This oral jelly dissolves quickly and get absorbed in the body and start viagra in italy to show their effects within 20-30 minutes of utilization. In men, this can result in cialis prices penile tissue to swell. Some people will start seeing the results after 20 minutes, while some will get the results after consuming Neogra cheap viagra sales Oral Jelly and result will last up to 48 hours. No amount of rest makes the person weak but as it arrive it brings in a lot of tension and stress to the viagra samples reference man as it has a large impact on the health of the man.
1
Medicinal plants
and conservation:
issues and
approaches
Alan Hamilton
Co-ordinator, People and Plants Initiative, and
Member, Plants Conservation Committee and
Medicinal Plants Specialist Group, IUCN
2003
International Plants Conservation Unit, WWF-UK
Panda House, Catteshall Lane
Godalming, Surrey GU7 1XR, UK
2
ABSTRACT
Many types of action can be taken in favour of the conservation and sustainable use of
medicinal plants. Some of these are undertaken
directly at the places where the plants are
found, while others are less ‘direct’, such as
some of those relating to commercial systems,
ex
situ
conservation and bio-prospecting. In the la
tter cases, actions taken will not lead to
in situ
conservation unless they ‘feed back’ to improveme
nts in the field. Progress is hampered at
present by a shortage of good quality information av
ailable in forms that can easily be used by
relevant parties.
Probably the single most important ‘role’ for me
dicinal plants in biological conservation is
their ‘use’ to achieve conservation of natural
habitats more generally. This stems from the
special meanings that medicinal plants have to
people, related to the major contributions that
they make to many people’s lives in terms
of health support, financial income, cultural
identity and livelihood security. Under the right ci
rcumstances, these valu
es can be translated
into incentives for conservation of the habita
ts in which the medicinal plants are found.
Realisation of this potential w
ill depend greatly on the existence of assured rights of access to,
and use of, the plants by those members of
communities whose lives are most closely bound
to them.
Problems associated with biopiracy or (the othe
r side of the coin) excessive restrictions on
research have come to assume ‘policy prominence’
in the general thematic area of ‘medicinal
plant conservation and use’. The fair and equita
ble sharing of benefits from bioprospecting is
required under the Convention on Biological Diversity, but it is not always easy to achieve
these ideals in practice. This is particularly so
with regard to benefits for conservation and
compatible development at the places where the
plants are naturally found. Improvements in
the standards of research agreements are lik
ely to be made gradually as experience
accumulates. What is important, at the present
time, is that controls imposed on scientific
research to prevent biopiracy or theft of lo
cal and indigenous intellectual property do not
unduly restrict research that has little or nothing
to do with these matters or that, in some
cases, may even have the potential to cont
ribute to improved management and livelihoods.
There is already evidence that some countries
and territories have created restrictions on
research that may cause damage to the causes of
conservation and sustainable development.
ROLES FOR MEDICINAL PLANTS IN CONSERVATION
The special significance of medicinal plants in
conservation stems from the major cultural,
livelihood or economic roles that they play in many people’s lives. Several themes
consistently arise in the various sets of reco
mmendations that have been compiled relating to
the conservation of medicinal plants, such as t
hose associated with international conferences
at Chiang Mai, Thailand, in 1988 and Bangalo
re, India, in 1998 (www. frlht-india.org)
(Akerele, Heywood & Synge, 1991; Bodeker, 200
2). They include: the n
eed for co-ordinated
conservation action, based on both
in situ
and
ex situ
strategies; inclusion of community and
gender perspectives in the development of po
licies and programmes; the need for more
information on the medicinal plant trade; the
establishment of systems for inventorying and
monitoring the status of stocks of medicinal pl
ants; the development of sustainable harvesting
practices; encouragement for micro-enterp
rise development by indigenous and rural
communities; and the protection of traditional resource and intellectual property rights.
3
Because so many species of plants are medicina
l, medicinal plant conservation is, in some
ways, a microcosm of plant conservation as a
whole. Similar questions arise concerning
identification of the most significant issues and
most effective approaches. This is especially
so given that, just because a sp
ecies has been used somewhere
medicinally, it does not follow
that it is so used everywhere and at all tim
es. There may be good reasons, for the purpose of
genetic conservation, to conserve
particular populations of ‘medicinal plants’, even though
their designation as such carries little or no mean
ing to people living in
the neighbourhood.
The challenges facing conservationists are then si
milar to those encountered with other groups
of plants singled out by ‘plant conservationi
sts’ as special, but which lack any special
significance to local people, such as, commonl
y, many ‘threatened’ species and wild crop
relatives.
There can be aspects of medicinal plant con
servation which ‘plant conservationists’ can
pursue, working largely outside the normal dyna
mics of people/plant relationships. Work of
this type can sometimes be found, for instan
ce, associated with seed-banks, information
systems or ‘totally protected’ nature reserves.
The fact that efforts are made in favour of
medicinal plants, rather than plants of any
other type, is incidental, except as regards the
criteria used for the initial sel
ection of species for attention.
Most work by conservationists on medicinal pl
ants should be with those people who own,
manage or make use of these species, or else ow
n or manage the land on which they grow. It
is in working with such stakehol
ders that the special meanings of medicinal plants to people
can best be ‘exploited’. Billions of people in th
e world rely chiefly on herbal medicine, while
millions gain income from their wild harvest or
cultivation, or are involved in their trading or
processing. Medicinal plants are symbolically
significant in many cultures, often being seen
as sources of power. My experience over the year
s, working for WWF, is that medicinal
plants hold more fascination for the British public
than any other facet of the botanical world.
Probably, the single most important ‘role’ for me
dicinal plants in biological and ecological
conservation stems from the foundations that they
can provide for the involvement of people
in conservation of natural habitats (Schopp-Gu
th & Fremuth, 2001). In other words, the
significance of medicinal plants to people can be
sufficiently great that arrangements made for
the conservation and sustainable use of medicina
l plants can lay important foundations for the
conservation of natural habitats and ecologi
cal services more generally. Therefore the
‘biological beneficiaries’ of ‘medicinal pl
ant conservation’ are not necessarily only the
medicinal plants themselves. This is nowhere more
so than in those remoter parts of the world
where cultural and biological diversity tend to
be most concentrated, and where medicinal
plants can assume high importance in cultures and for livelihoods.
