The following success story is centered around the successful collaboration between an NGO and the community to exploit the potential of medicinal plants to improve the financial situation of the people.

There was a great potential for sea buckthorn products in the Karambar valley but nothing had been done about it. Karambar valley is situated in the Ghizer district of the Northern Areas covering an area of 640 sq. km. Sea buckthorn grows there naturally.

Then in 2000 WWF-Pakistan went into that valley to implement its Integrated Conservation and Development Project. Realizing the untapped potential of sea buckthorn there, it decided to get local women involved in making products derived from this plant. Therefore it first mobilized the women of Imit, a village in the Karambar valley, into this line of thinking and then started a series of trainings aimed at giving them hands-on practice in making sea buckthorn jam.

These trainings went on for two years and then in 2002, these trained women started making sea buckthorn jam. WWF-Pakistan also trained master trainers who have gone out to train more women. In 2004 for example, 37 women were trained in this technique. Now about 12-15 women are actively involved in jam making. They prefer to make the jams in their own homes rather than at a communal place. They themselves pick the berries, buy the sugar, fill in the bottles and label them. When the bottles are ready they are put up in local shops, sent to the nearby village of Gakuch where KARINA also has medicinal plant product manufacturing plant, or even sent down to Gilgit where they are sold in specific shops. The cost of producing one bottle is between Rs. 20-30 and they are sold for Rs. 100 a bottle. In this way, many women have earned much needed extra income for themselves and their households. The quality of their jam is rated as very high by people who have had a chance to eat it.

It is worth mentioning that the WWF has also helped these women develop linkages with KARINA in Gakuch whereby they pick sea buckthorn berries and sell them to this government institute. This way they augment their incomes further. There are plans to expand the jam marketing further and cast a wider net for this very tasteful and healthy product.

The following example is that of the Alpine Medicinal Herbs and Rural Welfare Organization (AMHRWO) which is achieving success in various aspects of medicinal plant activities in the Northern Areas.

The AMHRWO was formed in 2001. Its purpose was to encourage the research, cultivation and use of medicinal plants from the Northern Areas and to alleviate poverty through sustainable use of these plants. Its President is Mr. Iqbal Hussain who was a prime force behind the creation of this NGO. It has many notables on its Board of Directors.

The organization has been doing various activities such as using demo plots with continuous monitoring, doing research on medicinal plants, documenting local knowledge. It has extended the cultivation of kuth from Astore to other areas such as Naltar. It has plans to extend it further. It has also started experimental farms of the black mushroom Morchella esculenta in Naltar and has plans of starting its cultivation on a commercial scale throughout the Northern Areas. It has also started the production of safflower seeds at its experimental farm and the NAFD has provided land for the cultivation and production of its seeds on a larger scale.

Furthermore, it has launched a project to establish a seed bank where quality seeds of local herbs will be collected and then distributed to the communities for farming at reduced rates. It is also developing a booklet of 50 important medicinal plants for the public.