Identification and Conservation of Important Plant Areas - Plantlife

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Identification and Conservation of Important Plant Areas for Medicinal Plants in the HimalayaNaxi traditional physician Mr Li Siqui drying plants at his home in Sue Song Village near Lijiang,Yunnan, China.With Dr Huai Huyin.PHOTO ALAN HAMILTON.6
Identification and Conservation of Important Plant Areas for Medicinal Plants in the HimalayaIntroductionIn 2005, Plantlife International launched a new Plant Conservation and Livelihoods Programme withan initial emphasis on medicinal plants (the Medicinal Plants Conservation Initiative).Withgeographical areas of focus in the Himalaya and East Africa, the programme is seeking ways toconserve plant diversity within the context of people’s livelihood needs. Six community-basedprojects to conserve medicinal plants in the Himalaya have so far been supported, thanks to agenerous grant to Plantlife from the Allachy Trust – one project in each of China, Nepal andPakistan and three in India.These projects are being used to develop and test approaches andmethodologies to the conservation of Himalayan medicinal plants.The intention is to lateridentify lessons learnt and promulgate more effective methodologies. Descriptions of theseprojects and some initial analyses can be viewed on Plantlife’s website (www.plantlife.org.uk).The project reported here marries Plantlife’s livelihoods programme with its more establishedprogramme on Important Plant Areas (IPAs). It provides a first test of the applicability of the IPAconcept in this large and geographically complex region.The selection of medicinal plants as afloristic sub-group for this purpose was considered intuitively reasonable.This is because of thelarge number of Himalayan species that are regarded as medicinal and the likelihood that, beinguseful plants, their distribution and conservation status are probably relatively well known.The objectives of the project are to:● Collate baseline information on medicinal plants, their habitats and their threats across theHimalaya.● Overview information on existing initiatives on the conservation of Himalayan medicinal plants.● Assess the contribution of existing information on medicinal plants to the identification ofIPAs in the Himalaya.● Assess recommendations for future progress in medicinal plant conservation at IPAs in theHimalaya, including through regional collaboration.● Contribute to the development of a new Plantlife regional project on the conservation ofHimalayan medicinal plants.This is a collaborative project between Plantlife International and National Partners in fivecountries, all respected experts in this field.They are:● Bhutan – Yeshey Dorji and Mr A Karma Rinzin (Ministry of Agriculture).● China – Professor Pei Shengji and Mrs Yang Lixin (Chinese Academy of Sciences) and DrHuai Huying (Yangzhou University).● India – Pragya, with presentations at the Regional Workshop by Dr Visvarup Chakravarti andMs Manali Baruah.● Nepal – Ethnobotanical Society of Nepal (ESON), involving Dr K.K. Shrestha, Ms S.Rajbhandary, Mr R.C. Poudel and Dr N.B.Tiwari.● Pakistan – Mr Ashiq Ahmad Khan (WWF-Pakistan) and Dr Hassan Sher (GovernmentPostgraduate Jahanzeb College).Each National Partner prepared a report with information on their countries.These reports werethen presented and discussed at a Regional Workshop, convened at Kathmandu (Nepal) on 19-22September 2006 and organised jointly by the Ethnobotanical Society of Nepal (ESON) andPlantlife International. 35 participants attended (Annex 3), with additional presentations fromvarious individuals and organisations working on medicinal plants in Nepal.Two staff from PlantlifeInternational participated, Elizabeth Radford (IPA Programme Manager) and Alan Hamilton(Manager, Plant Conservation and Livelihoods Programme).They gave presentations on technicalmatters relating to the recognition of IPAs and on possible next steps in regional collaboration.7
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Identification and Conservation of Important Plant Areas - Plantlife

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