Working effectively with communities requires cons
ervationists to have an appreciation of the
cultures, economies and social structures and dyna
mics of local societies, in addition to the
knowledge that they need about the biology and ecology of the plants themselves. Similar
‘lateral engagement’ is also necessary for work
with other classes of people involved with
medicinal plants. For example, the main concer
ns of conservationists about manufacturers are
likely to revolve around questions of the effects
of their patterns of obtaining raw materials on
the environment. However, manufacturers will of
ten be more interested in other aspects of
product quality than biological and ecological sustainability, especially those relating to
quality control that involve species authenticati
on, presence of active constituents, limitations
to heavy metal content, and residues of pes
ticides and fertilisers. Conservationists working
4
with manufacturers need to understand these f
acts of the business, just as they need to
understand those of village life when working w
ith communities. However, in doing so, they
should never lose sight of their own conservation objectives.
There can be debate as to what exactly constitu
tes a ‘medicinal plant’. In many instances,
there is little controversy, but what about ‘mag
ical’ plants, plants taken basically as food but
believed to have additional benefits
to health, or flavourings (spices or ‘herbs’) that also have
medicinal properties? There are cultural differen
ces in the ways that plants are classified
according to their properties, for example, with less of a distinction between food and
medicine in Eastern and African traditions than in the West. Medicinal plants are grouped for
many commercial purposes in the broader categor
y ‘medicinal and aromatic plants’ (MAPs),
covering not only plants used medicinally (
as more strictly understood), but also for
neighbouring and overlapping purposes, for in
stance as foods, condiments and cosmetics
(Schippmann, Leaman & Cunningham, 2002). Th
e term ‘botanicals’ is becoming commonly
used for a wide range of plant-based products.
THE VALUES OF MEDICINAL PLANTS
Plants in traditional medicine
It is estimated that 70-80% of people worldwid
e rely chiefly on traditional, largely herbal,
medicine to meet their primary healthcare need
s (Farnsworth & Soejarto, 1991; Pei Shengji,
2001). The global demand for herbal medicine is
not only large, but growing (Srivastava,
2000). The market for Ayurvedic medicines is est
imated to be expanding at 20% annually in
India (Subrat, 2002), while the quantity of medi
cinal plants obtained from just one province
of China (Yunnan) has grown by 10 times in
the last 10 years (Pei Shengji, 2002b). An
example of increased pressure on collecting grounds is provided by the Gori valley in the
Indian Himalayas, where the annual period of MAP harvesting has increased from 2 to 5
months (Uniyal, Awasthi & Rawat, 2002). Fact
ors contributing to the growth in demand for
traditional medicine include the increasing hu
man population and the frequently inadequate
provision of Western (allopathic) medici
ne in developing countries (Table 1).
Country Doctor : Patient TMP : Patient
Ethiopia 1 : 33,000
1 : 7142 (overall) Kenya
1 : 833 (urban – Mathare) 1 : 987 (urban – Mathare)
Malawi 1 : 50,000 1 : 138
Mozambique 1 : 50,000 1 : 200
1 : 1639 (overall) South Africa
1 : 17,400 (homeland areas) 1 : 700-1200 (Venda)
Swaziland 1 : 10,000 1 : 100
Tanzania 1 : 33,000 1 : 350-450 (Dar es Salaam)
Uganda 1 : 25,000 1 : 708
Table 1. Ratios of doctors (practising Western medicine) and traditional medical
practitioners (TMPs) (practising largely plant-b
ased medicine) to patients in East and
Southern Africa (Marshall, 1998).
5
There are many traditional systems of medicine.
Following the practice in China, they may be
classified into 3 broad categories: (1) Traditiona
l Medical Systems, with written traditions of
documentation of knowledge, pharmacopoeias fo
r doctors and institutions for training
doctors; (2) Traditional Medical Knowledge (Folk
Medicine), which is orally transmitted and
associated with households, communities or
ethnic groups; and (3) Shamanistic Medicine,
with a strong spiritual element and which can
only be applied by specialist practitioners
(shamans). Traditional Medical Systems are espec
ially concentrated in Asia. Some of the
more widely familiar are Chinese Traditional Me
dicine, Tibetan Medicine, Ayurveda, Siddha,
Unani and Western Herbal Medicine,
the latter being rather ill-defined.
Plants in herbal medicine and botanicals
Herbal medicine is becoming ever more fashionable in richer countries, a market sector which
has grown at 10-20% annually in Europe and
North America over recent years (ten Kate &
Laird, 1999). In addition, there are many relate
d botanical products sold as health foods, food
supplements, herbal teas, and for various othe
r purposes related to health and personal care.
The extent to which herbal preparations are
prescribed within conventional medicine varies
greatly between countries, for instance being
much higher in Germany than in the UK or
USA.
Pharmaceutical medicine
Plants have contributed hugely to Western me
dicine, through providing ingredients for drugs
or having played central roles in drug discovery. Some drugs, having botanical origins, are
still extracted directly from plants, others are
made through transformation of chemicals found
within them, while yet others are today synth
esised from inorganic materials, but have their
historical origins in research into the active compounds found in plants. There are
undoubtedly many more secrets still hidden in
the world of plants (Mendelsohn & Balick,
1995).
GLOBAL USE AND VALUE OF MEDICINAL SPECIES
In terms of the number of species individually
targeted, the use of plants as medicines
represents by far the biggest human use of the
natural world. Plants provide the predominant
ingredients of medicines in most medical traditions. There is no reliable figure for the total
number of medicinal plants on Earth, and numbe
rs and percentages for countries and regions
vary greatly (Table 2; (Schippmann
et al
., 2002). Estimates for the numbers of species used
medicinally include: 35,000-70,000 or 53,000 worldwide (Farnsworth & Soejarto, 1991;
Schippmann
et al
., 2002); 10,000-11,250 in China (He & Gu, 1997; Pei Shengji, 2002a; Xiao
& Yong, 1998); 7500 in India (Shiva, 1996); 2237 in Mexico (Toledo, 1995); and 2572
traditionally by North American Indians (Moerman, 1998). The great majority of species of
medicinal plants are used only in Folk Medicine. Traditional Medical Systems employ
relatively few: 500-600 commonly in Traditional
Chinese Medicine (but 6000 overall) (Pei
Shengji, 2001); 1430 in Mongolian Medicine
(Pei Shengji, 2002b); 1106-3600 in Tibetan
Medicine (Pei Shengji, 2001; Pei Shengji,
2002b); 1250-1400 in Ayurveda (Dev, 1999); 342
in Unani; and 328 in Siddha (Shiva, 1996). The number of plant species that provide
ingredients for drugs used in Western Medicine is
even fewer. It was calculated for an article
published in 1991 that there were 121 drugs in
current use in the USA derived from plants,
with 95 species acting as sources (more than one
drug is obtained from some species)
6
(Farnsworth & Soejarto, 1991). Despite the sm
all number of source species, drugs derived
from plants are of immense importance in terms
of numbers of patients treated. It is reported
that ca. 25% of all prescriptions dispensed from community pharmacies in the USA between
1959 and 1973 contained one or more ingredie
nts derived from higher plants (Farnsworth &
Soejarto, 1991). A more recent study, of the top 150 proprietary drugs used in the USA in
1993, found that 57% of all prescriptions c
ontained at least one major active compound
currently or once derived from (or pattern
ed after) compounds derived from biological
diversity (Grifo & Rosenthal, ).
