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challenge of conservation indigenous Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) with medical knowledge resources, which is linked with
the ongoing implementation ABS-NP International Treat. So far we have not yet established community biodiversity registration
strategy for documenting and registration of indigenous medical knowledge that is very much useful for development of new
products of medicine, cosmetics, skin-care, health food and beverages, on the other hand protection of medical plants and
associated medical knowledge at community level, is ignored by societies, current attention is too much focused on increasing
economy benefit from use of medicinal plant resources and related indigenous knowledge.
The future of traditional medicine of China in the next decade will be further developed along with the line of complimen-
tary with modern medicine, anti-biotic and synthesis drugs, peoples will use more natural medicine than chemicals to maintain
their health and environment, which means a greater demanding on natural plants for health care and resource consumption will
be increased day by day. During the time, declining of medical plant resources from natural habitats and the lost speed of
indigenous medical knowledge will be accelerated.
With all the concerns above, we can conclude that use of traditional medicine by Chinese Society has been extended from
ancient time to modern societies for thousands of years. Today, traditional medicine is believed and relied upon by a major part
of the countryûs population for primary healthcare needs from clinic treatment to self health care maintenance. In the past century,
great progress has been made in science and technology and it has been rapid developed in socio-economic powers, which has
positively influenced on traditional medical knowledge and its protection.
To face the challenge mentioned above, it is important for us to develop innovative methods and approaches on the
protection of traditional medical knowledge in order to improve the current situation and, herewith, following suggestions are
proposed for discussions:
1) To improve transmission mechanism for protection of traditional medical knowledge. Traditional knowledge is an
important part of human value system in a society and environment, therefore, protection of traditional medical knowledge shall
be based on one hand customary transmission mechanism such as approaches of family handing down, mater and apprentice as
well as self studies, on the other hand, innovative approaches shall be further developed to adopt the changing world, emphasis
shall be placed on modern education system development for training of professional traditional medical doctors.
2) To integrate conservation of traditional medical knowledge and medicinal plants together into community-based
conservation programs. Many rural communities still maintain good cultural and natural environment that is good for protection
of traditional medicine, herbal doctors, family health-care traditions and community health care systems, to which government
support should be further strengthened.
3) To implement Nagoya Protocol for protection of genetic resources and traditional knowledge and Access to Benefit
Sharing (ABS) in which traditional medical knowledge and associated medicinal plants are included; documentation of traditional
medical knowledge and community biodiversity registration must be put on agenda. This will ensure community medical
knowledge is preserved before it is lost and support to sustainable use for community well being.
4) To further strength regional collaboration on traditional medical knowledge and medicinal plants protection in GMR
countries. The GMR countries share many commonalties and interests in traditional medical cultures, medicinal plants and
modern development demandings. Based on past successful experiences, priority area for regional collaboration on training
education programmes, and research collaborations ought to be urgently developed in order to protect our common medical
tradition for the health of people and sustainable development in the region.
Acknowledgement: I would like to extend my sincerely thanks to the conference organizer, Department of Thai Tradi-
tional & Complementary Medicine, Ministry of Public Health, Government of Thailand, and Dr. Anchalee Chuthaputti, inviting me
to the conference and to deliver the keynote lecture.
References
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