Medicinal Plants Conservation Project
The Medicinal Plants Conservation Project was launched in January 2003 and it is jointly undertaken by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and the Egyptian Environmental Affairs Agency (EEAA). It is a national project that aims at examining and eliminating the root causes to the loss in biodiversity and addressing the threats to the conservation and sustainable use of medicinal plants in Egypt through a number of interventions, while at the same time empowering the Bedouin community to use and manage its resources in a sustainable manner.
The approach aims at successfully reaching the following outcomes:
Outcome 1 –
aims at conserving the MAP species within the ecosystem (in situ) through the development of sustainable management practices, including the protection of hotspots and individual plants or populations wherever it is not possible to utilise the resources sustainably. Ex situ conservation measures will be applied when the threat to a species is considered severe and warrant such measures. The main thrust of these interventions will be to address the issues of tenure of, and access to, the MAP resources and ensure that benefits are returned to those closest to the resource and who are bearing the costs of conservation management.
Outcome 2 –
aims at promoting the economic values of MAPs to provide the motivation for conservation management. This intervention will seek to develop national and international markets and add value to the wild and cultivated MAPs with the aim of capturing a significant and equitable proportion of those values locally. This Outcome can be characterised as providing the motivational force to drive the systemic approach of Outcome 1.
Outcome 3 –
deals with developing interventions designed to deflect pressure from the in situ MAP resources by promoting alternative livelihoods and resource replacement. It is recognised that the approach employed in Outcome 1 and 3 may conflict and this Outcome is likely to have greatest effect when it addresses threats indirectly related to the MAPs medicinal values, such as the provision of gas as a means to reduce fuel wood collection. This Outcome can be characterised as a resource replacement and alternative livelihoods approach.
Outcome 4 –
aims at capturing the experience from the project and developing an appropriate local and national enabling environment by incorporating lessons learned and facilitating the development of a national policy and legislative framework that protects those that are dependent upon the resource for their livelihoods, their indigenous knowledge and intellectual property. This Outcome can be characterised as an enabling or regulatory approach.
Outcome 5 –