Country or
region
Number of
species of
medicinal plants
Total number of
native species in
flora
% of flora which
is medicinal
References to
figures in
Column 2
China 11,146 27,100 41 (Pei Shengji,
2002a)
India 7500 17,000 44 (Shiva, 1996)
Mexico 2237 30,000 7 (Toledo, 1995)
North America 2572 20,000 13 (Moerman,
1998)
World 52,885 297,000-
510,000
10-18 (Schippmann
et
al
., 2002)
Table 2. Numbers and percentages of medicinal
plant species recorded for different countries
and regions. The sizes of the floras (Column 3) are from Centres of Plant Diversity (WWF &
IUCN, 1994-1997), except for the world estimate (bo
ttom row) which is based on an estimate
that 270,000-425,000 species of vascular plants are already known, with a further 10-20% to
be discovered (Govaerts, 2001).
The value of medicinal plants to human live
lihoods is essentially infinite. They obviously
make fundamental contributions
to human health, and: “
Is not health dearer than wealth
?”
Financially, the retail sales of pharmaceutical
products was estimated at US$ 80-90 billion
globally in 1997, with medicinal plants cont
ributing very significantly (Sheldon, Balick &
Laird, 1997). A study of the 25 best-selling pharmaceutical drugs in 1997 found that 11 of
them (42%) were either biologicals, natural
products or entities derive
d from natural products,
with a total value of US$ 17.5 billion (Laird & ten Kate, 2002). The total sales’ value of drugs
(such as Taxol) derived from just one plant species (
Taxus baccata
) was US$ 2.3 billion in
2000 (Laird & ten Kate, 2002). The world market
for herbal remedies in 1999 was calculated
to be worth US$ 19.4 billion, with Europe in
the lead (US$ 6.7 billion), followed by Asia
(US$ 5.1 billion), North America (US$ 4.0 billi
on), Japan (US$ 2.2 billion), and then the rest
of the world (US$ 1.4 billion) (Laird & Pierce, 2002).
There is much trade in MAPs, on scales ranging fro
m the local to the international. Much of
this is unrecorded in official statistics or poor
ly documented – reasons why there is typically
so little awareness among decision-makers of the
significance of the trade to the healthcare
and economies of their people, or about pr
oblems of unsustainability and the sometimes
deleterious impacts of wild collection on natura
l habitats. Large quantities of MAPs are traded
into urban centres from rural areas in developing countries, and also regionally and
internationally. China’s production of medicina
l plants from cultivated and wild-harvested
sources, considered together, was calculated at
1.6 million tonnes in 1996, with a total value
(excluding exports) in terms of finished pr
oducts of US$ 3.7 billion (Kuipers, 1997). The
7
reported annual imports of MAP material into
all countries during the 1990s amounted to an
average of 400,000 tonnes, valued at US$ 1.
2 billion, showing a 100% rise between 1991 and
1997 (Lange, 2000). The three leading exporting countries are China (ca. 140,000 tonnes per
year over 1991-1997), India (about one-third
of the Chinese amount) and then Germany
(Lange, 2000). Europe is the major trading cen
tre for MAPs globally, with imports into one
European country or another amounting to 440,000 tonnes in 1996 [Lange, 1998 #95}. There
are at least 2000 species of MAPs marketed
in Europe, these originating from over 120
countries. It is guessed that the total number of
MAPs in international trade may be about
2500 species (Schippmann
et al
., 2002).
Although virtually everyone on Earth benefits
from medicinal plants, it is the financially
poorest who are typically most closely dependent on medicinal plants – culturally and for
their medicines and income. Only 15% of pharm
aceutical drugs is consumed in developing
countries (Toledo, 1995), and a large proportion of
even this small percentage is taken by
relatively more affluent people. The poor have
little alternative to using herbal medicine,
which, anyway, they may prefer – at least fo
r certain conditions (Marshall, 1998). Both rural
and urban dwellers, in
developing countries, rely on medi
cinal plants, many rural people still
depending largely on plants collected from clos
e to their homes, while town folk depend, for
the most part, on dried plants transported in from rural areas.
Medicinal plants can provide a significant source of income for rural people in developing
countries, especially through the sale of wild-h
arvested material. The collectors are often
herders, shepherds or other economically marg
inalised sections of the population, such as
landless people and women. Between 50-100% of ho
useholds in the northern part of central
Nepal and about 25-50% in the middle part
of the same region are involved in collecting
medicinal plants for sale, the materials being
traded on to wholesale markets in Delhi (Olsen,
1997). The money received represents 15-30% of
the total income of poorer households.
Medicinal plants can be symbolically very impor
tant to people. They can be held in special
religious, nationalistic or ideological esteem.
This can be advantageous for conservation
efforts, given that it is an acknowledgement, well
rooted in culture, of the worth of a sizable
proportion of the world’s flora. But it also ca
rries challenges, in that
this can result in
dogmatic views about the medicinal properties
of plants, resistance to accepting equally
effective substitutes, and uncompromising attitud
es towards the ownership of the plants and
who should benefit from (or pay for) their conti
nuing existence. The subject of ‘medicinal
plants’ can arouse strong feelings, providing
opportunities for bringing key conservation
debates into the public arena. There is sim
ilarity to the emotions surrounding charismatic
species, such as elephants and whales, with the
difference that medicinal plants carry much
more universal appeal.
