important plant areas in central and eastern europe - hirc.botanic.hr ...

Habitats and land usesSustainable plant useThe main uses of wild plants and fungi in Europe are herbal medicines, decorative plants,berries and mushrooms for food, forestry products, timber, and peat for horticulture.The scale of collection of these wild plant products ranges from small amounts forhousehold use and local markets to large scale collection for international corporations.Medicinal plant collection for household and market economies is most widespread insouth eastern Europe. In many cases the use of wild plants is of positive benefit to localeconomies and biodiversity but there are risks of over-exploitation and sustainablecollection practices need to be established.The extraction of peat for horticulture is stilla widespread practice. However as legislation in EU countries tightens there is a dangerthat peat exploitation will move beyond the boundaries of the EU.IPAs and wild plant useWild plant gathering is recorded as a land use on 103 IPAs (13%)Unsustainable plant gathering is recorded as a threat at 81 IPAs (10%), although this ismainly assessed as a low level threat.Peat extraction is recorded as a threat at 31 IPAs (4%)Protection of wild plants from unsustainable collectionMany of these plants, especially decorative flowers, berries, mushrooms and somemedicinal plants, are perceived to be common, however this makes them morevulnerable to over-exploitation.There are several legal provisions for the protection ofwild plants. CITES, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Speciesprohibits the collection and sale of many plant species.Annex V of the EU HabitatsDirective obliges EU member governments to safeguard resources of many plantspecies. Many national governments also have wildlife protection legislation, e.g. inBulgaria, where particular species are legally protected and specific sites have annualcollection quotas.ReferencesAnnex V of the EU Habitats Directives,1992, Animal and Plant Species ofCommunity Interest whose taking in the wildand exploitation may be subject tomanagement measures.(www.europa.eu.int)Convention on International Trade inEndangered Species (CITES) website(www.cites.org)Kathe W., Honnef S., & Heym A., 2003Medicinal and Aromatic Plants inAlbania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatiaand Romania. WWFDeutschland and TRAFFIC Europe-Germany (www.bfn.de)TRAFFIC website (www.traffic.org)Vines, G., 2003 Herbal Harvests with aFuture:Towards sustainable sources formedicinal plants. Plantlife InternationalOrganisations such as TRAFFIC trace the route of medicinal plants from collectors tothe herbal medicine market and work to establish sustainable collection strategies.Information on peat free growing media is available from several sources includingorganisations such as the Royal Horticultural Society.NEJC JOGANLocal women collecting wild plants inSlovenia.87