- Sri Lanka’s medicinal plants sustain health and livelihoods, yet overharvesting and habitat loss threaten their future
On 3 March each year, World Wildlife Day invites the world to pause and consider the species with which we share this planet. In 2026, the focus turns not to the charismatic species like elephants or leopards, who most often dominate our imagination, but to something quieter and often overlooked – the plants that form part of our daily lives.
This year’s theme, ‘Medicinal and Aromatic Plants: Conserving Health, Heritage, and Livelihoods,’ asks us to look down, into the soil and understorey, at the plants that scent our kitchens, line our medicine cabinets, and quietly sustain rural economies.
In Sri Lanka, this theme is not abstract. It is immediate and deeply rooted in everyday life. From the venivel decoction brewed for diabetes to the crushed leaves applied to a fresh cut in a village field, medicinal and aromatic plants sit at the intersection of tradition, biodiversity, and commerce. Yet they are also under growing pressure.
A biodiversity hotspot under strain
Sri Lanka is widely recognised as one of the world’s strongest biodiversity hotspots, a status that carries both pride and responsibility. “There are only 36 biodiversity hotspots in the world, which essentially implies that our endemism rate is really high,” said Wildlife and Nature Protection Society (WNPS) President Graham Marshall.
He added that our levels of biodiversity were on par with significantly larger islands like Madagascar. “If we have such representation, then indeed flora and fauna conservation is of absolute and essential importance.”
High endemism means that what grows here often grows nowhere else. It also means that when habitats are lost, species can disappear entirely.
“Habitat destruction is something we should really seek to avoid while fixing sensitive habitats,” Marshall noted, stressing that when discussing wildlife and conservation, the conversation must move beyond individual species and to securing livelihoods alongside conservation, as well as to striking a balance between education, income, infrastructure, and ecological integrity.
This balancing act becomes particularly complex when it comes to medicinal and aromatic plants, which are not only part of ecosystems but are also embedded in cultural practice and economic aspiration.
A pharmacy in the forest
Sri Lanka is home to approximately 1,500 medicinal plant species, according to Prof. Siril Wijesundara of the National Institute of Fundamental Studies (NIFS).
According to him, not all species are indigenous and not all are threatened, but many are harvested directly from the wild.
“Not all these plants are indigenous; we have lots of non-native plants as well. These plants are indiscriminately collected from the wild.”
He pointed to Coscinium fenestratum, locally known as venivel, as a clear example. “Venivel is widely used. Lots of people pick it directly from the rainforest, causing lots of problems for the native populations and the stability of the surrounding habitats,” he said, adding that bin kohomba, a rare indigenous plant, was also collected from the wild “indiscriminately, without scientific planning”.
Plant taxonomist and NIFS Research Fellow Dr. Himesh Jayasinghe underscored the scale of the threat. Referring to the 2020 Red List, he said: “More than 40% of Sri Lanka’s indigenous species are threatened. And with plant species, nearly all are under threat. That’s the issue.”
Among the most commonly harvested are venivel and aralu, especially in savannah habitats in districts such as Ampara. “People regularly collect them,” Dr. Jayasinghe noted.
“Normally, people collect threatened species from protected areas, which is illegal in and of itself, because removing species from a protected area is illegal, and added to that, the species being removed are also classified as threatened and in need of protection.”
Both Prof. Wijesundara and Dr. Jayasinghe stressed that the problem was not the use of medicinal plants per se, but the manner in which they were extracted. Poor harvesting practices, commercial demand, and weak enforcement combine to create a situation in which natural populations struggle to recover.
“The most important advice one can give is not to extract these plants from the wild without permission from the relevant authorities,” Prof. Wijesundara said, referencing the Fauna and Flora Protection Ordinance (FFPO) and Forest Ordinance as clear guidelines to follow before considering harvesting plants in any scale.
“Under the FFPO, no one can collect any plant, plant product, dead leaf, or dried leaf from natural vegetation without permission. You cannot transport them either.”
Yet, as he acknowledged, enforcement remains a challenge. “Neither the Department of Wildlife Conservation nor the Forest Department have sufficient resources and manpower to look into this,” he explained, adding that policing such harvesting became difficult, which in turn made it difficult to conserve natural populations fully.
The aromatic link
When speaking of aromatic plants, the distinction between fragrance and function quickly becomes clear. “Aromatic plants emit various compounds,” Prof. Wijesundara explained. “The aroma comes from essential oils or other organic compounds.”
He also noted that almost all aromatic plants, particularly in ayurveda and indigenous systems of healing, were also medicinal. “Almost all aromatic plants are medicinal. The most popular are the plants that have essential oils.”
From cinnamon species to lesser known savannah shrubs, these plants play roles in therapies, wellness products, and daily home remedies.
In many rural communities, knowledge of their properties is passed down informally. “When you’re in the field, if you get injured and bleed, one of the first things you do is crush some leaves and apply it on the wound,” Prof. Wijesundara said.
