Background
Climate change is said to become a new disaster for human civilization.1 The climate change impact is multifaceted. A number of islands will drown due to the increase of the sea water level.2 Drought will occur in many countries.3,4 The number of infectious diseases will increase due to wide spread increase of disease vectors5,6 along with the increase of the number of non-transmitted diseases because of heat stress.7,8 The decrease of the tropical forest width causes an increase of the number of diseases leading to respiratory problems,9 and there will be diseases related to eyesight.10
Certainly, it must be acknowledged that the abovementioned impacts are not caused by climate change as single factor only. The spread of diseases, for example, is influenced not only by climate change but also by human mobility and the vulnerability of populations. Furthermore, climate change can be viewed not just as a cause but also as a consequence of disrupted diversity, leading to damage to the Earth's ecosystems on a broader scale.11 In this sense, this initial report discusses an impact that rarely receives attention, namely the potential loss of local traditions among ethnic groups living in unique environments due to biodiversity loss.
The WHO estimated that around 80 percent of the developing countries in the world still rely on traditional plants for health treatment and curing diseases.12 For a long time, in many countries, including Indonesia, there have been local ethnic people groups that have taken advantage of their surrounding environment for a variety of purposes, including for the treatment and protection of their health. Local wisdom which takes advantage of local plants becomes the tradition and identity attached to those ethnic groups. The practice of using plants for health and treatment is not through usual traditional knowledge; instead, it is attached to the world view and the belief system of every ethnic group13 which has been transmitted from one generation to the next.14 Because it is part of the local belief system that has been passed down through the years,15 every ethnic member has some kind of ”spiritual connection” even with the plants surrounding them.16
Although the loss of biodiversity including local plants has been known to occur for a long time,17 climate change has been proven to significantly accelerate this process.18,19 Consequently, what is lost is not just civilization’s physical structure but also the local wisdom as well as the unique identity of those ethnic groups.
Current Research
We are currently conducting research in two ethnic groups in Indonesia living in North Sumatra Province. The first ethnic group is the Mandailing peoples. They live in the southern part of North Sumatra Province mainly in an area that is full of trees and natural forests. This ethnic group has practiced using local plants to continue the tradition of warming postpartum mothers,20 and in East Asia, it is known as the tradition of ”doing the month.”21,22 This tradition, called marsidudu, has taken place for many generations. The women of the ethnic group usually apply marsidudu for a month by burning wood for fire which is then used to warm up the body of a mother and to bathe the postpartum mothers with warm water that has been added with spices containing local plants. Marsidudu is carried out because there is an assumption that the body of a postpartum mother is in a cold condition so that she needs heat intervention from outside her body. It is believed that by providing heat through fire and warm water, the postpartum mothers will recover faster and their health in the future will be better. One informant from this study stated that despite having given birth four times, she still felt healthy and refreshed after childbirth. In an interview segment, she explained,
Typically, after giving birth, as far as I know, a mother would feel body aches. That's what usually happens. But in my experience, there were no aches like that. In all four childbirths, I always did marsidudu. So, there were no body aches like that because I have compared it with others who have given birth and did not do marsidudu. They describe having body aches and being easily affected by ”wind” because, after giving birth, the body is sensitive.
Unfortunately, this tradition is endangered to become extinct due to the difficulties of the mothers to obtain wood and local plants. According to several informants, in the past those plants could easily be found around the yard of a house. However, recently those plants have become more and more rare. In order to obtain them, they have to find those plants and wood in a part of the forest further away.