SOME CONCERNS SURROUNDING MEDICINAL PLANTS
Concerns about loss of biological diversity and the availability of resources
These concerns exist, for a large part, because mo
st species of medicinal plants are collected
from the wild. The total number of species of me
dicinal plants cultivated on any scale is few,
although this does include some species of MAPs
that are traded internationally in large
volumes, as well as the many of the (small) number of species used as starting points for
pharmaceutical drugs. As an example, the Rosy Periwinkle (
Catharanthus roseus
), a species
8
which originated in Madagascar and which is th
e source of the anti-leukemia drugs vincristine
and vinblastine, is widely cultivated in Sp
ain and Texas (Balick & Cox, 1996). China is
probably the country with the greatest acreage of
medicinal plants under cultivation, with over
300,000 hectares devoted to just one species – Sea Buckthorn (
Hippophae rhamnoides
) – with
10,000 people employed (Lambert, Srivastava &
Vietmeyer, 1997). However, even in China,
only 100-250 species are cultivated (Schippmann
et al
., 2002) and more than 80% of the
700,000 tonnes of medicinal plants reportedly used annually come from wild sources
(Heywood, 2000). Only 130-140 of the 1200-1300 species that are both traded in, and native
to, Europe are derived predominantly from cultiv
ation (Lange, 1998). There are many parts of
the world in which there is virtually no cultiv
ation on any significant scale, including, by way
of examples, Albania and Turkey in Europe
(Lange, 1998), Pakistan and Bangladesh in Asia
(Begum, 2002), and all countries in Africa (Dold & Cocks, 2001; Marshall, 1998). An
estimated 99% of the 400-550 species currently sold
for use in traditional medicine in South
Africa originate from wild sources (Williams, 1996).
There is no reliable estimate for the number of me
dicinal plants that are globally threatened,
variously calculated as 4160 or 10,000 (Schippmann
et al
., 2002; Vorhies, 2000). There
would seem little doubt from theoretical consid
erations (Holsinger & Gottlieb, 1991; Menges,
1991) that many medicinal plant species that have
been listed as threatened, and indeed others
that have not, must be suffering from genetic
erosion now, or will do so in the near future.
This is because populations of many species ar
e in retreat, with outlying populations being
destroyed, as the extent and quality of many
natural habitats decline (WWF & IUCN, 1994-
1997). However, genetic erosion among wild
plants is very poorly documented. The
advantage of maintaining a pool of genetic
diversity within a medicinal species can be
illustrated with reference to Arnica (
Arnica montana
), a popular, but endangered, European
medicinal plant, in which genes from wild popul
ations have been used successfully to breed
superior cultivated strains (Ellenberger, 1998). A
nother example is African Cherry or Pygeum
(
Prunus africana
), a forest tree yielding a medicinal extract from its bark in high demand in
Europe. Varieties of
P. africana
are being tested in a breeding programme to select types that
will take less time to reach harvestable age (Ekola, Sutherland & Wilson, 2000).
The number of species of medicinal plants known to
have become globally extinct is very few
and conservationists are advised to avoid exaggera
ted claims in this respect. One of the best
advertised cases is Silphion, a plant apparently
found formerly in the
dry hinterlands of the
Middle East and much prized by the Ancient Greek
s. It is believed to have become extinct in
ca. 250 BC, with over-harvesting thought to have been a contributory factor (Lambert
et al
.,
1997). It should be noted that many medicinal pl
ants are rather widely distributed (Phillips &
Meilleur, 1998). In the USA, only 121 of the 3214 plant species classified as of ‘conservation
concern’ are reported to have been used medici
nally or in any other way by native Americans.
This low percentage suggests that it may be easier for people to recognise the useful
properties of plants that are common than t
hose that are rare (Phillips & Meilleur, 1998).
It has been estimated that over-exploitation th
reatens 150 species of MAPs in at least one
European country (Lange, 1998), but it should not be deduced from this that many, if any, of
these species are in danger of complete contin
ental extinction. On the other hand, the
seriousness of local, national or regional extin
ction, or, indeed, of commercial extinction
should not be under-estimated. There can be
serious consequences for livelihoods and
economies, quite apart from issu
es of genetic conservation.
9
Many of the threats to medicinal plant speci
es are similar to those causing endangerment to
plant diversity generally. The most serious proxima
te threats generally are habitat loss, habitat
degradation and over-harvesting
(Hamilton, 1997). Medicinal plants can have other uses than
as sources of medicines, and the threats from over-harvesting may be due, or partly due, to
collection for purposes other than medicinal.
This is so in the case of the African trees
Acacia
senegal
,
Boswellia papyrifera
and
Pterocarpus angolensis
(Marshall, 1998). So far as
collection for medicines is concerned, there is
generally agreement that it is collection for
commercial trade rather than home-use that is overwhelmingly the problem.
One reason why medicinal plants have beco
me increasingly threat
ened has been the
weakening of customary laws that traditionally
have regulated the use of natural resources.
Such laws have proved often to be easily un
dermined by modern socio-economic forces
(Pant, 2002). In at least one case, the collapse
of customary institutions seems to have been
connected directly to changes in the ways that
a medicinal plant was exploited, and this may
be a widespread phenomenon. Commercial collection of
Prunus africana
commenced in
Cameroon in 1972, being at first a monopoly of Plantecam Medicam, a company which took
steps to promote its sustainable harvesti
ng (Cunningham, Cunningham & Schippmann, 1997;
Schippmann, 2001). Bark was removed from oppos
ing quarters of trunks, avoiding girdling,
the rotation time for bark recovery being 4-5
years. In 1985, the Government of Cameroon
issued 50 additional licenses and the controlle
d harvesting system broke down. Complete
girdling now became the norm, or else trees were
simply felled so that all their bark could be
easily collected. In the case of one site, Mount Ok
u, it appears that this sudden injection of
capitalist enterprise led to a great weakening in
traditional customs that formerly helped to
maintain a forest cover. The result w
as, not only destructive harvesting of
P. africana
, but a
sudden massive loss of forest to agricultu
re, with stabilization only becoming achieved
through the intervention of an outside project, able to act as a mediator.
Concerns about loss of medicinal plants, consid
ered as material resources, relate to worries
about healthcare, livelihood security and fina
ncial income. Among those for whom these
problems are most acute are the rural poor, reliant on medicinal plants growing close to their
homes for their healthcare and perhaps an in
come. Manufacturers and consumers, higher up
commercial systems, are less influenced by local
scarcities of resources, often being insulated
by manufacturers switching their sources of supply. Unsustainable harvesting practices result
in spreading frontiers of resource-depletion,
with the negative impacts of over-exploitation
confined to the local level until such time as
regional or global resource scarcity becomes
critical.
Poorer members of local communities can face additional problems of loss of access to
medicinal plants due to the privatisation or
nationalisation of land. There is a major trend
today in many developing countries towards strict
er individual ownership of land and plant
resources, replacing older forms of tenure and
resource-rights in which poorer people could
be less excluded. Loss of access through nationali
sation can occur with the creation of more
strongly protected types of conservation area.
