Ethnic people introduce medicinal herbs

Do Thi Thu Ha, born in 1976 in Hanoi has graduated from the faculty of Flora Conservation of the Hanoi University. Since then, she has been working for Frontier, a UK non-governmental organization.

In 2002, she was appointed a coordinator of a project to develop medicinal herbs in Sapa, Lao Cai northern province. The project funded by the New Zealand Agency for International Development and the EU aimed to improve the living standards of people of ethnic minority groups and ensure the sustainable development in the region by growing medicinal herbs in mountainous areas.

After three years, the project saw positive results. Some endangered plants were preserved. Plants which had once regarded as wild ones became spices of high economic value and helped increase local people’s income to that even higher than growing the traditional herbs. This in turn encouraged more people to be engaged in the business.

In addition, scientific researches prove that these plants can cure many common diseases in modern society.

Thanks to the achievements, an association of indigenous medicinal herbs was founded in Sa Pa to run the production, trade, processing and marketing of herbal medicines. The Association also ensure the intellectual property protection for the project’s products.

In 2005, Ha founded a limited company named Sa Pa medical plant in order to preserve rare and valuable spices and raise incomes for local farmers in Sa Pa.

Since then, the company has tried to develop markets at home and abroad. It is now seeking partners to sell medicinal herbs to Australia, New Zealand, Japan and the Republic of Korea.

Several foreign pharmaceutical companies have asked to buy intellectual property rights of her company to manufacture herbal medicines on large scale.

For its social achievements, her company has recently received the 2007 SEED award (Supporting Entrepreneurs for Environment and Development).

Ha believed that the model of growing medicinal herbs in Sa Pa will be replicated in other areas in Northern provinces to bring about considerable changes to living conditions of ethnic people.

Ha’s Herbal Healing project is the only Vietnamese one among the 12 finalist projects nominated for the World Challenge 2007 prizes. Votes for the best project will take place on November 17 .

For this social significance and meaning as well as for the value of medicinal herbs, visit http://theworldchallenge.co.uk/voteform.php and vote for ‘Herbal Healing’ project.

Source: TP

Translated by Duy Minh