Volume 4, Number 1 | Spring 2009

Editorial
Biodiversity, Culture, Environment and Traditional Medicine
Traditional medicine in many countries uses materials that exist in nature, such as plants, animals,and minerals, as ingredients. In most cases, these ingredients rely on biogenetic resources that are available
in the respective country.
The adoption of the Convention on Biological Diversity (known informally as the Biodiversity Treaty)
in 1992 led to a major change in awareness of the significance of biogenetic resources as “common resourcesof mankind.” With COP10 scheduled to be held in Nagoya in October 2010, resource-rich countries, inparticular, have begun to lay claim on their resources, limit access to them, seek profit, and demand
disclosure of the country of origin of resources in patent applications. As the agenda of COP10 is expected
to focus on access to biogenetic resources and benefit-sharing in addition to biodiversity conservation, aworking group on access and benefit-sharing (ABS Working Group) is actively holding meetings to discuss
the issue among member countries. The next meeting, which is scheduled to be held in November 2009 inMontreal, will aim to create a final proposal for reaching an agreement on a new international regime foraccess to biogenetic resources and benefit-sharing at COP10.
Access to biogenetic resources and benefit-sharing are mutually complementary. Therefore, it isnecessary to formulate a medium to long-term action scenario (biogenetic resources strategy) that promotes
coexistence and co-prosperity among all countries based on a multifaceted examination of the basic rulesof access and benefit-sharing.
Amid this global trend in biogenetic resources, China is currently striving to register traditional
Chinese medicine on the UNESCO List of Intangible Cultural Heritage. Korea is doing the same with its
traditional Korean medicine. These actions are important strategies for preserving one’s national culture
and communicating it to the world. Since culture also encompasses the seeds of intellectual property suchas copyrights and patents, it cannot be brushed aside from the perspectives of economic and industrial
policies and strategies, either.
Modern Western medicine, which forms the foundation of today’s medical practices in industrialized
nations, is premised on a consumer society characterized by mass production and mass consumption.
Moreover, at the frontline of medical treatment, it places top priority on lifesaving. Therefore, while there
may be constraints regarding the deployment of human resources, the utilization of Earth’s resources, nomatter how large, is essentially a non-issue if it means saving lives. This is one reason why many healthcare
workers exhibit hardly any interest in environmental issues.
People’s lives, however, cannot completely depart from the Earth’s ecosystem to which they belong.
As long as mankind lives on Earth, people can only live within the bounds allowed by Earth’s environment.
Based on this awareness, countries around the world are taking active interest in environmental issues
including CO2 reduction, and are examining and exploring new ideas and measures such as slow life, slow
food, zero emission, and antidotes to financial and industrial crises, toward an environmentally andeconomically sustainable recycling society. It is only a matter of time until the sustainability of healthcare
per se will also be called into question.
It is natural that the sustainability of healthcare should be questioned based solely on the existing
practices of modern Western medicine founded on the premise of a consumer society. However, I wish tointroduce a concept I call “eco-medicine”—a word I created by combining “ecological,” “economical,” and“medicine”—and propose a study into whether traditional medicine could in fact be regarded as ecomedicine.

Naoya Ono
Department of Health Informatics, Division of Health Administration
School of Public Health, Graduate School of Medicine, Kyoto University, Kyoto, JapanThe Journal of Kampo, Acupuncture and Integrative Medicine (KAIM)

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