Compensating Forest-dwelling Communities for Drug the Work of the Healing Forest Conservancy

Abstract

"This article affirms that much of the world's tropical biological diversity is in areas inhabited by indigenous, or native, cultures, making them the primary in situ caretakers of the planet's biological diversity; and that native c cultures' knowledge of medicinal plant usage is of value to pharmaceutical companies in drug development and therefore merits compensation. The article then describes the work of the Healing Forest Conservancy, a non-governmental organization, in, enabling forest-dwelling communities to benefit from their contribution to drug development efforts and presents a conceptual framework to provide compensation for drug discovery to native c communities."