Opportunities and challenges that face those interested projects that link natural product chemistry, plant uses and conservation

Changes in land use, habitat loss, pollution and climate change are all factors that are contributing to a decrease in biodiversity. Stopping this decline is an important challenge. We are not only losing plant species that have potential to be developed as foods but also those that have medicinal and pesticidal properties. The development of DNA-based phylogenies has furthered our understanding of plant relationships and has provided robust frameworks onto which, geographical distribution, uses of plants as well as their chemistry can be superimposed. This enables us to identify families and species that justify further research. However, obtaining plants for this research can be a major challenge. The 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (Rio Summit) resulted in a series of international plants to support conserving plants for sustainable use, including the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). The CBD was the first international convention to state that a county has „sovereign rights“ over its genetic resources and that if these resources are used by others then any benefits that arise from this use should be shared. This has resulted in countries developing „Access and Benefit Sharing“ legislation that covers what a scientist needs to do before working on genetic resources but also what should happen if products are developed from the genetic resource. In some countries the use of traditional knowledge is also covered in this legislation. Many researchers are unsure as to which permits they need. In an age when we need to increase efforts to conserve plants and the traditional knowledge about their uses it is importance to not only protect the sovereign rights of countries but also facilitate mechanism that enable communities maximise the uses of their plant-resources. Including the identification of alternative species they might need if their flora changes through the influences of climate change.