**tŝůĚĂŶĚdƌĂĚŝƚŝŽŶĂů&ŽŽĚWůĂŶƚƐ**

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tŝůĚ ĂŶĚ ƚƌĂĚŝƚŝŽŶĂů ĨŽŽĚ ƉůĂŶƚƐ ĐŽŶƚƌŝďƵƚĞ ƚŽ ƐƚĂďŝůŝƚLJ ŽĨ Ăůů ƚŚĞ ƚŚƌĞĞĚŝŵĞŶƐŝŽŶƐ͘ **Figure 2.** The role of Wild and Traditional Food Plants in FAO's four dimensions for ensuring global food security.

#### *3.2. Overuse of Chemicals in Agriculture, Desertification, Land Degradation and the Need for Sustainable Agriculture*

The increased demand for nutritious, safe, and healthy food for the burgeoning human population and the promise to maintain biodiversity and other natural resources are posing a major challenge to agriculture that is already threatened by climate change and excessive use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides [25]. The excessive use of fertilizers has rendered soils unfit for agricultural purposes. Its long-term use has increased the salinity of the soils and reduced the total land available for cultivation of crops [37]. This problem of soil degradation is severe in tropics and subtropics, and it has led to decrease in the soil ecosystem services by 60% in the 60 years from 1950 to 2010 [38]. It has been reported that nearly 500 million hectares (Mha) of the land is affected due to the soil degradation in the tropics [39], and globally 33% of the total land is affected due to land degradation [40,41]. Besides affecting agronomic production, soil degradation can also slow down the economic growth of developing countries which are majorly dependent on agriculture [42]. The use of chemical pesticides has a deteriorating effect on the non-target beneficial insects such as honey bees [43–45]. Pesticides can affect bee populations directly by causing mortality and by altering their behaviour through sublethal effects. Sublethal pesticides also interfere with brood development and shorten the life cycle of adults [46]. An unusual phenomenon of the disappearance of bees from beehives was observed in the US in 2006 which was termed as colony collapse disorder (CCD) [43,47]. It has been established that many factors might contribute to CCD but pesticides play a synergistic role in this disorder [43,48,49]. Interestingly, organic beekeepers did not face such CCD-like situations [50]. Considering the importance of bees in pollination of the food crops, the increased use of pesticides can lead to reduced food production endangering our food security [50]. The fertilizer and pesticide runoff have also adversely affected quality of surface and groundwater [51]. Thus total land available for cultivation is reduced due to its degradation caused by various activities such as water and wind erosion, salinity, sodicity, alkalinity, reduction in soil fertility, and urban expansion [52]. The increase in productivity of land available using sustainable practices, conservation of the remaining land resources, and reclamation of the degraded land are some of the challenges in land use and sustainable agriculture [53–55].

Besides achieving zero hunger and improved nutrition, SDG2 also seeks to achieve sustainable food production systems (sustainable agriculture) through the implementation of resilient agricultural practices that increase productivity by maintaining the health of the ecosystems [56]. Through the intimate association with the plants and agriculture related activities, people have gained tremendous knowledge on the various aspects of agriculture and crops plants [57]. The knowledge ranges from the soil types, season of sowing a particular crop, the water and nutrient requirements, and other conditions which promote or limit crop productivity [58,59]. The knowledge also pertains to the diseases caused by pathogens and attack by pests and their management strategies [60,61]. The ethnobotanical knowledge is vast, not uniformly distributed, and locally suited as per the environmental conditions and the availability of particular crops [62,63]. In addition to the lack of proper documentation, researchers have suggested that increased modernization may have led to the loss of this knowledge in many places [64]. Turner and Turner [65] have ascribed some other reasons to this loss which include dynamism and changing knowledge systems, loss of indigenous languages, lack of time and opportunities for cultural practices, urbanization of indigenous people, globalization, and industrialization. These challenges in the world agriculture calls for the immediate attention not only to protect the knowledge base of the communities involved in ethnobotany in active sense but also to revive where it is dormant [24]. Rockstrom et al. [66] have stressed the necessity of identifying environmental conditions that enable prosperous human development and set limits for the planet to remain in that state. The study further suggests that the Holocene epoch provides a reference point when the naturally occurring environmental change was within the limits of earth's regulatory capacity and it helped our ancestors to develop agriculture and modern societies to prosper [66]. Therefore, efforts must be taken to

understand, preserve, and promote traditional agricultural knowledge locked with the indigenous communities encompassing wide range of domains of agriculture ranging from types of soils, diseases, environmental conditions, to the management of diseases, interventions required in the soils for disease prevention, irrigation, the types of genotypes, and their selection for a particular soil type [63]. Literature on linking of various domains on traditional agricultural knowledge is scarce [67], and it is advisable to take up studies that consider linking across domains of traditional agricultural knowledge. The knowledge of traditional and sustainable agricultural practices must be strengthened in the interest of the public and the planet; therefore, a greater role of traditional knowledge experts and the communities holding this knowledge is suggested [68–70]. Greater public participation, more funding, and scientific research must be promoted. Sustainable agricultural practices need to be followed which involve the minimal use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides. The reduced use of chemicals and promotion of sustainable agriculture will help combat climate change (SDG 13). Sustainable agriculture and climate resilient cultivation practices will further arrest and reverse land degradation caused by the rampant use of chemical fertilizers. This would also halt biodiversity loss especially the bees and other pollinator species, which is very important for crop diversification (SDG 15).

