The Menjong Sorig Pharmaceuticals Corporation Limited has started implementing Access and Benefit Sharing Policy with the community of Lingzhi. The agreement was signed with the three villages of Lingzhi recently.
Access and Benefit Sharing is the policy of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forests and it states that any genetic resources and local knowledge belong to the community.
In line with the policy, Menjong Sorig will share its revenue earned from the use of genetic resources, and local knowledge in a fair and equitable manner.
“If we happen to extract something for the commercial purposes like we talked about Rhododendron Anthopogon which we use to make hand sanitizer, which was introduced last year, we not only the pay price of the raw material, we also share five per cent of the revenue earned from the commercial with the local community,” said Thukten Choeda, the Chief Executive Officer for Menjong Sorig Pharmaceutical Corporation.
Today the Menjong Sorig Pharmaceutical Corporation has 19 traditional and herbal products for sale that include herbal tea, energizers, mind soothers and incense sticks.
Ashok Tirwa
