular Medicine in the Caribbean
While it was created in 1982, it is now well established within institutions in Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, and the Dominican Republic. Some of their work includes working with local and indigenous people and connecting them with government agencies in order to integrate the conservation and management of indigenous medicinal plants. They also mediate the rational use of traditional practices within a national setting. However, TRAMIL insists that while those in urban areas getting aid through the healthcare system could benefit from this local, environmental knowledge, their primary concern is to assess and improve conservation of these plants. They hope to be able to use these four countries as a model of cooperation that could be used in any region of the world, regardless of climate, culture, or location.
The TRAMIL program takes on a multidisciplinary approach that uses data collection, scientific testing, and discussion between ethnologists, ethnobotanists, indigenous and local people, pharmacologists, doctors and health personnel, government officials, and phytochemists. This collaboration is achevied through seminars, surveys and workshops. The program also gets universities of each country involved not only for the resources to conduct scientific research but also to increase awareness about the goals of the program and ways people can help.
I believe that what TRAMIL is doing is very important. Their objectives seek to benefit everyone, contributing to developing national health and education policies while taking advantage of, as well as giving credit to, the knowledge of indigenous people. Incorporating medicinal plants into healthcare can not only make healthcare more accessible to everyone in the country, but also creates awareness about traditions of the land that might have been lost to some. If programs continue to be successful, it could have very positive implications on the future of acknowledging local, place-based knowledge and also managing and maintaining biodiversity.
Herb out!
[Katie Nelson]
Images and info:
http://funredes.org/endacaribe/traducciones/tramil.html
http://scielo.sld.cu/scielo.php?pid=S1028-47962009000400009&script=sci_arttext
http://www.sld.cu/servicios/medicamentos/
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