Gardens set up in CHT to protect medicinal plants

New Age, Dhaka, Nov 30, 2008

Bdnews24.com . Dhaka

Ethnic minority communities in the Chittagong Hill Tracts are moving to protect dwindling medicinal plants in efforts to save centuries-old herbal-based medicinal practices.
The people of Hazachhara and Mubacchari villages under Barkol upazila in Rangamati have set up two protected gardens to save at least 150 native species found in the region. This is the first such indigenous initiative, backed by the government and USAID, for preserving the medicinal plants of Bangladesh.
The local Chakma community claims Bengali settlers are responsible for the decline in medicinal plants through destruction of forestland in the hill tracts, while the Bengalis point fingers at illicit loggers and forest officials, the custodians of the forests.
A 2006 study identified rapid urbanisation and development activities in the region after signing of the 1997 CHT peace accord as the major cause for depletion of the native species.
‘Our baidyas (traditional healers) find it hard to get useful plants to make our medicines which are totally dependent on the herbs in the jungle,’ Milon Chakma, a resident of village Hazachhara, told the correspondent of the news agency as he accompanied the US ambassador, James F Moriarty, to the remote village last week.
Moriarty heard the views of the locals and assured them of providing his government’s support for the securing of the medicinal plants and their livelihood. ‘The (Bengali) settlers bring their cattle for grazing to areas where the medicinal plants grow. They do not listen to us.’
Roni Chakma, another local resident, was more optimistic: ‘The Bengalis used to cut the trees from the hills, now the trend has lessened.’
Nevertheless, in a bid to preserve the plant species, the community has undertaken the garden project supported by the Aranyak Foundation and funded by the US government.
The Aranyak Foundation, established in 2003, is a grant-giving organisation devoted to the conservation of bio-diversity in Bangladesh.
‘Now, we can protect our plants from depletion,’ Reboti Mohan Chakma, who heads a seven-member committee to oversee the Hazachhara garden, told the news agency.
Farid Uddin Ahmed, executive director of the US-funded Aranyak Foundation, said local stakeholders were also sensitising the people to understand the importance of the plants.
‘Deforestation is the main cause for their depletion in the hill region,’ the executive director said.
‘Out of some 250 commonly used species of medicinal plants in the CHT, we have been able to preserve 150 in the two gardens.’
The 2006 study, focusing on Rangamati’s medicinal species, cites that out of 5,000 plant species in Bangladesh, around 1,000 have curative qualities.
‘Rapid urbanisation and development activities started in the area after the historic peace accord in the CHT,’ said the study, jointly carried out by Md Mahamud Sharif and Gouri Rani Banik at the Institute of Forestry and Environmental Sciences of the Chittagong University.
‘Outsiders gained entry to areas of the CHT with previously forbidden access. Illicit loggers and others gained illegal benefits from the forest and the medicinal plants came under threat,’ the study said.
At least 30 per cent of the modern pharmacological drugs are derived directly or indirectly from plants and plant extracts, the study cites.
The worldwide commercial value of various drugs and pharmaceuticals deriving from tropical forests is projected to be around $20 billion, it pointed out.