Development of Marketing of Medicinal Plants and Other Forest Products - can it be a Path Way for Effective Management and Conservation?

Since times immemorial , plants have served mankind by providing food , shelter , medicine etc. In recent times the demand for Medicinal and Aromatic Plants (MAPs) has increased rapidly in the global market. Domestic sales are growing at a rate of 20% per annum , while the international market for herbal products is estimated to be growing 7% per annum. Due to rapidly increasing demand of MAPs , a number of species are known to have become rare , endangered , threatened and extinct. Every year thousands of tonnes of these plant resources are being exploited from the natural habitat either legally or illegally without fair benefits accruing to the local people. Indian Himalayan region is the storehouse for the MAPs , besides bearing the largest economic resource being tapped , but local communities get only a tiny fraction of the profits. It is historically a secretive trade and little is known about who collects , who trades , who profits and whether there is over-harvesting. It is established that the basic causes of unsustainable harvesting are ignorance , poverty and lack of alternative livelihood support systcms accompanied by encroachments by outsiders. Sustainable harvest with proper buy-back gaurantee will provide considerable off-farm employment opportunities to the local inhabitants. Traditional and local communities are the true resource managers with deciding roles in the conservation , management , use and development of MAPs in the Himalayan region. The conservation and management of MAPs in their natural habitat require active involvement of the local communities at every step. Therefore , effective training and capacity building focused on domestication/cultivation and conservation , improved marketing systems and processing/semi processing , bio-prospecting and value addition locally are the appropriate short and long term solution to assure conservation and management and sustainable livelihoods to the local communities.