Danna Leaman was a founding member of the Medicinal Plant Specialist Group (MPSG) in 1994, and has been the MPSG chair since 2000. She is currently also a member and Vice-chair of the SSC Plant Conservation Sub-committee. She holds a PhD in Biology from the University of Ottawa, Canada, for work on the human ecology of medicinal plant use in Apo Kayan Kenyah communities in Kalimantan (Indonesian Borneo). Her professional career has been a mix of work with development research agencies, conservation organizations, and consultancy work.

For the last few years, the MPSG’s major policy-directed work has been a partnership with WHO, WWF, TRAFFIC, and the IUCN Wildlife Trade Programme to revise the Guidelines on Medicinal Plant Conservation, originally published by WHO, IUCN, and WWF in 1993. The revision process has involved a global internet-based consultation in which more than 600 individuals and organizations have participated. Publication is anticipated for 2007. A project for the CITES Secretariat to revise the annotations for medicinal plants listed on the CITES appendices has just been completed.

Work on modes of production and consumption is directed towards the development and implementation of an International Standard for the Sustainable Wild Collection of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants (ISSCMAP), in partnership with WWF-TRAFFIC Germany, IUCN Canada, and the German Federal Agency for Nature Conservation (BfN). A working draft for implementation trials has been developed in collaboration with a broadly-based advisory group and field consultations.

Capacity for conservation status assessment of medicinal plants is currently strongest among the South Asian and Latin American members of the MPSG. While a global assessment of the conservation status of medicinal plants will be a massive undertaking, concrete plans for regional Red List training and medicinal plant conservation status assessment projects are underway, building toward a global assessment.