On the last day of the conference, 22 July, 2012, a policy dialogue entitled ‘Health and Nature: A Policy Dialogue on Ayurveda and Medicinal Plant Conservation’ will be held in the morning at Hotel Shanker.
Participation in this part of the conference is by-invitation only.
This dialogue falls within what is an emerging and dynamic field of study in medical schools, public health programs, and international health care development institutes in the United States, called global health diplomacy. It is an effort to bring together parties working in the still largely separate institutions of indigenous health care and environmental conservation in Nepal. This dialogue seeks to address ways in which health care and biodiversity conservation can be made co-equal partners. It also aims to make health care and conservation co-equal partners as well as facilitate policy-makers in considering new cross-institution linkages. An additional goal of the policy workshop is to identify practical ways in which Nepal’s popular and transforming Ayurvedic medical system, with its community of physicians, researchers, and drug manufacturers, can be better integrated into biodiversity conservation around medicinal plants.
This dialogue will look into what could be a highly productive endeavor as witnessed by the sheer breadth and intensity of environmentally-related activities engaged in by numerous governmental and nongovernmental organizations across the region. Potential partnerships might include supporting and developing local Ayurvedic clinics and practitioners in conservation development sites, and distributing sustainably harvested medicinal plants to Nepali Ayurvedic pharmaceutical companies. The successes and remaining problems with these sets of activities will be reported during the policy dialogue, and opportunities for new directions in linking health care through Ayurvedic medicine will be explored.
*This policy dialogue is organised by Mary Cameron, Professor of Anthropology, Florida Atlantic University, USA, mcameron@fau.edu, and supported by the US Embassy in Kathmandu.