Concerns about declines in local knowledge and cultural survival
Knowledge of medicinal plants, as once embe
dded in tens of thousands of indigenous
cultures, is rapidly disappearing. Every year, the sum total of human knowledge about the
types, distribution, ecology, methods of management and methods of extracting the useful
10
properties of medicinal plants is declining rapi
dly – a continuation of a process of loss of local
cultural diversity that has been underway for hundr
eds of years. There has, of course, been a
great growth in scientific information about me
dicinal plants in recent decades, but in many
ways this has proved poor compensation, because
such information is accessible, in practice,
only to a very few people and, anyway, rather
little of it is relevant to problems of
management and utilisation, as encountered in the field.
Among those liable to suffer most from loss of indigenous knowledge are those who live in
harsh places, such as mountain ranges, and w
ho have high degrees of dependency on their
local natural environments. The cultures and
economies of such people must be closely
adapted to the intricacies of their local
environments, if they are to prosper.
Knowledge of the natural world is typically a ve
ry important part of the knowledge-worlds of
rural people following more traditional life-way
s (Berlin, 1992). Further, medicinal plants
tend to figure prominently in these galaxies. It is
therefore not surprising that the revitalisation
of traditional systems of medicine can be high on the agendas of those promoting local and
indigenous cultures, a political trend in ma
ny parts of the world. The Foundation for
Revitalisation of Local Health Traditions (FRLHT)
is an example of an organisation, in this
case working in India, which is engaged in many aspects of medicinal plant conservation and
sustainable use, including – prominently –
cultural aspects, as is clear from its name.
Concerns relating to the availability and quality of healthcare services
The adequate provision of healthcare is th
reatened by declines in traditional medical
knowledge and related plant resources. There
are many people, notably in developing
countries who lack – and will continue to lack
for the foreseeable future – effective access to
Western medicine, while even those who do en
joy this privilege will be limited in their
choices of alternative therapies. Traditional
medical practitioners came under attack during
the colonial era and the legacy of this widely
persists. The spread of Western Medicine was
aided in its supremacy by association with
the political and economic power of the West.
Western Medicine became part of the ‘civilising colonial mission’. Ayurvedic medicine was
suppressed in state-funded medical colleges in
India after 1835 and local medical traditions,
with their ‘witchdoctors’, denounced in Africa. Ev
en in China, never under full colonial rule,
Western Medicine came to be seen as progressive. The Kuomintang Government decided that
Traditional Chinese Medicine was unscientific
and passed a law in 1929 making its practice
illegal (Griggs, 1981). The increasing nationalisation of medicine during the 19
th
and
especially the 20
th
centuries and the rise in the power of pharmaceutical companies have given
even further impetus to Western Medicine.
Until recently, and then only in some countries,
national healthcare systems have devoted all,
or nearly all, their resources to the promotion and delivery of Western Medicine, ignoring
other traditions. This is now changing, more so
in some countries (such as China and India)
than others, but, even so, some medical trad
itions, such as Tibetan Medicine in India and
Nepal, have yet to gain official recognition (u
nlike Ayurvedic Medicine which is officially
recognised in both countries). Lack of official recognition and associated support has
implications for conservation, because such rec
ognition can raise the status of practitioners at
village level. Since such practitioners are
generally the most knowledgeable people about
plants in their communities and have an intrinsi
c interest in their conservation, an increase in
their authority has the potential to greatly assist improved management of plant resources.
11
From the point of view of efficient and effec
tive provision of national healthcare, a problem
facing those countries which acknowledge the valu
e of traditional medicine is how best to
utilise the resources available. On
e approach is to provide official recognition to traditional
medicine, which is then permitted to operate
as a separate sector parallel to and largely
unconnected with the main Western medical servi
ces provided by the state. Other countries,
such as China, are attempting synthesis throug
h trying to draw on the best of different
traditions. Official recognition has several im
plications, including the desirability of
registering authentic practitioners
and supporting their training. There is also the question of
how best to develop traditional systems to me
et modern challenges. The environment in
which traditional medical practitioners are opera
ting today is not the same as in the past
(Craig, 2002). Payment for treatment is now more
frequently being requested, associations of
traditional medical practitioners are being form
ed for networking and political lobbying, and
there is a move towards professionalisation,
including towards instruction based in schools
rather than through lineages. The development
of traditional medicine to meet modern
challenges can be resisted. Fo
r instance some Ayurvedic practitioners in India can be
conservative and claim that their treatments ha
ve been authenticated through long tradition
and should not be subject to research (Subrat, 20
02). Authentication of traditional medicine is
both a cultural and physiological matter and requir
es more than just trials similar to those
used to test pharmaceutical drugs. Sensitiv
e techniques are needed to avoid unnecessary
prohibitions. Due attention needs to be given to
traditional standards of quality, which, in
Ayurveda, for example, classically refer to
cultural and tantric use as well as therapeutic
qualities (Misra, 2002).
Concerns relating to the terms of research on medicinal plants
This has become the most publicised area of ‘polic
y debate’ relating to medicinal plants. It is a
field in which “
there has been a polarisati
on and we’ve ended up arguing over who is in the
wrong
” (Sanesh Kishore quoted by (Macilwain, 1998)
). In part, the issues can be traced back
to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD
), agreed at the Earth Summit in Rio de
Janeiro in 1992. Parties to the CBD accept th
at biodiversity is the property and responsibility
of states, that the components of this biodivers
ity should be used sustainably, and that there
should be a just sharing of the benefits arisi
ng out of the utilisation of genetic resources (Box
1). Some examples of controversies are presented
in Annex 1, given here
not to be judgmental
about any particular case, but rather to give a flavour of the arguments.
Box 1. The Convention on Biological Diversity.
Parties to the Convention (i.e. nearly all countries)
acknowledge the sovereignty of states over the
biodiversity in their territories and have agreed to: (1) conserve their biodiversity; (2) use the
components of biodiversity in ways that can be
sustained; and (3) ensure the fair and equitable
sharing of benefits arising from the use of
genetic resources on mutually agreed terms. With
reference particularly to the third of these objectiv
es, the power to exploit biodiversity commercially
for new products is seen as concentrated in the ‘No
rth’, while much biological diversity lies in the
‘South’. Mechanisms for the fair and equitabl
e sharing of benefits arising from commercial
exploitation are seen as desirable for reasons of so
cial justice, as well as to provide an additional
incentive for biological conservation in countries which are financially poor.
