More than one third of all people in developing countries do not have access to essential medicines. According to the World Health Organization, “the provision of safe and effective traditional medicine and CAM (complementary and alternative medical) therapies could become a critical tool to increase access to health care.” Furthermore, one quarter of modern medicines are made from medicinal plants first used in traditional healing practices. In North America, Europe and other industrialized world regions, more than half of the population has used alternative or complementary medicine at least once in their lives. In Canada, seventy percent of the population has used a natural remedy at some point in their life.1 Practice of traditional medicine and knowledge of medicinal plants, with the potential to help many both locally and globally, is declining throughout the Americas. REMEDIA is a not-for-profit organization that works in international partnerships to promote the revitalization of practices of traditional medicine through research, education, empowerment and media production.

1. World Health Organization