The
UWI Regional Headquarters, Kingston, Jamaica, Tuesday, July 7,
2020—Dr David Picking and
Professor Rupika Delgoda from the Natural Products Institute (NPI) at
The University of the West Indies (The UWI) Mona Campus are among a
group of experts featured in the international online journal, Nature
Plants.

In
an article published in June on the relation between COVID-19 and
Ethnobiology, The UWI scientists alongside other world-wide subject
matter experts question the impact of the pandemic on research in
ethnobiology—a key discipline for biological and cultural
conservation. The COVID-19 health pandemic has affected almost every
aspect of life across the globe and the authors conclude that
ethnobiological research is not excluded from its impact.

Dr
Picking and Professor Delgoda note that the questions posed in the
article are particularly significant for the Caribbean, which faces
health and food security threats and environmental degradation in the
context of both COVID-19 resilience and climate change.

In
the article, the researchers point to several issues including the
pandemic’s effect on indigenous communities, their traditional
knowledge, their subsistence or the management of natural resources
and the effect of the global crisis on interactions between
researchers and local communities. They cite, “given the role of
ethnobiology in the conservation, sustainability and ethical use of
bio-cultural diversity, the answers to these questions will be
crucial.”

The
article titled, Reshaping
the future of ethnobiology research after the COVID-19 pandemic
can be accessed at
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41477-020-0691-6.pdf