The tradition of marsidudu for many postpartum mothers becomes a vital part of postpartum care. The belief in the benefits of marsidudu was revealed by the informants who stated that they learn the tradition from their mothers, and it is considered as a must to be conducted because they are the members of Mandailing ethnic group and is part of the cultural process showing their identity. Therefore, behind the practice of marsidudu by the Mandailing tribe, there is an effort to preserve identity, as carried out by other tribes in different places.23–25
The other ethnic group that we are observing currently is the Nias people who live in Nias Island, also located in North Sumatera Province, Indonesia. The separation of the island from the mainland of the Sumatra Island causes the ancestors of this ethnic group to develop local wisdom when their children suffer from fever.26 There is a belief that a child can be easily attacked by a disease due to being exposed to invisible spirits. What is unique from this ethnic group’s belief is that on the one hand they believe the causes of some diseases are the spirits, but on the other hand they also believe that nature provides a cure for those diseases. In the perspective of this ethnic group, nature provides goodness by providing beneficial plants to protect humans. These plants are boiled, given to children so they drink them, or used to expel spirits as the cause of the diseases. The increase in government health facility distribution and an increase in health worker numbers cannot erase the perspective of the local community that there are some diseases that cannot be cured by modern medicine treatment. The traditional treatment that has been taught by their ancestors is trusted and considered as a gift from God.
Recently, these types of medicinal plants have become scarcer. Several informants feel it is hard to obtain those plants as they have to go further and deeper into the wild of the island. The initial research information from two different tribes above indicates that something is happening to the local plants they have been using. It must be acknowledged that there is currently simultaneous and massive environmental damage occurring in Indonesia.27 However, previous researchers showed the increasing scarcity of plants essential to the local community suggests tangible impacts of climate change.28–30 So, considering that there is no significant forestry or mining activity in these two locations, the scarcity of local plants is likely indicative of climate change, upon which we should reflect.
These two ethnic groups, perhaps, just represent other ethnic groups globally that are experiencing environmental difficulties.31 In many parts of the world, not only in Indonesia, local plants are identified as part of the narrative of the local identity they have. The formation process of a narrative takes a considerable amount of time and involves social processes unlikely to be repeated. The endangered existence of these plants also threatens the loss of local wisdom related to the identity of those ethnic groups.
Conclusion and recommendations
This report may still be considered a preliminary analysis that needs further exploration. However, we must recognize the vast potential threat posed by climate change. Considering that tribes practicing traditional medicine are inseparable from their identity, the loss of these traditions indirectly erases their uniqueness. They are also in a precarious situation because, given the often inadequate access to healthcare services, traditional medicine is actually the best, and perhaps the only, option they have to maintain their health.
The two ethnic groups that were the case examples in this writing also show the unequal impact from climate change suffered around the world. In the Western world, efforts to save local plants have been conducted by identifying the benefits of these medical plants, which then leads to conservation and intensification policy.19 The same condition cannot be applied in remote areas and often does not become the public concern of a country. These ethnic groups have been in a marginal position for a long time, even when they are in the threatening condition of losing their identity because of suffering from this climate change impact.
We attempted to give attention to the ethnic groups located far from the economic and political growth centers so that they receive more equitable attention. We suggest that the United Nations include them in the list of the ethnic groups that need specific attention to protect them and other marginalized ethnic groups whose health and vitality depends on their local plant’s wisdom.
It must be acknowledged that health services with modern medicine are the best option. However, we must carefully consider this transformation process as these are tribes that have practiced traditional medicine for centuries. Mitigation in their lives should already be initiated by all parties so these tribes remain healthy, and at the same time, their traditional knowledge is not eroded. Especially because the spiritual connection that has existed all this time has bound them to the belief that the plants they use are not just for their health but also a gift from God to them. We are dealing with the loss of the wisdom of “spiritual connection” between humans and plants which has been built from one generation to another.
We need to do not only local rescue but also global rescue. Research is required to use the perspective of anthropology so that the relationship between humans and plants can reveal important narrations to become guidelines for the decision makers in the conservation and health fields. At the local level, plant conservation needs to be intensified but in its own habitat so that the nexus between humans and plants is not interrupted. Local inhabitants need to learn to build their own local wisdom by educating them to rescue important plants for health-promoting use.
One of the institutions capable of mediating both adaptation and mitigation at the local level is the Christian church.32 In the context of Indonesia, churches can convey unique and locally relevant messages to members in various communities, as exemplified in our previous research.33
Competing Interests
None declared.