Identification and Conservation of Important Plant Areas - Plantlife

Identification and Conservation of Important Plant Areas for Medicinal Plants in the HimalayaExecutive summaryThis is the report of the project and Regional Workshop “Identification and Conservationof Important Plant Areas for Medicinal Plants in the Himalaya” held in Kathmandu, Nepal onSeptember 19–22 2006.The project brings together two of Plantlife International’sprogrammes, on ‘Important Plant Areas’ (IPAs) and ‘Plant Conservation and Livelihoods’.The project is the first time that IPAs have been identified in the Himalaya.The project is collaborative between Plantlife International and National Partners in fiveHimalayan countries – Bhutan, China, India, Nepal and Pakistan.The National Partnersprepared reports for their respective countries, with baseline information on medicinalplants, overviews of current conservation initiatives and assessments of the contributionof existing information on medicinal plants to the identification of IPAs.These NationalReports were presented at the Regional Workshop, at which some additionalorganisations from Nepal also gave presentations.Medicinal plants are of great importance in the Himalaya, supporting people’s healthcare,income and cultures.All the National Reports confirmed that some medicinal plants areunder threat, especially through habitat loss (including deforestation) and commercialover-harvesting.Important Plant Areas (IPAs) are sites of international significance for the conservationof global plant diversity that are recognised at a national level.Their recognition is basedon three standard criteria (presence of threatened species, species richness, andpresence of threatened habitats).Fifty-three IPAs for medicinal plants were provisionally recognised in the Himalaya, witha significant number of smaller sites at a more local level. Many of these smaller sites arenested within the IPAs. However all countries reported a shortage of the informationrequired for the recognition of IPAs, and so the IPAs identified in the National Reportsare regarded as provisional. Information on both medicinal and non-medicinal species ofplants can be used for the further development of national IPA networks.IPAs will be useful for monitoring progress towards Target 5 of the Global Strategy forPlant Conservation, part of the Convention on Biological Diversity, to which all Himalayanstates are signatories.They will also be useful for landscape-level planning, including forthe siting of protected areas. Based on the gross geography of the IPAs (as currentlyrecognised), protected area networks in the Himalaya should be reviewed to ensure thatthey have good coverage along the west-east and altitudinal axes.A good distribution ofprotected areas along these dimensions will help to ensure survival of the species in theface of climatic change (expected to be on a major scale at higher altitudes in theHimalaya). It will also help to ensure that the genetic diversity of medicinal species isconserved (important with useful plants).Progress in finding ways to involve local communities is fundamental to achievingconservation of Himalayan medicinal plants.This will involve identifying places important4