Some of the concerns have arisen because of
knowledge, or suspicion, that some scientists,
research institutes or commercial enterprises have
taken samples of plants to test for new
12
products, such as pharmaceutical drugs, without due permission or on ethically unacceptable
terms. The worry is that there will be no, or
inadequate, benefits accruing to the countries and
communities from where the material
s originate. There are also concerns about the theft of
local or indigenous intellectual property, given
that the traditional uses of plants as medicines
can be useful guides for the development of
new drugs (Balick & Cox, 1996; Holmstedt &
Bruhn, 1995). Proponents of local
and indigenous rights argue
that traditional knowledge of
the uses of plants can be based on years, perhap
s millennia, of experimentation, and therefore
it is not only scientists or pharmaceutical compan
ies that can claim to be inventors (scientists
do so through the filing of patents). There is also an argument that local and indigenous
communities have acted historically as the keep
ers, or even developers, of biological
diversity, and thus should be ‘compensated’ by
those who benefit later from their care and
labour.
On the other hand, there are accusations that
some countries and territories have over-reacted
to the scares of biopiracy and theft of intellectual resources through creating such tight
restrictions over research as to potentiall
y cause serious setbacks to conservation and
sustainable development (Annex 1). It is highly likely that issues surrounding medicinal
plants (especially) have been largely respons
ible for these alleged over-reactions. Probably,
there are often misconceptions about the re
lative prominence that research aimed at
bioprospecting should have (com
pared with research having other objectives), the extent of
bioprospecting and the amounts of money to be made (Box 2).
There seems to be an unresolved conflict c
oncerning intellectual property rights (IPRs)
between the CBD and the Trade Related Asp
ects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS)
agreement of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) (Masood, 1998). It is not yet clear how a
compromise will be reached between the commit
ments to accessibility a
nd equity enshrined
in the CBD and the pressures for private ownership and profit-based systems of reward
represented by TRIPS. “
There is no requirement on applicants
(to TRIPS)
to involve or
consult with local communities or governments about patenting a compound based on a
natural product from that country. Nor is there
provision for sharing benefits or including the
prior contributions of indigenous peoples to an innovation
” (Masood, 1998).
13
Box 2. Some contentions and possible misconceptions relating to research on plants for
new drugs.
Most research into medicinal
plants is aimed at the discovery of new commercial drugs.
Actually, it
is difficult to know how great is the relative pr
oportion of research undertaken for this purpose, but,
in any case, most research into medicinal plant
s should be aimed more directly at achieving
conservation and sustainable use, especially thr
ough enhancing the abilities of communities and
management agencies in developing countries to
do so. Communities can benefit from scientific
research into medicinal plants in various wa
ys, e.g. through acquiring improved methods of
managing these resources, helping to bolster self-
belief in local culture, improved healthcare and
sustainable economic development. Countries can benefit from such research through their
strengthened abilities to conserve biodiversity, t
he development of integrat
ed health-care systems,
and reduced dependency on imported pharmaceutical
s. There has been too great a fixation on
bioprospecting issues in some ‘policy quarters’, not realising that this is, or should be, only a
relatively minor part of the total research picture.
The amount of bioprospecting by researchers or companies is increasing
. An accurate picture is
difficult to obtain, but, at least in 1998, a cons
ultation of two dozen experts undertaken for an
article in the journal
Nature
concluded that there was not much more bioprospecting for new
chemical leads going on then than 10 years earlier
(Macilwain, 1998). On the other hand, it was
thought, by some, that the search for gene-sequence
information is likely to increase, not only for
drugs but for food supplements and genetic engineering of crops.
The natural world is full of potential new drugs
. This perception was developed as an argument by
conservation bodies to convince health-conscious
Northerners to take an in
terest in rainforests
and other conservation (Laird pers. comm.). It is al
so said to owe something to the success of the
anti-cancer drug Taxol, derived from the Pacific Yew (
Taxus brevifolia
) (Macilwain, 1998). In
practice, the rate of discovery of new drugs from plants has been disappointing. Only 1 plant
sample out of roughly 10,000 prod
uces promising results in screeni
ng, only 1 in 10 of these might
pass to clinical screening and only about 1 in 10 of these might pass to the market (Macilwain,
1998). However, many more samples may serv
e as useful leads for modification through
combinatorial chemistry, and some researcher
s believe that greater chances of success may
follow from concentrating on more promising groups of plants, or following leads provided by
traditional medical knowledge.
APPROACHES TO MEDICINAL PLANT CONSERVATION
The merits of systems thinking
An ecosystem-based approach is endorsed by the
CBD and is appropriate for conservation of
medicinal plants. It encourages lateral thinking
, inter-disciplinarity and prioritisation. The
ecosystem-based approach of the CBD, as en
compassed in its 12 principles (Annex 2),
recognises that:
•
humans, with their cultural diversity, form an integral component of biodiversity;
•
the delimitation of ecosystems for conservati
on action needs to be defined conceptually
on scales appropriate to the problems being addressed;
•
work can involve all 3 objectives of the Convention (Box 1), requiring the striking of a
balance between them;
•
there are uncertainties in managing ecosy
stems and, consequently, a need for
conservation measures to contain elements of ‘learning-by-doing’ or feedback from
research;
14
•
the approach needs to be u
sed flexibly, so that other
approaches to management and
conservation can be incorporated, such as pr
otected areas and single-species conservation
programmes;
•
benefits need to accrue to those responsi
ble for producing and managing the benefits
derived from ecosystems, with a special emphasis on local communities; and
•
networks are needed for the shari
ng of experiences and information.
In view of the inherent uncertainties, th
e CBD recommends an adaptive approach to
interventions and management. This requires th
e establishment of indicators to monitor the
effects of new measures, so that the need
to make adjustments can be recognised.
Conservationists should periodically take time
to reflect fundamentally on their work,
drawing back from deep immersion in particul
ar matters. The desirability of changes in
emphasis or taking on new types of activity may become apparent.
Figure 1. Some sub-systems involved in me
dicinal plant conservation, showing where
feedbacks are needed from commercial systems,
ex situ
efforts and new product discovery.
Activists (conservationists) will be essential to
ensure the success of
efforts to conserve
medicinal plants. Their work (or ‘projects’) s
hould be designed to influence the ways that
accords (fearful that the rules will change).
“
From The New York Times (Revkin, 2002): “
Existing and proposed restrictions in countries
with biological resources are all aimed at
controlling research by drug and biotechnology
companies. But evidence has grown that they
are harming the most basic field work, even
observational studies of wildlife in which nothing
is taken away. The restrictions not only
affect northern scientists’ probing southern
forests, but also local scientists.
…
Delays, fees
and research restrictions in countries like Br
azil and provinces like Sarawak, the Malaysian
part of Borneo, have caused many scientists si
mply to abandon the critical, difficult work of
charting the still largely unexplored maze of species.
