Mango leaf tea can cure fever, diarrhoea and insomnia. Pomegranate can treat intestinal worms. Chadon beni, nutmeg, jackfruit, tulsi and zebapique are local medicinal plants that can cure common ailments including the flu. These plants flourish in T&T's landscape. International Consultant Mervyn Claxton says T&T boasts an enormous amount of biodiversity and can make use of its treasure trove of plants for developmental purposes. Claxton made this comment at The Cropper Foundation's Tenth Anniversary Celebration Lecture on the Environment and launch of the anthology Moving Right Along at the Engineering Lecture Theatre, UWI, St Augustine, on Wednesday. The theme of the lecture was Indigenous Knowledge and Sustainable Development.
Claxton said: "T&T is another example of the much greater biodiversity to be found in the world's tropical zones, as well as their enormous potential for development purposes." Then, Claxton, who has written 14 publications, seven which have been published by UNESCO, provided data to support his view which incorporated the idea of making use of eco-indigenous knowledge. Claxton said: "A search for anti-bacterial agents in the extracts of 44 different types of fern found in Trinidad, for example, showed positive results in 77 per cent of the extracts. That could be a rich source for the discovery of future antibiotics."
T&T might be a small twin-island state, washed by the cerulean waters of the Atlantic Ocean, but that did not prevent its being blessed by the Creator with an abundance of flora and fauna–including medicinal plants. Claxton added: "Despite its size, T&T has a far greater variety of tree plants than North America. A study, undertaken in the mid 1960s, of the forest composition in one square mile of Trinidad identified nearly 3,000 distinct species of trees. "By contrast, the whole of North America, above the Mexican-United States border, contains only 1,000 tree species."
Challenges of archiving info
But, Claxton realised a lot of the information on these plants which lured the Europeans to the New World was lost. Claxton said: "What is required, therefore, is a redefinition of the international community's definition of culture to include eco-indigenous knowledge. With such a definition, the parameters within which international or national action is taken would be adjusted accordingly. "Because eco-indigenous knowledge is passed down orally, from generation to generation, it risks being lost forever if it is not transcribed or recorded for posterity.
Preserving that extremely important fragile knowledge from extinction deserves, at the very least, the same amount of resources and energy currently being invested in the protection, restoration and conservation of monuments," added Claxton. He also suggested the initiative be taken at an international level. "Such an important contribution that T&T or the Caricom community could make to the International Year of Biodiversity, given the crucial importance of eco-indigenous in biodiversity preservation," said Claxton. He also queried the whereabouts of the information collected by the Europeans.
At the lecture's start, Claxton said: "Information has been collected. What has been done with it? Where is it today? The Europeans collected on two big periods in the 1700s and the 1800s. The information has been extracted and it was documented. Where is that body of information?" Local writers who have been published on the topic include: UTT Prof Compton Seaforth,who wrote Herbal Medicines Are Here To Stay, and Anthropologist Dr Kumar Mahabir, who wrote about Medicinal and Edible Plants used by East Indians of T&T.
Eco-indigenous knowledge
Claxton said biodiversity, indigenous knowledge and sustainable development are closely linked. The indigenous knowledge systems of the people of the South (America) constitute the world's largest reservoir of knowledge of the diverse species of plant and animal life on Earth. He said their indigenous systems have utilised practices and techniques that permit continuous cropping all year round and without the use of chemicals that degrade the environment.
"Not only do they deplete the earth's natural resources but they often replenish them," he said.
He also noted ecological agriculture was recognised by a growing number of scientists as the most effective method of promoting sustainable development. He identified industry, conventional agriculture, deforestation and transport as among the four major sources of greenhouse gases that contribute to climate change. He said: "The International Panel for Climate Change has proposed Carbon Capture and Storage as an effective method of removing carbon gases from the atmosphere, a proposal adopted by the Copenhagen (Denmark) Conference."
"Thus eco-indigenous knowledge should possibly be considered the essential factor in solutions for the problems of preserving biodiversity, promoting sustainable development and mitigating climate change," said Claxton.
About Mervyn Claxton
He is a researcher, author and consultant in the field of sustainable development. He has had a long and distinguished career as a college teacher in West Africa, a diplomat with the Trinidad and Tobago Foreign Service and an international civil servant for 19 years with UNESCO. Since 1996, he has been based in Paris and working as an international consultant in sustainable development, with special emphasis on the promotion and stimulation of development through the use of indigenous culture, traditions and knowledge.