Encouraging tribal women to conserve deciduous biodiversity

Before planning conservation strategies, decision-makers should recognize the cultural and social aspects of the people in and around any ecosystem. This might assist effective management. The needs and problems of the habitat often fail to be taken into consideration before planning forest management. Educating and encouraging the participation of local communities, especially tribal women in conservational activities could play an important role.An attempt was made to educate the tribal women of Jambughoda Wildlife Sanctuary, Panchmahal District (Western India) about conservation of the local deciduous biodiversity. The paper narrates actions taken in the field for conserving this biodiversity, involving tribal women and children as partners of the protected areas. It might serve as an exemplary case for implementation elsewhere in the world.     

Access for all? Barriers to accessing woodlands and forests in Britain

This paper presents results from research that identified and analysed barriers to accessing British woodlands and forests. This paper aims to contribute to an understanding of access and accessibility and to inform the design of policy and management interventions to encourage increased access by under-represented social groups. A brief review of policy and academic literature places the issue of inclusive woodland and forest access in the context of contemporary debates surrounding public health, well-being, diversity and the perceived role of public green space. There follows an analysis of quantitative and qualitative research findings, informing the presentation of a working typology of barriers. The typology is structured around the access needs of various social groups, allowing an analysis of the social distribution of barriers. The findings indicate the deep-seated psychological, emotional and socio-cultural nature of some barriers and highlight the need for carefully designed interventions that may lie outside the conventional remit of woodland management. This paper will be of particular interest to decision-makers and practitioners and to those involved in the design and delivery of policies, programmes and projects aimed at encouraging inclusive use of woodlands, forests and other types of green space.     

中国药用植物资源现状

对中国药用植物资源的种类、分布特点及其开发利用现状做了简要介绍,总结了我国针对近年来资源大量浪费采取的一系列保护措施,希望能对下一步资源的可持续利用提供帮助.     

PROFILE: Tourism Contribution to Agro-Ecosystems Conservation: The Case of Lesbos Island, Greece

The objective of this study was to investigate the impact of tourism activities on olive tree cultivation and the human population of the island of Lesbos. The presence or absence of tourism is related with the maintenance or abandonment of olive tree cultivation and population changes for each community. A spatial segregation of the island is evident, related to tourist development, olive tree cultivation, and population change. The results of the study demonstrate that in communities where tourism plays an important role olive tree cultivation is preserved and the population is stable. The preservation of the agro-ecosystem is assured while the olive groves remain productive. Simultaneously, the landscape, which provides specific attractions for tourism, is not altered.     

重庆华蓥山山脉药用植物资源调查研究

通过野外考察、标本采集、资料查阅整理及标本鉴定,对重庆华蓥山山山脉药用植物资源进行了调查.结果表明,重庆华蓥山共有药用植物240科1017属2251种(含变种和亚种),其中地衣植物5科8属11种、苔藓植物23科30属36种、蕨类植物40科82属190种、裸子植物9科17属25种、被子植物163科880属1989种.对其种类组成、分布、药用部位、疗效等进行了统计分析,对民间习用药物做了简要介绍,并对其开发利用提出了建议.     

中国药用植物的数值区划

本文根据药用植物的地理分布，运用计算机以组平均法做聚类分析研究中药区划，将全国为４个区和８个亚区，并探讨了各区和亚区的生态环境条件，植物区系和植被特征，为中药区划和药用植物的引种栽培研究提供了一定的基础。     

黄山市珍稀濒危药用植物资源及保护策略

归纳<国家珍稀濒危保护植物名录>、<国家重点保护野生植物名录(第一批)>和<国家重点保护野生药材物种名录>,黄山市拥有珍稀濒危药用植物42种,通过对其种类、分布,药用部位、功能主治的介绍,以期为制定黄山市珍稀濒危药用植物的保护措施和合理开发利用提供参考.     

岑王老山自然保护区药用植物资源及其开发

岑王老山自然保护区内药用植物资源丰富,通过查阅相关文献,初步确定有药用植物186科666属1186种,并提出了保护区内药用植物资源的开发途径,对其中具有开发前景的种类做了重点介绍,为保护和合理开发保护区内药用植物资源提供参考。     

重庆蛇葡萄属药用植物资源研究

经调查鉴定，重庆蛇葡萄属药用植物有8种8变种，其中乌头叶蛇葡萄、显齿蛇葡萄为重庆新分布种。重点介绍了它们的医疗用途、地理分布、资源状况及其开发前景，为进一步开发利用重庆市丰富的蛇葡萄属植物资源提供科学依据。     

四川重楼属药用植物资源研究

经调查鉴定,四川重楼属药用植物有10种7变种,均在我省民间广泛应用。目前川产商品重楼原植物有3种6变种,除中国药典收载的华重楼和滇重楼外,其分布广、产量大的还有七叶一枝花、狭小重楼和短梗重楼等3种4变种。     

Characterizing land-use diversity in village landscapes for sustainable mountain development: a case study from Indian Himalaya

