ICHCAP

The Korea National Arboretum (KNA, Director General You-Mi Lee)(( As a national focal point for the GSPC, KNA has been engaged in various joint studies, beyond the national level, to respond to regional climate change and biodiversity conservation in Asia. The recent publication is one of the outcomes of such collaborative research efforts)) under the Korea Forest Service has published Ethnobotanical Plants of Malaysia on local plants of Malaysia, one of the twelve mega-diverse countries in the world.

Malaysia has a rich diversity of flora with an estimated twelve thousand species of vascular plants of which about 1,200 species or 10 percent have been used as edible plants by local people since ancient times.

In collaboration with University Putra Malaysia and Ewha Womans University, KNA conducted research on natural habitats of various local plants in Malaysia and collected and compiled information on related traditional knowledge into the publication titled Ethnobotanical Plants of Malaysia.

The publication contains various ethnobotanical information according to their uses, such as edible, medicinal, and dye plants. It also explains the distribution of plant species, their forms and associated practices in Korean and English.

The safeguarding of traditional knowledge on valuable local flora, which has been orally transmitted by indigenous people, is a major challenge that requires urgent global action, and it is also associated with Target 13 of the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation (GSPC) of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD).

Dr. Su-rang Lee at the Forest Biodiversity Research Division of KNA said “The result of this research can be utilized as basic materials for further studies on tropical ethnobotanical plants and traditional knowledge in Malaysia.”

Ethnobotanical Plants of Malaysia is available for download (PDF) in the Research Publications section of the KNA website.