of people in insufficiently connected and marginalized regions of the world is much more profound. The paradox is that the regions which have poor access to formal public health care infrastructure or personnel often are abundant in bio-cultural resources that can have major impact on community health and well-being. Most of us are quite familiar with the WHO statistic that around 70% of the world’s population continues to use traditional medicine and resources for health care needs. Estimates suggest that globally between 50,000 and 70,000 species of medicinal plants are used in traditional and modern medicinal systems, and around 6,000 plants are actively in trade in the global markets. As per the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report, in many sub-Saharan African rural communities non-timber forest produce such as medicinal plants and forest foods form over 50 percent of cash income and provide health needs for over 80 percent of the population. While the likely impacts of climate change on such medicinal and nutritional resources is high, there is no comprehensive data on this. This highlights the importance of more integrated approaches to assessment of status of biodiversity, health and well-being and of ensuring conservation and sustainable use of such resources at various scales. To improve health care access for communities, there is a renewed interest to strengthen the potential of traditional knowledge and health practitioners and augment medicinal and nutritional resources to fulfill this role. Ident i fying local heal th pr ior i t ies and supplementing them with ecosystem and community specific traditional medical knowledge and resources through primary health programs is critical both to ensure conservation of biodiversity and health security at the local level. Furthermore, it provides a platform to develop more effective education and capacity building tools given that it is easier for people to relate to the above concepts given their close association with biological resources and search for good health at low cost. This is especially important in the context where progressively high out of pocket spending for health, increasing privatization, over medicalization of healthcare and curative focus are becoming important challenges of health systems. While there are several models a t the local level on diverse nodes of interventions, concerted policy attention and integrated frameworks/approaches for bringing together multiple institutions and stakeholders are missing. Strengthening the capacities and credibility of traditional health practitioners, often the first and sometimes, the only point of healthcare intervention in remote and marginalized communities has become an immediate necessity. Organizations such as the FRLHT and the Medicinal Plant Conservation Network in India have been involved in country- wide, large-scale conservation initiatives for endangered medicinal plants through public- private partnerships. Systematic national assessments carried out under this initiative show that around 300 important medicinal plants fall into various categories of threat in the country. They have also been engaged in mobilizing community health practitioners to identify local health priorities and solutions for more than two decades and engaging them in participatory conservation, primary health and livelihoods program. This has created a country-wide healers’ and indigenous and local knowledge holders’ network in India. A main objective is also for enabling the development and promotion of appropriate integrative methodologies for assuring evidence on quality, safety and efficacy of health practices based on standards within and across health systems and various disciplines. Furthermore, development 84 Proceedings of the International Conference on Climate Change, Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): Policy and Practice 27-29 June 2016, Cha-am, Phetchaburi, Thailand
Proceedings of International Conference on Climate Change, Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services for the Sustainable Development Goals : Policy and Practice 27-29 June 2016 at the Sirindhorn International Environmental Park, Cha-am, Phetchaburi, Thailand
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