“You know that will stop the bleeding, especially in traditional villages,” he said, suggesting that such knowledge need not remain at the level of crushed leaves.
“Suppose instead of finding leaves and crushing and applying them on wounds, what if we develop an aerosol spray using that property of that plant? That can be an effective first aid tool. Combining traditional knowledge and modern techniques can open many avenues to make money.”
Industry and opportunity
Globally, the herbal industry is substantial. From traditional Chinese medicine to European herbal supplements, revenues run into billions of dollars annually. Prof. Wijesundara pointed to Malaysia as an instructive example.
“The herbal industry is one of the most lucrative businesses,” Prof. Wijesundara said. “Malaysia makes lots of money through the herbal industry, because the country’s Government introduced systems to support the industry and they recognised it as a high-tech industry.”
By formally recognising herbal products as part of a modern industrial sector, Malaysia set up a herbal commission and promoted private sector collaboration with academia. “Now they earn a lot of money,” he observed.
Sri Lanka, he argued, had comparative advantages. Unlike Malaysia, which is largely a wet-zone country, Sri Lanka includes dry and arid zones as well.
“We can grow some plants Malaysia can’t,” he said. “Some of our most important plants are found in the dry zone.”
However, he was quick to caution against equating industry development with the simple expansion of cultivation. “People mistake it for growing medicinal plants,” he said. “There’s a lot of value addition you can do.”
Dr. Jayasinghe echoed the need for formalisation. “When talking about medicinal plants, the main issue is poor harvesting,” he said. “It’s good to make it a more formal industry, to plant those species so people don’t collect them from the wild.”
At present, many of the medicinal plants used in Sri Lanka are imported from India, despite local demand.
“We have a market to be able to make the raw material here,” he said. “But it is still not developed sufficiently.”
Formal plantation systems, he argued, would ease pressure on natural habitats while strengthening domestic supply chains. “Biodiversity of natural habitats can then be better conserved, and then we can achieve [the creation of medicinal plant] plantations as well.”
Livelihoods and legitimacy
Any move towards cultivation and commercialisation must also address governance and transparency. Prof. Wijesundara noted that sometimes plants collected from the wild were passed off as privately grown.
He recalled a case involving aquarium plants seized at Customs, where exporters claimed they came from private collections but inspection revealed otherwise. “As long as there are proper places to grow them outside the native habitat, it is fine,” he said. “But sometimes people collect them from the wild and say they are from a private source.”
Prof. Wijesundara also suggested the need for authentic, registered private growers working in coordination with the Department of Wildlife Conservation or Forest Department. Without such systems, he warned that wild harvesting would continue under the guise of legality.
At the same time, both researchers emphasised the role of home gardens. “There are certain species that can be planted in home gardens,” Dr. Jayasinghe said. “If they are required for use, it’s better to have these plants in home gardens.”
Prof. Wijesundara similarly encouraged cultivation from legal sources such as medicinal plant nurseries or the Department of Indigenous Medicine. “Don’t go and take it from the forest,” he said. “Grow it yourself.”
For Marshall, these practical steps sit within a broader framework of community-centred conservation. “When talking about wildlife, we have to always bring in community and livelihoods, and we have to ensure that livelihoods are also secured, enhanced, and not deterred.”
Conservation, in this sense, cannot be imposed as a restriction without providing alternatives. It must integrate income generation, access to infrastructure, and education. Only then will communities have both the incentive and the capacity to protect habitats.
A day to look closer
World Wildlife Day 2026 offers a platform to reflect on these layered realities.
The global statistics are sobering. More than 20% of medicinal and aromatic plants used worldwide are considered threatened. Around 50,000–70,000 species are harvested globally. Nearly 1,300 are listed under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), with over 800 in Appendix II.
Yet beyond the numbers lie local stories. In Sri Lanka, a decoction simmering on a stove, a handful of dried aralu in a jar, or a strip of venivel bark steeped in water connects households to forests. The question is whether those forests will continue to regenerate.
The path forward appears to require three parallel commitments. First, strict adherence to existing laws that prohibit unauthorised collection from natural habitats. Second, the expansion of formal cultivation and value-added industries that reduce pressure on the wild while generating income. Third, the protection and restoration of habitats, recognising that species cannot survive in isolation.
As Marshall put it, conservation is “of absolute and essential importance” in a country with such high endemism. For Prof. Wijesundara and Dr. Jayasinghe, the challenge is to shift from extraction to stewardship and from informal use to structured development.
World Wildlife Day is often marked by images of charismatic fauna. This year, perhaps, the more urgent image is of a small climber in a rainforest understorey, or a shrub in a dry zone savannah, quietly producing compounds that sustain health and heritage alike.
Protecting these plants demands attention not only on 3 March, but in the policies we shape, the gardens we cultivate, and the choices we make about where our remedies come from.