Media Release
March TBC, 2003
Strong Start For Vietnamese Aid Project
The Nelson based company that has embarked on an aid scheme, seeking to help the impoverished hill tribes of North Vietnam to establish and market a new range of herbal products, is creating interest with the innovative nature of the project.
Forest Herbs Research Ltd has achieved international success with its Kolorex products derived from the New Zealand native pepper tree Horopito, and is now assisting with a project in the Sa Pa District in remote upland Lao Cai province, supported with $500,000 from NZAID.
Forest Herbs' Director, Peter Butler says over 85% of the population in the area are ethnic minorities and over 60% below the poverty line.
'These people have used medicinal plants from their forests for generations, but as national parks are formed they will no longer be able to harvest from the wild. That's where we come in with our background in sustainable farming and marketing of indigenous plants.'
Mr Butler is just back from the first meeting of all the parties involved in the project held in Sa Pa at earlier this month. The meeting was organised by Frontier, an environmental NGO that has worked on medicinal plants is Sa Pa for the last five years, and attended by personnel from the Hanoi College of Pharmacy, Farmers Union, Woman's Union, Sa Pa Agriculture Department and representatives of local ethnic minorities.
International Coordinator for Forest Herbs Research Ltd, Dr Christopher Wheatley, who has over 23 years experience in aid project in South America and South East Asia, says the dual conservation and poverty alleviation nature of the project is very unusual and will require a delicate balancing act: 'There are a lot of conservation projects seeking to save endangered plants and there are a lot of projects aiming to improve people's lives and income, but it's very unusual to combine the two.'
Dr Wheatley says if plants have their market value enhanced by the project, there will need to be mechanisms to ensure they are not in increased danger of exploitation, and that the added value this creates is returned, in fair measure, to the rural communities themselves.
'We'll have to put the right systems in place, like a certification of sustainability, similar to organic certification, as we switch to more market-oriented farming of these endangered species,' he said, 'otherwise we risk creating a further incentive for wholesale removal of plants from the forest.'
The Sa Pa meeting heard from Vietnam's leading ethno-botanist, Tran Van On, whose team of experts have traversed rough country to visit 12 of the 18 communes in the area, collecting information about medicinal plant use, as well as input on how the tribal people would like the scheme to develop. Dr Wheatley said the meeting focussed on the selection criteria that would be applied to choose three or four plant species from the current list of over 800.
'We want plants that have conservation value - we are not into common weeds, we are looking for species that are native, rare and endangered,'' he said. 'Then the product has to be marketable in the West. That automatically rules out finding a cure for cancer - the regulations are too tough. We're looking at products that would relieve stress and anxiety, help people sleep better, or cure minor ailments like headaches.'
The third criteria relates to production. The plant needs to be relatively easy for farmers to produce, with a short growth cycle or a non-destructive harvest where just the leaves or berries are gathered.
A group of Vietnamese experts in medicinal plants and ethno-botan is now applying the selection criteria to the list of plants, and another joint meeting is scheduled for May to agree on a short list for in-depth trials.
"The objective of the project is that benefits from the added value are not captured by middlemen, but are substantially returned to the hill tribes,' Mr Butler said. 'Getting this business side of the project operating in a sustainable manner will be at least as challenging as the plant side.'
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Further information
Peter Butler
Forest Herbs Research Ltd
Nelson, New Zealand
tel + 64 3 548 2741
fax + 64 3 545 6056
email pbutler@forestherbs.co.nz
web www.kolorex.com
Chris Wheatley
Tel + 64 3 544 259