“
45
A statement from Brazil (from a personal source): “
The lack of a definitive law in Brazil is not
only discouraging pharmaceutical companies, but
it has made it nearly impossible for any
foreign researchers to get permits for collection
of biological samples. … For example, the
lion tamarin researchers (Brazilian and foreign)
have found it impossible to get permits to
take tamarin DNA (derived from hair samples) of tamarins out of the country for
sophisticated genetic labs (non-existent in Braz
il) to conduct urgently needed (research) for
conservation of these critically endangered species.
“
Problems in East Africa (from a personal source): “
At one time recently, suspicions about
biopiracy resulted in it becoming almost im
possible to exchange herbarium specimens
between Kenya and Uganda. These exchang
es were wanted for taxonomic research,
essentially unrelated to biodiversity prospecti
ng. Such exchanges have, until this restriction,
been a normal feature of scientific co-operati
on between the countries, as they have been
elsewhere around the world. It actually beca
me easier for taxonomists in Uganda to
exchange specimens with herbaria in the UK than with Kenya.
“
Different sides of the coin!
From The Times (Hawkes, 1998): “
Leading companies in Brita
in have been accused of
‘biopiracy’ for patenting plants used for thousan
ds of years in Ayurvedic medicine. Zeneca,
Phytopharm and Procter & Gamble have all been
attacked by a New Delhi-based pressure
group, the Research Foundation for Science, Tec
hnology and Ecology, which claims that they
are exploiting herbs long known in India to ha
ve medicinal uses. … Phytopharm flatly denies
the charge of biopiracy. It manufactures Ze
maphyte, a treatment for eczema made from
Tribulus terrestris
, a herb that grows widely in Asia.
As Chhotagokhru, its Hindi name, the
plant is used for treating urinary infections
in Ayurvedic medicine. Dr Richard Dixey, chief
executive of Phytopharm, said yesterday: “
Tribulus
is widely used, not only in Indian but in
Chinese herbal medicine as well. So who owns
it? We originally developed Zemaphyte in
cooperation
with the Chinese and get all our supplies fr
om there. … It would be very hard for
the Indians to demonstrate they own it, ra
ther than the Chinese.” … India has become
increasingly reluctant to provide plant material for foreign companies, accusing them of
exploitation. But because India has a reputation for producing cheap generic copies of
patented Western drugs without payment of ro
yalties, it is hard to tell who is exploiting
whom.
“
46
ANNEX 2: PRINCIPLES OF THE ‘ECOSYSTEM APPROACH’ AS ADOPTED BY THE CONVENTION
ON BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY
(Reference: www.biodiv.org/cross-cutting/ecosystem)
PRINCIPLE SUMMARY RATIONALE GIVEN IN THE CONVENTION ON
BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY
SOME PARTICULAR ASPECTS RELEVANT
TO CONSERVATION OF MEDICINAL PLANTS
1 The objectives of management of land, water and living
resources are a matter of societal choice.
To ensure recognition of the rights
and interests of indigenous peoples
and other local communities, and to manage ecosystems for their
intrinsic values and for their tangible and intangible benefits to
humans.
General encouragement to promote acceptance of
the intrinsic value of conserving ecosystems and to
take account of the rights and interests of different
groups interested in medi
cinal plant conservation
and use, especially indi
genous peoples and other
local communities.
2 Management should be decentralised to the lowest
appropriate level.
To promote greater efficiency, effectiveness and equity, involve all
stakeholders, balance local interest
with the wider public interest, and
increase local responsibility, owners
hip, accountability, participation
and use of local knowledge.
Stresses the need for the involvement of local
people in conservation and sustainable use of
medicinal plants.
3 Ecosystems managers should c
onsider the effects (actual or
potential) of their activi
ties on adjacent and other
ecosystems.
To ensure attention is given to
actual or potential
effects on other
ecosystems, including some that ma
y be presently be known or which
are unpredictable.
Attention needs to be paid to the impacts of
measures for conservation and sustainable use of
medicinal plants on other
ecosystems, for instance
as a result of new regulations controlling levels of
harvest or promoti
on of cultivation.
4 There is usually a need
to understand and manage the
ecosystem in an economic c
ontext. Management should
reduce market distortions that
adversely effect biological
diversity, align incentives to promote biodiversity
conservation and sustainable use,
and internalise as feasible
costs and benefits in the given ecosystem.
To reduce market distortions wh
ich, for example, favour land
conversion and promote the costs of
conservation to be born by those
who benefit from it.
Economic benefits for conservation and use of
medicinal plants need to flow back to the
production areas.
5 Conservation of ecosystem structure and functioning, in
order to maintain ecosystem services, should be a priority
To ensure the longer term maintenance or restoration of ecosystem
services, in addition to simple protection of species.
Management systems incorporating the use of
medicinal plants should be
evaluated according to
47
target of the ecosystem approach. the capabilities of ecosystems to maintain vital
services.
6 Ecosystems must be managed within the limits of their
functioning.
To focus attention on factors which
limit maintenance of ecosystems,
including taking a precautionary appr
oach in the light of uncertainties.
As above, but promoting a precautionary approach
at setting levels of offtake of medicinal plants.
7 The ecosystem approach s
hould be undertaken at the
appropriate spatial a
nd temporal scales.
To ensure that the boundaries for
management are set according to
appropriate spatial and temporal
scales, and highlight connections
between components.
Interventions to conserve
medicinal plants should
take account of the realit
ies of relevant systems.
8 Objectives for ecosystem mana
gement should be set for the
longer term.
To compensate for the tendency of
humans to seek immediate benefits
over future ones.
As 5 and 6, again emphasising the need to be
cautious.
9 Management must recognise that change
is inevitable. To promot
e adaptive management to respond to change which
is
inevitable.
Promotes adaptive management, including with
appropriate methods of m
onitoring and adjusting
approaches and activities if desirable.
10 The ecosystem approach should seek the appropriate
balance between, and integra
tion of, conservation and use
of biological diversity.
To provide flexibility, seeing conservation and use in context with a
range of associated measures from strictly protected areas to humanmade
ecosystems
Balances need to be struck between wider
consideration interests and use, including through
zonation of land for different purposes.
11 The ecosystem approach should consider all forms of
relevant information, includi
ng scientific and indigenous
and local knowledge, innovations and practices.
To ensure that all available information is shared with all stakeholders
and actors, taking into account
inter alia
Article 8(j) of CBD, and the
full participation of stakeholders.
Encouragement to promote the sharing of
knowledge and information
relevant to medicinal
plant conservation with certain reservations.
12 The ecosystems approach should involve all relevant
sectors of society and scientific disciplines.
To ensure the involvement of necessa
ry expertise and stakeholders at
local and international levels, as appropriate.
All parties interests in medicinal plant conservation
need to be involved.
