Objectives
The overall objective of the project is to
improve livelihoods in rural areas through sustainable use, conservation,
management, and marketing of herbal and medicinal plants in southern Tunisia.
The project’s specific objectives are to:
- Conserve, manage, and sustainably use, both in situ
and ex situ, medicinal, herbal and aromatic plants in arid and
semi-arid areas;
- Institutionally strengthen
collaborating partnerships to form a coalition of stakeholders, i.e.
scientific research institutes, extension services, universities, NGOs,
industry, etc. to add value to medicinal, herbal and aromatic plants
through processing, chemical analysis and marketing;
- Improve public awareness of
the importance of medicinal plants and build on traditional knowledge and
cultural heritage;
- Prepare a national database
on indigenous medicinal and herbal plants, starting with southern Tunisia,
with a view to assess their use and status within key ecosystems.
- Strengthen plant data base
and disseminate research findings resulting from the project and progress
in product development by a) development of a project website b)
attendance of project scientists at national and international meetings,
c) participation of project scientists in exchange visits and scientific
capacity building efforts (e.g. graduate student and scientist
postgraduate training) and d) publication of research results generated
from the project in peer-reviewed scientific publications.