Media Release
January 21, 2003
NZ Herb Company Invests In Vietnamese Aid Project
A Nelson based company that has achieved international success with the Kolorex range of herbal products derived from the native pepper tree Horopito, is now turning its attention to the indigenous forests of North Vietnam.
Forest Herbs Research Ltd is managing, on a non profit basis, a project supported with $500,000 from NZAID, that seeks to research and market plant products to the benefit of the impoverished hill tribespeople of Northern Vietnam.
Forest Herbs’ Director, Peter Butler said the success of the company’s Kolorex products, which are the leading herbal treatment for Candida yeast infections in countries such as Italy, provided a model that could be repeated elsewhere, combining herbal medicinal use with sustainable production.
“In North Vietnam awareness is growing about the value of their remaining forests, and national parks are being formed. This is good - but it means the hill people who have used the medicinal plants from these forests for generations will no longer be able to harvest from the wild.”
Mr. Butler said meeting international development expert Dr Chris Wheatley, recently resident in Nelson, had convinced him that conservation values could be served and the hill people helped to make a living, if commercial markets were found for the medicinal plants, and if the people were helped to cultivate them sustainable.
“Forest Herbs is a relatively small business, but we are pleased to have reached a stage in the evolution of the company where we can apply our expertise to an aid project on the world scene,” he said. “It also helps that it’s evidently a very rewarding place to work, with the people keen to help themselves. We have identified excellent local counterparts that give us every confidence in a successful outcome.”
Forest Herbs is working alongside the British volunteer group Society for Environmental Exploration and has employed a well qualified Vietnamese woman as project coordinator. Mr. Butler said she was currently organizing meetings to introduce the project to the target villages and gather their feedback.
“She’s being assisted by a leading ethno-botanist who came from a hill tribe before his academic career; and we will be doing a literature search in Hanoi to see what is already verified on the effects of the plants used by the tribespeople.”
The first stage of the two year project will be to identify four potentially useful plant species in the Sa Pa District in remote upland Lao Cai province where 85% of the population are ethnic minorities and over 60% below the poverty line.
“These people have a fantastic knowledge of medicinal plants. Some women already trade them to other parts of Vietnam.” Mr. Butler said. “We have no doubt we can find three or four species with international potential.”
The terms of the project, as a regional enterprise, ensure the intellectual property, branding and other benefits remain with the local people.
“Populations in countries prepared to pay for this type of product will get health benefits from a new herb while the rural suppliers in Vietnam will get a brand enhanced income,” Mr. Butler said. “It’s a win-win situation that potentially could have a very exciting outcome.”
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