Urbanization and Loss of Medicinal Plant Knowledge: A Challenge to Preserving Traditional Medicine in the Fuvahmulah City of Maldives

AISHATH AZDHA

Centre for Fuvahmulah Studies, Zikura International College,Ghaazee Magu, Fuvahmulah City, MALDIVES

Vol. 08, No. 01, Year 2024, Pages 1-16

ABSTRACT

Plants are an important source of the human health care system. Around the globe, medicinal plants have been used to cure pain and other diseases. Likewise, traditional medicine in the Maldives relies heavily on locally grown plants. Urbanisation poses a huge threat to these plants and the knowledge of these plants remains with traditional medicinal practitioners. Since it is not extensively recorded, preserving this information is crucial for the continuity of traditional medicine. Thus, this research aims to document the medicinal plant species in Fuvahmulah City excluding wetland areas, to understand threatened and unthreatened medicinal plants, and to understand the reason for the decline and extinction of medicinal plants. This study adopted a qualitative research design. A purposive sampling method was used for the selection of participants, and data was collected through semi-structured interviews. The current study reported a total of 88 locally grown medicinal plants in Fuvahmulah excluding wetland areas. Including the additional 12 medicinal plants in the wetland areas of Fuvahmulah found by Fuvahmulah Nature Park (2021), a total of 100 medicinal plants can be found in Fuvahmulah. Among these 88 medicinal plants, 15% (13) of the medicinal plants are critically endangered, and 20% (18) of the plants are threatened or towards extinction. The remaining 65% (57) of the plants are unthreatened. The reasons for the decline and extinction of medicinal plants include lack of knowledge of medicinal plants of resident people, habitat destruction, degradation and fragmentation, plant disease, and climate change. Urgent conservation measures must be made to protect these plants and preserve traditional medicine.

Keywords: Medicinal Plants, Traditional Medicine, Conservation, Fuvahmulah City, Maldives

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Urbanization and Loss of Medicinal Plant Knowledge: A Challenge to Preserving Traditional Medicine in the Fuvahmulah City of Maldives