Preserving Medicinal Plant Biodiversity: Climate Change Impacts, IUCN Red List Insights and Conservation Strategies

Abstract

Medicinal plants are a great source of active compounds that are used as raw materials to make medicines. They are also utilized extensively in phytotherapy and in food to help people maintain a healthy lifestyle. Beyond these factors, medicinal plants are a natural resource that is extremely important to the phytocenoses to which they belong. They help to maintain ecological balance and plant biodiversity. Plant species are either extinct or placed on red lists, which are categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature based on their sozological category, as a result of overexploitation, habitat fragmentation, climate change, and the introduction of invasive species. In order to preserve the equilibrium of the ecosystem, our study, which is an analysis of the specialized literature, outlines the primary threats to medicinal plants, the significance of protecting plant resources with therapeutic qualities, and some future perspectives that take into account the shared interests of all people in order to preserve the biodiversity of medicinal plants.