Over 80% of the global population addresses their primary healthcare needs using traditional medicine based on medicinal plants. Consequently, there's a rising demand for these plants for both household and industrial use at local, regional, national, and international levels. However, wild harvesting has negatively impacted natural ecosystems. Cultivating medicinal species has been proposed as a conservation strategy to alleviate this pressure. Yet, in this age of global climate change concerns, smallholder farmers' views on the benefits of such cultivation clash with the uncertainties of climate change impacts, amplifying their anxieties. In this context, the climate change dependence of ex situ cultivation of ten wild medicinal taxa with significant ethnopharmacological interest in Crete, Greece, were studied, projecting their potential habitat suitability under various future climate scenarios. The results demonstrated species-specific effects. Based on the potential cultivation area gains and losses, these effects can be categorized into three groups. We also outlined the spatial patterns of these gains and losses, offering valuable insights for regional management strategies benefiting individual practitioners.

Botanical Garden University of Crete Gallos University Campus 741 00 Rethymnon Greece

Department of Biology University of Crete 714 09 Heraklion Greece

Department of Biology University of Pisa 56126 Pisa Italy

Department of Botany Palacký University Olomouc 783 71 Olomouc Czech Republic

Department of Life Sciences University of Siena 53100 Siena Italy

School of Biology Aristotle University of Thessaloniki 541 24 Thessaloniki Greece

School of Medicine University of Crete 714 09 Heraklion Greece

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