On Oct. 16, the CIP and National Research and Institute of Chinese Medicine under the Ministry of Health and Welfare hosted the “Seminar on Traditional Indigenous Medical Treatment and Medicinal Plants” in the international conference hall located on the second floor of the National Research and Institute of Chinese Medicine. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the seminar was held both online and live.

Several professional, public, and academic sector experts were invited to the seminar to share cases related to The Indigenous Peoples Basic Law and intellectual property right protection; and in regards to the development of indigenous peoples’ tribes and medicinal plants, how to strengthen indigenous peoples’ traditional medical treatment and traditional medical knowledge. Additionally, to enable seminar participants to learn from foreign experiences, scholars familiar with the indigenous cultures of New Zealand were invited to present the similarities and differences between New Zealand and Taiwanese medicinal plants.

CIP Deputy Minister Afas Falah noted that the protection and preservation of indigenous peoples’ knowledge and cultures is one of the most crucial topics worldwide, and that the wealth of traditional medical cultures and medicinal plant knowledge possessed by Taiwan’s indigenous peoples must be carefully protected and preserved. To prevent such precious cultures from fading away, the CIP focuses on cultivating talents, creating traditional medical knowledge databases, performing field studies, and assessing the safety and activity of indigenous medicinal plants as means of rejuvenation.

Ms. Afas emphasized that the R&D results of relevant projects are expected to increase the value of indigenous peoples’ traditional medicinal plants and elevate the output value of indigenous people’s cash crops, thereby improving indigenous people’s economic conditions. In the future, the CIP will also apply for related patents and set benchmarks for various research evaluations to develop new plant medicine and functional health food.