Mondulkiri, a province in north-eastern Cambodia bordering Vietnam, is a highland forest area. Rapid deforestation in the region, combined with overexploitation of the environment, is leading to the scarcity of certain plants used in traditional pharmacopoeia. In addition, this knowledge is often used only locally, and increasingly rarely passed on to younger generations. As a result, when a traditional practitioner (Kruu Boran) dies, their knowledge disappears with them permanently. Traditional medicine remains the first line of care for the population, who otherwise lack access to the public health system.
The project’s objective is to contribute to the knowledge and protection of medicinal plants used by the Phnong ethnic minority of Cambodia’s Mondulkiri province.
This involves cataloguing and preserving both medicinal plants and traditional medical knowledge, as well as facilitating their transmission through the production of a compendium of traditional medical knowledge and the creation of medicinal plant gardens. The project will help enhance the value of Phnong culture.