Salfarina Abdul Gapor Abd Malik Daud Mohd Zulhafiz Said Smita Krishnan 58 7 Co-engaged Lear ning Pra ctices for Equi ty, Livelih oods and Devel opme nt RCE Penang: Traditional Medicine, Biodiversity and Health in Rural Communities RCE Penang RCE Penang is the sole RCE of Malaysia, located on the island of Penang. The main secretariat is a public higher learning institution, Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM). RCE Penang capitalises on the strength of the vibrant networking between the public sector, private sector and the civil societies of Penang in an effort to promote education for sustainable development (ESD). That strength is reflected in various activities conducted by USM in collaboration with its stakeholders, particularly 10 key NGOs and two grassroot communities, under various themes (i.e. socio-economic outreach programmes, enhancing socio-cultural values and creating biodiversity with community). USM has used its academic role and position to bridge gaps among the relevant stakeholders through community development programmes, especially in terms of knowledge transfer. The emphasis is on transforming higher education for a sustainable tomorrow, which has helped USM become the only Accelerated Programme for Excellence (APEX) university in Malaysia. For rural communities in Penang, traditional medicine is still an important source of community health services, despite the progress of allopathic medicine. However, this tradition has slowly eroded. There is a lack of documentation and traditional knowledge is often misunderstood. RCE Penang, under a formal research capacity and in collaboration with the healers’ community, embarked on a project to document and link community, biodiversity and traditional medicine. Background In Penang, an industrialised state in Malaysia, all development – particularly in protected areas such as in reserved forest and national parks – must comply with the National Policy on Biodiversity, introduced in 1998. The National Policy also mentions the potential of traditional herbal plants for economic gain, therefore emphasising the need for conservation of biological diversity. However, traditional knowledge on herbal medicine has diminished and is only guarded by aging healers. Dissemination of knowledge to the younger generation is not common, to the point of being almost non-existent. Thus, there is a danger of losing this important cultural heritage forever, if it is not documented. Revitalisation of traditional health knowledge, and promoting medicinal plant conservation and sustainable use of natural resources have been two of the major focus areas of RCE Penang at present. Discussions and initiatives between several RCEs in the Asia-Pacific region toward conserving biodiversity via the promotion of traditional medicine knowledge were launched shortly after the International Healers’ Conference in Bangalore, India in November 2009. RCEs involved in research or implementation programmes of traditional medicines were invited to share their experiences, including RCEs Cairo, Cebu, Yogyakarta, Penang, Kyrgyzstan, Makana, Bangalore and Kodagu. Although the degree of advancement in research and ESD activities varied among different RCEs, most agreed that the current effort was not yet extensive and comprehensive enough for strengthening traditional health practices. Among the identified challenges were: lack of documentation and preservation of traditional medicinal plants; the need to recognise traditional healers and reduce misconceptions about them; lack of legitimacy regarding the contribution of traditional healers and their role in society; lack of interest and opportunities among the younger generation to learn and continue the practices of traditional healers; gap between policies and practices at community level and women’s needs and roles in traditional medicine. It was felt that more research and ESD activities needed to be organised by utilising the strengths of each RCE through collaboration and partnerships. Following the event, RCE Penang planned to create more awareness about the importance of promoting traditional medicine towards conservation of biodiversity through a Training of Trainers (TOT ) programme and awareness programmes including conferences on traditional medicine. Consequently, RCE Penang has been systematically working with traditional healers by comparing the existing knowledge of herbal plants in the region with past documentation done by Burkill and Haniff in the 1930s. This effort was followed by efforts to build education and awareness programmes to recreate home gardens and create interest around the importance and the usage of herbal plants in Balik Pulau, Penang. Importance is also given to improving local livelihoods through villagebased enterprise activities. A local enterprise named ‘Torch Ginger Products’ is a scaling up project to upgrade local common herbal plants into commercial products by
Traditional Knowledge and Biodiversity
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