Identification and Conservation of Important Plant Areas - Plantlife

Identification and Conservation of Important Plant Areas for Medicinal Plants in the Himalayaindividuals).There are potentially tens of thousands of such places across the Himalaya.They are far too numerous to achieve significant recognition at the national level.Thiscontrasts with the situation in many European countries, where huge tracts of thecountryside have been profoundly modified. Here, even tiny (e.g. field size) areas ofhabitat can (and are) recognised at the national level as being of significance for theconservation of global plant species diversity and thus are IPAs.3.3. Conservation of medicinal plants at IPAs3.3.1. IntroductionIt is clear from presentations made at the Regional Workshop that the conservation ofmedicinal plants at IPAs in the Himalaya requires action on several fronts.The variousNational Reports lay emphasis on different aspects.Table 7 summarises these and groupthem according to the scale and type of instruments and processes available forconservation. Some instruments and processes refer to the national scale and thereforerelate directly to the IPA networks.A second, profoundly important, scale forconservation action is that of the community. Other instruments and processes crosscutthe community/state hierarchy, following the geography of cultural and commercialsystems. Given that there are so many aspects of conservation of medicinal plants, only afew remarks on selected aspects of conservation can be mentioned here.A recentreview provides a fuller account 49 .Itinerant traders in morels in theHimalayan region of Pakistan (Morchellaspp.), collected for export to Europe.PHOTO ALAN HAMILTONCategories ofconservation instrumentsand processesNational-levelCommunity-levelCulturally related(cross-cutting)Trade related(cross-cutting)Stakeholders in medicinal plant conservation and the conservation instrumentsand processes available to themGovernment: (1) declaration of reserves (protected areas, forest reserves); (2) laws about plantcollection, trade and export (including CITES); (3) policy frameworks covering joint resourcemanagement, traditional medicine, community and cultural development, and standards in the herbalindustry; (4) supportive services (herbaria, information, education, advisory, etc.); and (5) scientificresearch (especially on conservation methodologies; also for further identification of IPAs).NGOs: facilitate case studies and policy analyses on medicinal plant conservation.Communities on their own land: identification of important places and species for priorityattention, based on community interest (whole community and sectional interests – healthcare,income and culture); community agreements on community protected areas; development of adaptivemanagement systems for sustainable use; and cultivation to relieve the pressure on wild resources.Communities and reserves: agreements with parks or forestry departments on rights andresponsibilities in relation to management and use of the reserves.Communities and industry: agreements with industry in favour of sustainable use (see below).Traditional healers and indigenous groups: advocacy of conservation by cultural leaders andtraditional healers, related to healthcare, cultural heritage and sustainable development.Traders, industry, consumers: agreements between industry and communities assuring sustainableuse (good quality, sustainably produced plant materials for fair and assured prices); direct support byindustry (e.g. technical help with cultivation trials or value-adding processes); company socialresponsibility; ethical purchasing; and certificationTable 7. Major stakeholders for conservation of Himalayan medicinal plants, and somerelated conservation instruments and processes.29