The American Botanical Council (ABC) has presented its ABC Champion Award to Mark Plotkin, an ethnobotanist, conservationist, and president of the Amazon Conservation Team, a nonprofit organization that works with indigenous people of tropical South America to conserve their land and culture, as well as the biodiversity of the Amazon rainforest.
 
The award, which was introduced in 2015, recognizes individuals who have donated time or funds to support ABC’s nonprofit research and educational mission, publications, and programs.
 
Plotkin has been an active member of ABC’s advisory board since its formation in 1996, and has peer-reviewed and authored articles in HerbalGram, ABC’s quarterly journal. Some of his articles include “Notes on the Ethnobotany of Warfare” in issue 101 in 2014, as well as two cover articles, “The Ethnobotany of Wine as Medicine in the Ancient Mediterranean World” in issue 129 in 2021, and “The Mushroom Moment” in issue 139 this year.
 
Plotkin has also written book reviews, including a review of “The Immortality Key” and “Seeing through the Smoke.”
 
“It is a great honor to receive this award from the American Botanical Council,” Plotkin wrote. “Without question, ABC and its magazine HerbalGram are the leaders in providing accurate, intelligible, and compelling information, not only to the herbal community but to the world at large. As ever, I salute ABC’s efforts and those of its visionary and indefatigable leader Mark Blumenthal.” 
 
Plotkin has studied traditional indigenous plant use with elder shamans in Central and South America for over 40 years. He has carried out most of his research with the Trio/Tiriyó indigenous people of southern Suriname in northeastern South America, as well as shamans spanning from Mexico to Brazil.
 
Plotkin has worked with several organizations dedicated to conservation and awareness of the natural world. He was a research associate in ethnobotanical conservation at Harvard University’s Botanical Museum, director of plant conservation at the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), vice president of Conservation International, and research associate at the Smithsonian Institution’s department of botany. He co-founded the Amazon Conservation Team with his fellow conservationist and wife Liliana Madrigal in 1996.
 
He has co-authored several books and scientific publications, such as “Tales of a Shaman’s Apprentice,” which inspired the documentary “The Shaman’s Apprentice” that was directed by Miranda Smith. Plotkin also played a lead role in Kieth Merrill’s 1997 IMAX documentary “Amazon.” Plotkin’s children’s book, “The Shaman’s Apprentice: A Tale of the Amazon Rain Forest,” co-authored and illustrated by Lynne Cherry, was described in Smithsonian magazine as “the outstanding environmental and natural history title of the year.”
 
Plotkin also wrote “Medicine Quest: In Search of Nature’s Healing Secrets,” “The Killers Within: The Deadly Rise of Drug-Resistant Bacteria,” and, most recently, “The Amazon: What Everyone Needs to Know.”
 
TIME magazine named Plotkin an environmental “Hero for the Planet” in 1999. His work has been featured in a PBS NOVA documentary and Emmy-winning Fox TV documentary, on the NBC Nightly News and Today show, on CBS’ 48 Hours, and in Life, Newsweek, Smithsonian, Elle, People, and The New York Times, along with appearances on National Public Radio. In 2005, Smithsonian magazine’s 35th anniversary issue profiled Plotkin as one of “35 who made a difference.” In 2007, he was honored with the Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden’s Wildlife Conservation Award. And, in 2008, Plotkin and Liliana Madrigal were awarded the Skoll Foundation’s prestigious Award for Social Entrepreneurship.
 
In 2010, Plotkin received the honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters from Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Oregon, and primatologist/anthropologist Jane Goodall, PhD, presented Plotkin with an award for International Conservation Leadership.
 
The Harvard Extension Alumni Association presented Plotkin with the Michael Shinagel Award for Service to Others in recognition of his conservation efforts in the Amazon.
 
“While ABC is deeply grateful to its members, friends, and colleagues for the wide variety of ways that they support ABC’s nonprofit mission, this year it was clear to us that Mark Plotkin is highly deserving of special recognition,” said Mark Blumenthal, founder and executive director of ABC. “Mark is the kind of guy who has called me over the years and asked, ‘What can I do to help you and ABC?’
 
“While many ABC friends respond to our requests for assistance, donations, etc., few people actually go out of their way to offer, to volunteer to help. Mark Plotkin actually does that. He initiates conversations about helping ABC and our mission, and his assistance is a compelling part of ABC’s educational content.”
 
Previous recipients of the ABC Champion Award include Christine Burdick-Bell, executive vice president, general counsel, and corporate secretary at Pharmavite (2023); Steven Foster, a botanist, photographer, and author (2022); Jerry Cott, PhD, a former Food and Drug Administration psychopharmacologist (2021); Thomas Brendler, PhD, founder of the consulting firm PlantaPhile (2019); Jim Emme, CEO of NOW Health Group (2018); Dick Griffin of Griffin Insurance Services (2017); Josef Brinckmann, a medicinal plant expert at Traditional Medicinals and current chairman of ABC’s Board of Trustees (2016); Ed Smith, co-founder of Herb Pharm (2015); and Terry Lemerond, founder of EuroPharma, Inc. and Enzymatic Therapy (2014).