The Belize Ethnobotany Project: safeguarding medicinal plants and traditional knowledge in Belize.

Abstract The Belize Ethnobotany Project was initiated in 1988, through a collaborative effort of a number of individuals and institutions. This paper discusses some of the components of the project, and its accomplishments and challenges. A checklist of the flora has been produced and includes 3408 native and cultivated species found in Belize. The multiple-use curve is introduced as a way of determining the most appropriate sample size for ethnobotanical interviews/collections. Valuation studies of medicinal plants found in two areas of local forest are described and compared with values of traditional uses for farming, using a net present value analysis. Studies to determine sustainable levels of harvest of medicinal plants were also initiated in Belize and are ongoing. The link between conservation, drug development and local utilization of medicinal plants is discussed, and the various impacts on conservation considered. Our experience with the production of a traditional healer's manual is detailed, and the benefit-sharing program it resulted in is described. Various local efforts at developing forest-based traditional medicine products are discussed, as is the natural products research program based on Belizean plants. Other results of this project include the development of a medicinal plant forest reserve and a video documentation and teaching program. Ethnobotanical and related studies in Belize are continuing.