How can ethnobiology and ethnomedicine foster more applied and concrete solutions to safeguard medicinal systems of indigenous, Afro-descendant and local communities?

Ethnobiology and ethnomedicine have progressively shifted from utilitarian inventories toward more decolonized and inclusive approaches. Beyond their recognized contributions to biodiversity conservation and sustainable development, their role in global health remains insufficiently explored. This short opinion paper argues that ethnobiology and ethnomedicine offer key conceptual and methodological tools to improve health and well-being among Indigenous Peoples, Afro-descendant and Local Communities (IPADLC) by promoting a holistic understanding of health that integrates ecosystems, human and non-human beings, territories, and spiritual dimensions. Drawing on concepts such as One Health, global health, planetary health, and the ecology of health, we highlight how local medicinal systems articulate multiple scales of care, from individuals to multispecies communities and ecosystems. We discuss the complementarity and hybridization between biomedical and local medicinal systems, emphasizing the importance of cultural safety, women's empowerment, and methodological reflexivity in the study and integration of traditional remedies. Finally, we address the critical challenges surrounding the protection of local medicinal knowledge, intellectual property rights, and fair benefit-sharing in the context of growing industrial interest. We conclude that strengthening ethically grounded, community-centered ethnobiological research is essential for building more equitable, plural, and sustainable global health systems.