Valuing the biodiversity of medicinal plant species in Malaysia

Malaysia is endowed with one of the richest biodiversity in the world. The preservation of biodiversity has received considerable attention over the last decade in scientific community and in public policy debates and entrepreneurships. Similarly, efforts in ex situ and in situ conservation have also been undertaken. However, a framework for managing biodiversity of medicinal plants in protected areas is still inadequate as strategic planning and management programmes are yet to be put in place. Malaysia has yet to define priorities for conservation and sustainable use of medicinal plant biodiversity based on ecosystem, species and genetic diversity. Measures for sustainable use of traditional medicine, for instance, are in place but those in biodiversity prospecting and impacts of socio-economic development on biodiversity are yet to be established. The country has more than 15,000 of seed plant species, including those of freshwater algae, lichens, bryophytes and pteridophytes. In the absence of concrete data with respect to determining the size of population and the number of medicinal plant species in the forest and the magnitude of species loss, it is difficult to value the biodiversity of medicinal plants. Many factors have contributed to medicinal plant loss; among them are the rapid socio-economic development of the country that transformed vast forested lands through logging, forest land transformation for agriculture and resettlement and subsequently creating new built-up areas such as agroforestry estates, urban and industrial areas which are relatively poor in biodiversity. Other factors such as over-harvesting and pollution have also contributed to concomitant loss. These activities had led to significant habitat loss, degradation and fragmentation and indirectly affecting biodiversity. What are needed are policy frameworks and strategies for biodiversity conservation, some socio-economic strategies for sustainable use and also some legal measures for protecting endemic, threatened and otherwise endangered plant species, especially for enhancing biotechnology and development of alternative medicines.