Identification and Conservation of Important Plant Areas - Plantlife

Identification and Conservation of Important Plant Areas for Medicinal Plants in the Himalaya2.The context2.1. The concept of Important Plant AreasImportant Plant Areas (IPAs) are defined as the most important places in the world forwild plant diversity that can be managed as specific sites 1, 2 .Their identification andconservation have been promoted as a contribution to Target 5 of the Global Strategy forPlant Conservation (GSPC, part of the Convention on Biological Diversity) – Protection of50 per cent of the most important areas for plant diversity assured (to be met by 2010).AllHimalayan countries are signatories to the CBD and hence should be trying to achievethis target. It is recommended that the process of recognising IPAs be undertakenthrough a collaborative process involving as many experts as possible of the countryconcerned. Plantlife is recognised internationally as a facilitating organisation for Target 5of the GSPC.The greatest experience in identifying IPAs has so far been in Eastern Europe, where theIPA process has proved valuable for uniting botanical communities to jointly assess theirnational priorities in plant conservation. Plant conservationists in Eastern Europe havegenerally found the IPA concept intuitively understandable and useful.The present study,based in a different part of the world, has helped to further advance the IPA concept(see Sections 3.2.6 and 5).This is particularly so regarding the ‘conservation’ (contrastedwith the ‘identification’) element of the IPA process. Particularly because medicinal plantsare resources, their choice as a floristic sub-group for identifying IPAs has drawnattention to the positive side of peoples relationships with plants – how people can beseen as opportunities for conservation, not just as causes of threat.A site has the potential to be recognised as an IPA if it meets one or more of thesecriteria: (1) presence of threatened species of global or regional concern; (2) exceptionalbotanical richness for its biogeographic zone; or (3) presence of threatened habitats.IPAs are internationally important sites that are recognised formally (but not legally) atnational-level.The numbers and sizes of sites selected are matters for national decision.The criteria require some modification when IPAs are recognised with reference only tomedicinal plants (as here), namely a site should be marked by the: (1) presence ofthreatened species of medicinal plants of global or regional concern; (2) exceptionalrichness in medicinal plants for its biogeographic zone; or (3) presence of threatenedhabitats for medicinal plants.Lancang county town market in Yunnan,China. An ethnic Yi man from amountain village sells about 80 herbalplants, mostly collected by himself frommountain vegetation. PHOTO PEI SHENGJI,KUNMING INSITUTE OF BOTANY, CAS.Dactylorhiza hatagirea (D. Don) Soo. usedacross the Himalaya as a tonic for vitalityand strength and for healing wounds.Thisspecies is a high conservation priority inIndia and Nepal. PHOTO TSEWANGGONBO, LADAKH SOCIETY FORTRADITIONAL MEDICINES (LSTM).2.2. Himalayan medicinal plantsThe Himalaya form the highest mountain range on Earth. Extending for 2500 km alongthe northern border of the Indian subcontinent, the range forms a barrier to moistureladenwinds moving up from the south.The high altitude trans-Himalayan region of theTibetan (Qinghai-Xizang) Plateau lies in the rain-shadow of this range. Following thecommon practice in China, the Himalaya are considered here as additionally coveringthe Hengduan Mountains of China and the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau.A large proportion of the Himalayan flora is medicinal resulting in the Himalaya being aglobally significant centre for medicinal plants.The two countries globally with the highestnumbers of medicinal plants are both partly Himalayan – China with 10,027 species (41%of its angiosperm flora) and India with 7500 species (44% of its vascular flora) 3, 4 .9