HCM CITY – Due to excessive exploitation and extreme weather conditions, Ninh Thuận Province has stepped up efforts to preserve over 1,000 medicinal plants, 24 of which are endemic and have high economic value.

In 2011, Việt Nam Oriental Traditional Medicine Association of Ninh Thuận Province received funding from the Global Environment Fund to carry out a project on conservation and development of medicinal plants of the Chăm community in Ninh Thuận Province.

The project, worth US$50,000, involved conducting research of traditional medicinal plants, developing remedies using those plants, establishing conservation gardens to store valuable and highly endangered plant species, and strengthening knowledge and capacity of the local Chăm people on conservation of traditional medicinal plants in Ninh Thuận.

In addition to this project, Ninh Thuận Province plans to spend VNĐ120 billion ($5 million) on a similar project, which requires conservation and development of medicinal plants in the buffer zone of Núi Chúa National Park in Ninh Hải District’s Nhơn Hải area, and the buffer zone of Phước Bình National Park in Bác Ái District’s Sơn Hải area; and the forest zones in the province.

Due to favourable weather conditions, these areas are suited to the project, according to authorities.

Nguyễn Xuân Tuyển, chairman of the Việt Nam Oriental Traditional Medicine Association of Ninh Thuận Province, said the association had collaborated with scientific agencies to list categories of existing medicinal plants in a plant database.

The association would emphasise the medicinal plants often used by ethnic groups, he said.

At the same time, the association would evaluate the current status, development growth, and exploitation status of main medicinal plants to efficiently draft a roadmap for conservation and sustainable development. – VNS