Ethnobotany, conservation and sustainable development

Ethnobotany is the study and investigation of how people of a particular tribe, culture or region use native plants in that area. In terms of plant biodiversity, Iran is one of the richest regions in Southwest Asia. Iran is one of the leading countries in ethnobotanical knowledge, due to the variety of medicinal plants in the country; natives of different regions of the country use them to treat many patients. The purpose of this study is to review the studies done in this field, especially in the direction of sustainable environmental protection and management. The research method included searching for articles in Google Scholar using ethnobotanical and related keywords. The results showed that in all communities, documenting and maintaining indigenous knowledge about plants can be particularly effective in protecting biodiversity. In general, documenting indigenous knowledge, recognizing plants, protecting plants by cultivating them in botanical gardens or wild nurseries in habitats, training local people to correctly collect plant species and formulating appropriate harvesting practices are measures that can be taken for conservation from natural resources. Supporting local people and their knowledge in the form of active and profitable partnerships and as a result improving the economic conditions of local communities can be very effective in reducing direct harvesting from the habitat and preserving the environment.