Background: Medicinal plants or herbal medicines have long been part of the healthcare systems of humanity. At least 80% of the population in all World Health Organization (WHO) regions report using herbal medicines, with that of the WHO African region being 87%, making access to herbal medicines a global health concern. However, these medicinal plants are also under threat from climate change, in part due to long periods of droughts affecting growth, yields and chemical components. This study aimed to identify the extent to which medicinal plants, herbal medicine and traditional medicine are recognized in climate change policy documents of Ghana and considered as part of resilient health systems.

Methods: We retrieved 21 policy documents on climate change with a focus on Ghana from relevant websites. The study used thematic content analysis to identify climate discourses around medicinal plants, herbal medicine and traditional medicine. In this policy analysis, a thematic content analysis was used to assess climate discourses in national policy documents. Key search terms included medicinal plants, herbal medicine and traditional medicine. The number of times that these terms were mentioned in the policy documents were counted. Two coders independently analyzed the content of the policies, with inter-rater reliability scores for medicinal plant being 0.880 (almost perfect agreement), herbal medicine” being 1.000 (almost perfect agreement), and traditional medicine being 1.000 (almost perfect agreement).

Results: Of the 21 climate change policy documents focusing on Ghana, only five mentioned medicinal plants, herbal medicine or traditional medicine. Overall, medicinal plants were mentioned only 12 times, with those of herbal medicine and traditional medicine being 2 and 4 respectively.

Discussion and Conclusion: Our analysis shows that medicinal plants are not proritised despite the negative impacts of climate change on medicinal plants and the resultant negative effects on access to healthcare, particularly in rural Ghana. There is a need for integrating impacts of climate change on medicinal plants into Ghana’s climate change policies to help create interventions to save the country’s medicinal plants and make herbal medicine practice become more resilient to climate change.