Library guides: Natural and Complementary Medicine: Conservation and botany

Essential reading

Traditional, complementary and alternative medicine : policy and public health perspectives by Bodeker, Gerard & Burford, Gemma
Call Number: 362.1 TRAD
Publication Date: 2007
The lost language of plants : the ecological importance of plant medicines to life on earth by Buhner, SH
Call Number: 615.32 BUHN
Publication Date: 2002
Biopiracy: the plunder of nature and knowledge by Vandana Shiva
Call Number: KC 236.2 SHIV 2016
Publication Date: 2016 (new edition)

Botany

Australian National Botanic Gardens and the Centre for Australian National Biodiversity Research
Specifically focuses on education, horticulture, collection management, biodiversity, herbarium, databases and images.
Australian Plant Image Index
The Australian National Botanic Gardens, jointly with the Australian National Herbarium, manages a large collection of photographs and other illustrations of its activities and Australian botany. The bulk of the collection consists of identified Australian plant species, but there is also a large number of environmental and conservation images.
Botanicus
A freely accessible online encyclopedia of digitised historic botanical literature from the Missouri Botanical Garden Library. Author, title, date and subject browsing options are available.

Conservation

Bioneers
A non-profit association founded upon three principal streams of work: biological and cultural diversity, biomimicry, and natural medicine
Botanic Gardens Conservation International
BGCI is a membership organisation, representing botanic gardens in more than 100 countries around the world. It is a charity established to link the botanic gardens of the world in a global network for plant conservation.
CITES (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora)
An international agreement between governments. Its aim is to ensure that international trade in specimens of wild animals and plants does not threaten their survival.
International Union for the Conservation of Nature
IUCN is a democratic Union that brings together the world’s most influential organisations and top experts in a combined effort to conserve nature and accelerate the transition to sustainable development.
Red List
The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species is widely recognised as the most comprehensive, objective global approach for evaluating the conservation status of plant and animal species
United Nations Environment Program
UNEP lists seven priorities in their focus on the environment: climate change, disasters and conflicts, ecosystem management, environmental governance, chemicals and waste, resource efficiency, and environment under review.
United Plant Savers
UPS is committed to the protection of native medicinal plants of the United States and Canada and their native habitat while ensuring an abundant renewable supply of medicinal plants for generations to come. UPS also publishes a list of wild medicinal plants which are at risk because of the impact of human activities.

Hot Topics

Protecting health from climate change : global research priorities by WHO
Weather and climate affect the key determinants of human health: air, food and water. They also influence the frequency of heatwaves, floods and storms as well as the transmission of infectious diseases. In addition, policies to mitigate climate change (for example in the energy, transport or urban planning sectors) have a direct and important influence on health, for example through effects on local air pollution, physical activity, or road traffic injuries.