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Paper short abstract

This paper explores how climate change and deforestation have impacted traditional medicinal healers' ability to provide healthcare. We examine “forest health” to understand how forest loss is impacting traditional medicine as primary care, and by extension, loss of Indigenous science knowledge.

Paper long abstract

As forest ecosystems undergo increasing change from anthropogenic climate change, it is urgent to document changes in biodiversity to understand how medicinal plant habitats are impacted by these forest disturbances. In India’s Meghalaya state 90% of the rural population depends on traditional healthcare, and forest loss can mean loss of medicinal plant pharmacies. Poverty reduction initiatives and development projects have accelerated forest loss through mining, monocropping, and overharvesting. These impacts have catalyzed medicinal plant extinctions and between some 20-25% of Meghalaya’s existing plant species are endangered. Mining has been especially harmful: toxic runoff from limestone, coal, and uranium mining have degraded rivers and forests.

From 2024-25, our Khasi and multinational team documented forest change from traditional healer (Nongsumar) perspectives. We learned that the decrease in overall forest health of Meghalaya’s SWKH district can be attributed to deforestation (90%), “dryness” (loss of water sources and reduced moisture) (50%), and overharvesting (30%). Nongsumar were reluctant to attribute negative impacts on “forest health” (biodiversity/plant community capacity to adapt to changes) to jhum (swidden) agriculture, because activities support livelihood. However, Nongsumar universally agreed that the growing problem of “forest dryness” was increasingly urgent. Our paper centers Indigenous healers’ lived observations of changes in climate and forest ecosystems (3-4 decades). We argue that overall impacts on “forest health” contribute to a feedback loop wherein decreased access to forest pharmacies leads to loss of Nongsumar ability to provide medical care, and thereby loss of Indigenous science knowledge.