Medicinal Plants Conservation Project

Welcome to the Medicinal Plants Conservation Project!

The Medicinal Plants Conservation Project (MPCP) is a national project that aims at examining and eliminating the root causes to the loss in biodiversity and addressing the threats to the conservation and sustainable use of medicinal plants in Egypt through a number of interventions, while at the same time empowering the Bedouin community to use and manage its resources in a sustainable manner.

The project is developing the capacity of the Bedouin community to cultivate and sustainably harvest wild Medicinal and Aromatic Plants (MAP) in abandoned orchards and gardens inside the nature protectorate, and to conduct the necessary processing as well as to inform people of the benefits from their production in commensurate with the tourist nature of the region.

Through participatory approaches (with special emphasis on the inclusion of women) and adaptive management that have led to the successful establishment of a Community Based Natural Resources Management (CBNRM) system by which the SKP Bedouins share control over the MAPs; this component of the project also garners tangible community benefits that incentivize the sustainable use and management of these globally significant resources. In addition, the project has established and is operating several sub-projects that help to achieve project outcomes including in-situ and ex-situ conservation, public awareness, and biodiversity education.

The Medicinal and Aromatic Plants of St Katherine Protectorate

St. Katherine is one of world's most amazing areas, not only for its natural landscape, but also for its medicinal plant diversity that is attracting national and global interest. With its high mountains and deep valleys in the southern Sinai Peninsula and its relatively unexplored desert ecosystem of flora and fauna, the St. Katherine Protectorate is a truly amazing, unique and important area.

The global significance of species found in the St. Katherine’s Protectorate is not only related to the uniqueness of flora and habitat, but also due to use value. At least 47% have medicinal, aromatic, cosmetic or culinary uses, in addition to being used as fodder or fuel.

While previous plant inventories recorded 529 plant species within the boundaries of the protectorate, only 316 plant species were recorded, of which 33 species are endemic. Additionally, the disappearance of, or at least the difficulty to locate, 213 species confirms that the medicinal plants face a growing danger of damage and in the worst case extinction, which in turn will affect the global plant biodiversity.

The Bedouin communities who live in the St. Katherine Protectorate have developed an extensive knowledge over the past millennia of the various ways in which medicinal plant species can be used. This in turn has formed a part of their integral economic value while living in a delicately balanced environment.

Browse our database and find out more about the MPCP and its activities; such as latest news, handmade Bedouin products, education and awareness programs, and our accomplishments through the position papers. Lastly, the project team wishes you an inspiring and educational stay on our website!