The country of Egypt lies on the western portion of Asia, and the northeast corner of Africa. Because of its unique location, there are two geographical areas that connect the palearctics to the north to the tropics of the south. There are many different types of ecosystems in Egypt, including three endangered or critical eco-regions on the WWF Global 200 list. These three areas are the Mediterranean Forest, Woodland, and Scrubs region, the Red Sea, and the Mediterranean Sea. For the most part, Egypt is quite hot, arid, and dry. That being said, there are several species of flora and fauna that have adapted to this climate, of which many are prevalent across the land. Due to the fact that the country’s population continues to grow at a rapid rate and is nearing seventy seven million people, the biodiversity of Egypt has been confronted with serious pressures that have been induced by humans.
The Medicinal Plants Conservation Project (MPCP) is a GEF funded project that is located in the Saint Katherine Protectorate (SKP). SKP is chock full of a wide variety of medicinal and aromatic plants (MAP), and is home to roughly half of the country’s commonly seen botany. There are four hundred and seventy two different species of plants located here, with more than one hundred of these species used for medicinal reasons. The MAPs used are quite important to the local communities of Bedouin. While these plants serve a very important como bajar de peso purpose, unfortunately a number of them have been over exploited, and are now facing extinction. Since so many of these species of plants are native only to this particular area, the possibility of potential extinction would pose a serious issue, because it would mean that the species would be lost on a global scale.
The Medicinal Plants Conservation Project is co-financed by a number of organizations as well as the Egyptian Government. The purpose of the project is to design a use for these plants that is sustainable by the local communities of Bedouin. The MPCP is working toward having the Bedouin community cultivate and sustain the harvest of MAPs in areas such as gardens and orchards that have been abandoned. This would in turn reduce the pressure placed on the threatened species in the wild. The MPCP is the first of its kind in Egypt and is a test of sorts to see how community based natural resource management will work to sustain endangered species.
So far, the project has created over two hundred jobs, and has improved the living conditions of over one thousand people. Women have seen the most good come from the project, as ninety five percent of medical plant collectors in the SKP are women. This in turn has led to many new small businesses that are being run by women, thus improving the general welfare. Aside from promoting small business development to help create medicinal plants, the project also works to give these small businesses access to the proper markets in order to maximize profits from their production. A few of the project’s achievements worth mentioning include:
National Regulation Development – The MPCP has lead to the development regulatory framework that is used for benefit sharing and access at the national level. The program works with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and other notable agencies that take part in intellectual property right and trade. This framework has become extremely important to the use and management of MAPs that are sustainable.
Raising Awareness and Community Outreach – The MPCP had done a great deal to reach out to the world to raise awareness for their cause. The project’s website now contains a digital medicinal plants herbarium with more than 800 herbarium sheets, as well as position papers on community management. A recent campaign to raise awareness was also completed with more than twenty local schools and five hundred students participating.
Micro Credit Scheme – The Medicinal Plants Association (MPA), has taken over management of a micro credit scheme to help fund smaller projects to reduce threats to medicinal plants. There have been over four hundred families that have benefited from this program with projects such as beehives, solar heaters, MAP farms, butane cookers, and firewood outlets.
Replication Potential – The MPCP has become of a model of sorts for the country of Egypt and the surrounding areas. By combing efforts with a large influential tribe in South Sinai, the MPCP has great potential to replicate its work with the six other tribes located in the region. The project has also been proactive with sharing processes, policy papers, and other information to help better understand how to plan, how to manage, and how to rehabilitate ecosystems. This information is an ideal way to share knowledge in order to continue the project in other areas.