Climate Change Dependence in Ex Situ Conservation of Wild Medicinal Plants in Crete, Greece

Over 80% of the global population addresses their primary healthcare needs using traditional medicine based on medicinal plants. Consequently, there's a rising demand for these plants for both household and industrial use at local, regional, national, and international levels. However, wild har...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Biology (Basel, Switzerland) Switzerland), 2023-10, Vol.12 (10), p.1327
Main Authors: Bariotakis, Michael, Georgescu, Luciana, Laina, Danae, Koufaki, Margianna, Souma, Maria, Douklias, Sotirios, Giannakakis, Konstantinos A, Chouli, Kyriaki N, Paoli, Luca, Loppi, Stefano, Karousou, Reggina, Smykal, Petr, Castanas, Elias, Pirintsos, Stergios A
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Agriculture
Analysis
Climate change
Conservation
Cultivation
Data collection
Dietary supplements
Ecological Niche Modeling
Ecosystems
ex situ conservation
Farmers
Flowers & plants
Geospatial data
Global temperature changes
Herbal medicine
Industrial applications
Medicinal plants
Medicine, Botanic
Medicine, Herbal
Packaged goods
Precipitation
precision agriculture
Protection and preservation
Strategic planning (Business)
wild harvest
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Summary:Over 80% of the global population addresses their primary healthcare needs using traditional medicine based on medicinal plants. Consequently, there's a rising demand for these plants for both household and industrial use at local, regional, national, and international levels. However, wild harvesting has negatively impacted natural ecosystems. Cultivating medicinal species has been proposed as a conservation strategy to alleviate this pressure. Yet, in this age of global climate change concerns, smallholder farmers' views on the benefits of such cultivation clash with the uncertainties of climate change impacts, amplifying their anxieties. In this context, the climate change dependence of ex situ cultivation of ten wild medicinal taxa with significant ethnopharmacological interest in Crete, Greece, were studied, projecting their potential habitat suitability under various future climate scenarios. The results demonstrated species-specific effects. Based on the potential cultivation area gains and losses, these effects can be categorized into three groups. We also outlined the spatial patterns of these gains and losses, offering valuable insights for regional management strategies benefiting individual practitioners.
ISSN:2079-7737
2079-7737
DOI:10.3390/biology12101327