ENVIRONMENT POLLUTION

volunteers Planting Medicinal Plants

There are two major threats to humankind today: the loss of biodiversity
and the loss of traditional knowledge about biodiversity. Both are issues
of utmost importance. Any species that becomes extinct is an option for
medicine, food, genes, etc., lost forever. Cultures with vast knowledge of
their plant resources also are threatened by extinction because of
acculturation. The traditional knowledge of plants has provided our
modern society with medicines, food, industrial materials and many other
advantages that we take for granted. Ethnobotanical research is providing
fundamental information in the search for new drugs, foods, pesticides,
natural products, genes and all kinds of chemicals. Ethnobotanical data
provides an extraordinary diversity of important questions for botanical,
ecological and anthropological research.

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