49
ANNEX 3. POSSIBLE PROJECT ACTIVITIES TO PROMOTE THE
IN SITU
CONSERVATION OF MEDICINAL PLANTS
Activities are listed approximately following a sequen
tial logic, but such a neat order of work
will rarely be possible or probably often even
desirable. This list has been compiled with
particular reference to (Aumeeruddy-Thomas
et al
., 1999; Tuxill & Nabhan, 2001).
1. Selection of site (if an option), based on an awareness of wider priorities in conservation
and sustainable development.
2. Prior to work at site, acquisition of exis
ting relevant information, including about the
wider context of the local ecosystem (e.g. the wider conservation, developmental and
economic policy environments) and also about all aspects of the history of the site.
3. Identification of local stakeholders and prope
r introductions to them, with an explanation
of project purposes.
4. Agreement with stakeholders on whether
and how the project should proceed, including
in terms of priorities for project focus, tho
se who should be involved in activities, and the
use to be made of the information to be
obtained by the project. Such agreements can
have various degrees of formality, as appropr
iate to circumstances, and should be
revisited at intervals as the project proceeds.
5. Scoping research to ensure that priorities have been well chosen.
6. Participatory research by project staff or associated outside specialists and local
stakeholders, with regular feedback of r
esults to wider audiences (local; occasionally
broader, e.g. national) for review, followed
by determination of next steps. Research
should aim at providing recommendations for practical action as well as base-line data
(biological, social and economic indicators) for use in monitoring. Both participatory
appraisal and more detailed research are useful
, the former being undertaken with groups
of stakeholders consulted collectively or in
sub-groups (e.g. based on age, gender or
household status) and the latter usually in conj
unction with local specialist knowledgeholders
(e.g. expert herbalists, harvesters or grower
s). ‘Triangulation’ (the use of different
methods to check on the accuracy of results)
is invaluable. According to context, the
subjects of resource could include:
6.1. The types, distribution and abundance of species of medicinal plants and of
habitats important for them.
6.2. Threats to the survival and sustainabl
e use of medicinal plants, and determination
of the most vulnerable species and habitats.
6.3. The biology and ecolo
gy of selected species.
6.4. The distribution of knowledge abou
t medicinal plants, within and between
different sections of society.
6.5. The social groups and institutions rele
vant to management of medicinal plants
(actually or potentially) and their re
lative influence and interconnections.
6.6. Existing statutory and customary laws
, regulations and customs relating to the
conservation and sustainable use of medi
cinal plants, and how they are applied
and interrelate in practice.
6.7. Systems of land tenure and usifruct rights relating to medicinal plants.
6.8. Medical services available locally a
nd their quality (household level, local
traditional medical practitioners, Western medical facilities); the degrees to which
they interact.
50
6.9. Local commercial trade in medicinal pl
ants, including the species concerned, the
places of collection, the quantities collected and who is involved.
6.10. Financial benefits derived from me
dicinal plants, and their distribution
through society.
7. Practical actions in favour of conservati
on or related objectives. According to contexts,
these might be aimed at:
7.1. Recognition of community and other in
stitutions responsible for natural resource
management, and their interrelationships.
7.2. Agreements on rights and responsib
ilities relating to MAPs associated with
different institutions, and methods of en
forcement and of resolving conflicts.
7.3. Zonation of land for different purposes,
e.g. with designated total protection
areas, wild harvesting areas, cultivation areas, etc.
7.4. The setting of quotas for wild harvest (species/areas) and of procedures for their
monitoring.
7.5. Measures to promote regeneration or re
inforcement of populations of particular
species of MAPs, including in relation to pressures imposed by other types of
land-use, such as livestock grazing.
7.6. The promotion of cultivation, for ex
ample as a means of taking the pressure off
wild populations or to prov
ide an alternative income.
7.7. Measures taken to improve the quality of
MAP materials, used locally or traded,
e.g. related to times of harvesting, a
voidance of adulteration and methods of
drying.
7.8. Other steps to add value at the local
level, e.g. further processing, improved
market access.
7.9. Documentation of knowledge of MAPs
and its return to communities to promote
conservation, livelihood security, healthcare and local culture.
7.10. Introduction of new techniques to im
prove livelihood security or healthcare,
based on the principle of building on local traditions.
8. Recommendations drawn up to influence wide
r policies (e.g. on conservation, healthcare,
community governance, economic incentives, etc.), to be promoted at ‘higher’ (e.g.
national) levels.
51
Category Explanation of category Proposed con
servation measures Species, with habitats of
greatest
abundance
RDHP (restricted distribution and
heavy pressure)
Species of high trade value. Good
population only in restricted habitats.
Habitats coincide with grazing sites
of sheep and goats.
Species-specific conservation plots
should be marked and no extraction
or exploitation allowed within them.
Aconitum heterophyllum
– undulating
meadows.
Dactylorhiza hatagirea
– marshy
meadows.
Jurinea macrocephala
– open slopes.
Picrorhiza kurrooa
– rocky slopes.
RDLP (restricted distribution and
low pressure)
Collected (here) for self-consumption
only (although these species are in
trade elsewhere). Found in restricted
habitats (also not easily accessible to
people/animals).
Spatial and temporal rotational
harvest.
Arnebia benthamii
– open slopes,
shrubberies.
Nardostachys grandiflora
– rocky
slopes.
Rheum australe
– rocky slopes.
Rheum moorcroftianum
– open
slopes.
LDLP (localised distribution and low
pressure)
Very patchy and localised
distribution in their habitats. Very
limited extraction.
Further research needed to assess
status and distribution.
Bergenea stracheyi
– alpine slopes.
Podophyllum hexandrum
– forest,
open slopes.
RDLHP (restricted distribution and
locally under high pressure)
Heavily used for self-consumption.
Found near grazing sites.
Cultivation should be encouraged
and markets developed.
Pleurospermum angelicoides
– gaps
in scrub on alpine slopes.
WDHP (wide distribution and high
pressure)
Heavily used, mostly locally as food. Cultivation should be encouraged
and markets developed.
Chaerophyllum villosum
–
shrubberies and forest.
UCLP (under cultivation and low
pressure)
Local people have begun their
cultivation. Pressure on wild
populations low (considered due to
the cultivation).
Cultivation should be further
promoted and markets developed.
Allium stracheyi
– naturally found on
rocky and open grassy slopes.
Carum carvi
– naturally found in
marshland.
Table 3. Categories of MAPs according to distri
bution, conservation status and level of pressure
(from collecting or livestock)
in the upper Gori valley,
Kumaon Himalaya, Uttaranchal, India (Uniyal et al., 2002).