#### *3.3. Health and Wellbeing of the People: Blend of Traditional Knowledge and Modern Science*

Of the various uses of plants, medicinal plants used for human health and wellbeing are the most important because of the presence of specialized metabolites in those plants (SM's) [71]. Specialized metabolites with medicinal properties are non-uniformly distributed in certain families of plants, and these plants act as natural chemical factories for the production of SM's [72]. The SM's have promising health promoting effects and are an important source of many of the present-day drugs [73]. It has been suggested that medicinal plants play a major role in the primary health care of nearly 80 percent of people living in the developing countries [74]. Not only in the developing countries, but natural products and medications derived from them also contribute significantly to the health care systems of the remaining 20 percent of the people residing in developed countries [75]. Interestingly, of the 25 best-selling pharmaceutical drugs, 12 are natural products derived from the plants [76,77]. Ethnobotanists have significantly contributed to the discovery of numerous medicines such as artemisinin (from *Artemisia annua* L.), aspirin (from *Filipendula ulmaria* (L.) Maxim.), ephedrine (*Ephedra* spp.) codeine and papaverine (from *Papaver somniferum* L.), colchicine (from *Colchicum autumnale* L.), taxol (from *Taxus brevifolia* Nutt.), digoxin and digitoxin (from *Digitalis purpurea* L.), capsaicin (from *Capsicum* spp.), and tetrahydrocannabinol and cannabidiol (from *Cannabis sativa* L.), to name a few [71,78–80]. The importance of the discovery of Artemisinin was recognized when Tu Youyou, a Chinese scientist, was awarded Nobel prize in 2015 [81]. Further, a search on Google Scholar titled "wild plants as medicine" shows 216,000 results (between the years 2000–2020).

Indigenous and tribal communities use thousands of plants for medicinal purposes, many of them are not even botanically named, and many drugs of the plant origin are waiting to be discovered by modern science [82–84]. The famous anthropologist David Maybury-Lewis had emphasized the role of tribal communities in assisting the discovery of more and more medicinal plants which are used by them for medicinal purposes [85]. Ethnobotanists can expedite the identification process of probable medicinally valuable plants, and it is suggested that instead of undertaking random screening expeditions, clues and leads can be derived from the ethnobotanical knowledge that can ease the task of bioprospecting of the plants [86]. Garnatje et al. [6,71] suggested the term "ethnobotanical convergence" for the similar uses of plants included in the same node of a phylogeny. Although the term "ethnobotanical convergence" was criticized by Hawkins and Teixidor-Toneu [87], it is nevertheless believed that linking of new technologies with the traditional ethnobotanical knowledge can expedite the process of target-based drug discovery. Linking ethnobotany with other disciplines such as phytochemistry, pharmacology, pharmacognosy, and molecular biology can aid in the identification and screening of important plants for their promising role in treating diseases [88]. Furthermore, approaches such as genomics and omics can also be employed to identify the genes underlying the (specialized) metabolites present in the plants characterized by high throughput metabolomics approaches such as gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GCMS), liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LCMS) and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMR) [89,90]. The proper identification, utilization, and conservation of medicinal plants can assist in providing better alternative healthcare services in rural areas, especially in developing countries [91,92]. Furthermore, a number of wild medicinal and aromatic plants are highly valuable, and a significant proportion of the people consume them for medicinal purposes [93]. The scarcity of better health care systems ensuring healthy lives and promoting wellbeing of the people at all ages (SDG 3) in the developing countries of Asia and Africa underpins the importance of ethnomedicinal plants [91,92]. The upward trend of dependency on plantbased medicines, especially in the past few decades, suggests that the role of plant-based drugs will continue to grow in the coming years which may put pressure on the available medicinal plant resources. With the growing burden of diseases coupled with issues such as population growth and climate change, the discovery of plant-based medicines needs to be hastened using leads from indigenous communities in collaboration with experts from multiple disciplines.

