Harvesting Medicinal Plants and Herbs Responsibly

With the recent renaissance of herbal healing and alternative medicine comes the responsibility of wild harvesting responsibly. Over 21% of the worlds medicinal plants and herbs are at risk for over harvesting and habitat loss. It is not only a great problem and with commercial wild harvesting but also in personal wild harvesting and foraging as well. With many people learning to forage for food and medicinal plants, some plants are becoming high risk for over harvesting all over the world.

In order to avoid medicinal plant shortages there are some things you can do to wild harvest responsibly.

The first rule of thumb is to know what plants are on your areas watch and at list risk and use these herbs and medicinal plants sparingly or better yet find an alternative. If there is a just as effective alternative, try it and use it first. Do a little research beforehand and find out all about what you are wild harvesting.

Otherwise it's perfectly fine to wild harvest plants. Just educate yourself on how to do it responsibly.

While gathering plants it's extremely important not to completely harvest complete stands of plants. I like to use the 30% rule and never take more than I need or can use. There's always more and you can always come back. If you deplete a stand of plants though it's gone when it's gone. Some plants will take years to recover if they recover at all.

In February there was a gathering of the world's herbalist's and leader's in plant preservation and watch groups around the world in the unveiling of worldwide plant harvesting standards in Germany at world's organic trade fair. The standards include 6 common sense approaches to wild crafting. These can be use in the practice of personal wild crafting as well as for commerce and should be followed as closely as possible for everyone participating wild harvesting.

The 6 practices to be followed are;

Maintaining plants in the wild- This means do not over deplete current supplies.

Preventing negative environmental impact- do not take more than you need or damage current stands of plants. Be responsible while gathering medicinal herbs and plants in the wild.

Legal compliance-Brush up on your local laws. Sometimes certain plants are forbidden to harvest in some areas. You could face a large fine if caught.

Respecting Customary rights- if you are gathering on native lands be sure to try to follow traditions as much as possible. It is not only respectful but a sustainable practice in most cases.

Applying responsible management practices- This would apply more for businesses but the personal wild harvester can take this to heart as well. Do not deplete stand for personal use.

Applying responsible business practices- This follows the same rule as above but applies to those trying to make a profit. Sustainability should always come before profit.

Wild harvesting can be done in a safe manner but you need to educate yourself first on the danger's of plant loss. If you are in doubt when wild harvesting then follow a conservative approach. Less is more when it comes to gathering plants for medicine. Folling these rules of thumb will ensure that thes eplants have a chance to stick around and reproduce for future generations.