At present, several native medicinal plants are facing extinction and are no longer available in sufficient quantity for use by local people. A total of 324 species of medicinal plants that are native to Cambodia are considered as potentially threatened – or may otherwise become vulnerable in the longer.

These include three species listed in the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, and an additional 21 species included mentioned by the International Union for Conservation of Nature in the IUCN Red List (source). Some native plants have been extracted to the point of extinction from south-western Cambodia, particularly from the Cardamom Mountain region and areas within Bokor National Park.

The mountainous upland areas of Cambodia have also a wealth of traditional knowledge on nature conservation, health and wellbeing, sustainable farming practices, and plant and animal species utilization and management.  

They host approximately 1.7 million people (11.68 per cent of the country’s total population), of whom more than 200,000 people are from indigenous minorities who have lived for many centuries in harmony with their natural environment.

In many cases, these communities have lived in isolation or minimal contact with other groups, developing complex cultural norms and rules that regulate their vision of the world, their spiritual beliefs and their livelihoods based on sustainable co-existence with the natural environment.

These stores of knowledge vary according to geographic areas, indigenous and other ethnic minorities.

The erosion of this valuable traditional knowledge on the utilization and protection of genetic resources would negatively impact the effective conservation of biodiversity and would eventually lead to the loss of nature-based-solutions and benefits (monetary and non-monetary) to local and indigenous communities, and ultimately to the country and the global community at large.