#### *3.4. Ensuring Sustainable Consumption-Production Patterns Would Halt Biodiversity Loss*

Harvesting practices of wild plants are generally invasive and are destructive to the naturally occurring wild vegetables and medicinal plants which may pose serious threat to these important plants and if kept unchecked sometimes may lead to the extinction of some of the important species [94]. According to the World Wildlife Fund and International Union for Conservation of Nature, approx. 50,000 to 80,000 species of flowering plants are currently being used for medicinal purposes worldwide [95]. Nearly 15,000 of them are threatened with extinction due to excessive exploitation and habitat destruction [96]. The issues related to harvesting coupled with over-exploitation, over usage, and climate change necessitates the need for change in collection and consumption patterns. The collection and consumption patterns need to be congruous with the self-regeneration potential of wild genetic resources; therefore, ethnobotanists can play important roles in the conservation of genetic resources by providing feedback to the communities relying on collection and consumption of medicinal plants [97]. Several researchers have demonstrated the importance of ethnobotany in the conservation and management of natural resources. For example, Phillips and Gentry [98,99] have shown that the number of uses of a plant and its popularity can be used to indirectly access the harvesting pressure on a species and the roles of the communities involved in its usage. Bussmann [75] has also highlighted the role of ethnobotany in the conservation of biodiversity [75]. Ethnobotany can help conserve biodiversity by evolving achievable models for natural resource use and effective management that can be integrated into decision and policy making [100]. A case study from Southern Ecuador has stressed the need to include interdisciplinary approaches for the conservation of ethnomedicinal plants to prevent them from over harvesting. To reduce the pressure on wild plants, alternative methods can be adopted to propagate them. For example, the most popular herbal tea of Southern Ecuador is "Horchata" which consists of more than 30 medicinal herbs, and the harvesting of them directly from the wild may endanger their survival. Nowadays, these 30 ingredients are organically produced by local farmers in small managed gardens instead of directly collecting from the wild, thereby reducing the pressure on the wild populations [75]. Peters, Alexiades, and Laird [101] have suggested the need of imparting skills to the indigenous communities for the better management of the tropical forests. This would reduce the dependency on the external inputs and create a skilled workforce of local communities. Experts from various disciplines such as forestry, ecology, ethnobotany, economics, and anthropology can intervene and play a crucial role in managing the forests and other resources. Skills and knowledge of the best

practices such as how to grow, harvest, and consume wild vegetables and other resources in a sustainable manner (SDG 12) would also play a synergistic role in strengthening the community management of the valuable resources. Awareness programs at larger scale must also be integrated while training selected members of local indigenous communities to highlight negative effects of destructive harvesting practices. The sustainable consumption production patterns would further halt biodiversity loss (SDG15). Besides this, the conservation initiatives can be undertaken along with the help of conservation scientists, geneticists, and people's participation. Integration of traditional knowledge into ecological research for biodiversity conservation involving local communities holds the potential towards sustainable development [102], and it must be recognized and promoted [103,104].

#### **4. Conclusions**

The role of ethnobotanical knowledge, indigenous communities, and ethnobotanists has to be recognized on an urgent basis in realizing sustainable development goals. An international collaboration consortium deriving people from various countries and various fields can be established to reap the benefits of traditional ethnobotanical knowledge to alleviate poverty, end hunger, provide better healthcare facilities, combat climate change, and conserve biodiversity and solve biodiversity related issues. Digitization and the creation of universal databases of the usage of plants for various purposes as a global common can be initiated to disseminate information with regard to ethnobotanically important plants and the knowledge associated with it. The modern scientists can use these clues to further establish scientific reasoning, for example, to investigate which compound may be responsible for treating a particular disease; what the nutritional profile of a plant is; whether it can be recommended as a source of nutrition, and if yes, how much is sufficient. Thus, we call for strengthening ethnobotanical studies, and sufficient funding needs to be channeled for promoting research in this field in order to meet SDGs. This can be concluded with a quote by Dr. Margaret Chan (former Director General of WHO), "The two systems of traditional and Western medicine need not clash. Within the context of primary health care, they can blend together in a beneficial harmony, using the best features of each system, and compensating for certain weaknesses in each. This is not something that will happen all by itself. Deliberate policy decisions have to be made. But it can be done successfully" [105]. This holds true not only for the traditional medicines but also for other domains of traditional knowledge such as food plants, sustainable agriculture, biodiversity conservation, and climate change. Traditional knowledge can be supplemented with the modern advancements in science. This integrated approach involving a blend of traditional knowledge and modern advancements in science can contribute to achieving the SDGs if planned and implemented properly. These integrated approaches are in consonance with the SDG 17 (revitalize the global partnership for sustainable development) which emphasizes the importance of global partnership for achieving the rest of the 16 goals. We believe that ethnobotany research groups and societies from various parts of the world must initiate collaborations and partnerships among themselves and with other fields in a cross-disciplinary manner for realizing the sustainable development goals in the greater interest of people and the planet.

**Author Contributions:** A.K., S.K. and N.R.: conceptualization, methodology, writing—original draft preparation, review and editing, visualization; K., and P.S.: writing—original draft preparation, review and editing. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

**Funding:** This research received no external funding.

**Institutional Review Board Statement:** Not applicable.

**Informed Consent Statement:** Not applicable.

**Data Availability Statement:** All data generated or analyzed during this study areincludedin this publication.

**Acknowledgments:** We gratefully acknowledge the continuing support by Central University of Kerala and Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.

**Conflicts of Interest:** The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

#### **References**