This study aimed to analyze the ecological, socio-economic and policy implications of land-use diversity in a traditional village landscape (900–1,000 m amsl.) in the Garhwal region of Indian Himalaya. The village landscape was differentiated into three major land-use types viz., forests, settled agriculture and shifting agriculture. Settled agriculture was further differentiated into four agroecosystem types viz., homegarden system (HGS), rainfed agroforestry system (RAS), rainfed crop system (RCS) and irrigated crop system (ICS), and shifting agriculture system (SAS) was differentiated into different stages of a 4-year long cropping phase and a 7-year long fallow phase, and forests into Community Forests (CF) and Reserve Forests (RF). HGS is the most productive agroecosystem, with soil organic carbon and nutrient concentrations significantly higher than all other forest/agricultural land-uses. Farmers capitalize upon crop diversity to cope with the risks and uncertainties of a monsoon climate and spatial variability in ecological factors influencing productivity. The SAS, a land-use adopted as a means of acquiring inheritable rights over larger land holdings provided in the policies during the 1890s, is less efficient in terms of land productivity than the traditional RAS and HGS but is maintained for its high labour productivity coupled with availability of high-quality fuelwood from fallow vegetation. Dominance of fodder trees in the RAS seems to derive from policies causing shortage of fodder available from forests. Cultural norms have favoured equity by allowing hiring of labour only from within the village community and income from non-timber forest products only to the weaker section of the society. Conversion of rainfed to irrigated cropping, a change facilitated by the government, improves agricultural productivity but also increases pressure on forests due to higher rates of farmyard manure input to the irrigated crops. Existing forest management systems are not effective in maintenance of a large basal area in forests together with high levels of species richness, soil fertility and resistance to invasive alien species Lantana camara. Farmers have to spend huge amount of labour and time in producing manure, managing livestock and other subsidiary farm activities. Interlinkages among agriculture, forests and rural economy suggest a need of replacing the present policies of treating agricultural development, forest conservation and economic development as independent sectors by an integrated sustainable development policy. The policy should promote technological and institutional innovations enabling parallel improvements in agricultural productivity and functions of forest ecosystems.     

Developmental Processes, Changing Lifestyle and Traditional Wisdom: Analyses from Western Himalaya

Traditional knowledge and practices are important in prudent resource use and biodiversity conservation. The implications of modernization and changing lifestyle are discussed in the context of agriculture and resource use, the two sectors in which maximum modernization has occurred. The information was gathered through observations and structured interviews over three years (July 1996 to July 1999) of field work in the western Himalaya. It was observed that forest based subsistence agriculture has given way to the market dependant cash crop cultivation. That apart from loss of genetic diversity, has also resulted in the degradation of forests. The use of wild plants in the day-to-day activities has also declined and dependence on high value market products has increased. Currently, wild plants are used only if no other cheap substitute is available in the market or if the use is economically beneficial to the people. Thus, the knowledge gathered through ages of experience is eroding because of the activities geared for short-term economic benefits which, in long run, may not be sustainable.     

草豆蔻的栽培与利用

草豆蔻为多年生草本药用植物,其种子团为传统中药材,并可用作食品调味剂;茎杆麻可编织保健用品和工艺品,具有很重要的经济价值.介绍了草豆蔻的形态特征、生长习性、栽培管理技术及其用途,并对其综合利用价值、市场需求和种植效益进行了探讨.     

Biodiversity Conservation in the Thar Desert; with Emphasis on Endemic and Medicinal Plants

The Indian desert, the Thar Desert, has its own importance and specific characteristics with respect to endemic and medicinal plants. Forty-five plant species are considered to be rare and/or endangered. The desert has a large number of plants of economic importance and medicinal use. The Thar Desert is thickly populated in comparison to other hot deserts of the world. 17.44 million people and 23.33 million livestock are recorded from the region. These populations exert pressure on the biological resources of the Thar Desert causing a lack of sustainability and necessitate conservation of biodiversity actions.     

The design and implementation of sustainable plant diversity conservation program for alpine meadows and pastures

The paper describes the design and implementation of a plant biodiversity conservation program that was developed under funding and time constraints for diverse ecological, social, and institutional environments. The biodiversity program for alpine meadows and pastures located in the Swiss Canton of the Grisons is used as an example. The design of the sustainable program relied on existing legislation, accounted for limited ecological knowledge and expertise, and considered biodiversity as a common-pool resource. The trend to intensified cultivation of restricted areas required fast action, while the sustainability of the program design had to take into account institutional diversity. Fifteen habitats and plant communities worth conserving were known, and 57 plant species were identified as indicator species for establishing an inventory and for monitoring purposes. A small subset of 16 well known plant species was presented to the farming communities. They were invited to notify the areas in which they observed the presence of these plants. In different regions of the Canton a total number of 39 paraecologists were trained to inspect the areas notified by farmers and to recommend possible incorporation into the Cantonal inventory. This was done once the farmers signed a contract in which they agreed to follow adequate management practices. The farmers received subsidies to compensate for their losses. Communal authorities controlled the fertilizer input and cutting dates, while the paraecologists were trained to monitor plant biodiversity. The program started in 1992 and the initial phase of the inventory was terminated in 1996. At the beginning of 1996, an inventory of 2617.19 ha, most of which are meadows, was taken and managed according to the rules specified in the contract. The program was considered successful because (i) of the size of the area in the inventory, (ii) about 30%of the farmers participated, and (iii) farmers started cultivating previously abandoned farmland.     

珍稀濒危植物保护政策初探

本文根据我国珍稀濒危植物的保护现状和管理工作中存在的问题,系统地探讨了加强我国珍稀濒危植物和野生植物资源保护的政策措施。文中提出一系列具体、有效的政策构思,以及建立政府有关主管部门对珍稀濒危植物协调管理的体制等。