Yildiz Aumeeruddy-Thomas

Heterogeneity in Ethnoecological Knowledge and Management of Medicinal Plants in the Himalayas of Nepal: Implications for Conservation

The importance accorded to ethnoecological knowledge for suggesting new paths in scientific research, understanding ecological processes, and designing sustainable management of natural resources has grown in recent years. However, variation in knowledge and practices, both within and across cultures, has not been given much attention in resource management nor in developing scientific understanding of the ecological status of key resources. In this paper, we discuss the heterogeneity and complexity of local ecological knowledge in relation to its practical and institutional context with respect to management of Himalayan medicinal plants. We show factors affecting this variation, and discuss how knowledge is put into action. We assessed variation in knowledge relating to the diversity of medicinal plant species, their distribution, medicinal uses, biological traits, ecology, and management within and between two culturally different social groups living in villages located in the Shey-Phoksundo National Park and its buffer zone in northwestern Nepal. Heterogeneity in levels of knowledge and in practices both within and between these groups corresponds to differences in level of specialization in relation to medicinal plants, to socio-cultural and institutional contexts, and to extra-local factors that govern people’s activities. We argue that understanding the heterogeneity of knowledge and practices within a given area is crucial to design management practices that build on the intricate links between knowledge, practices, and institutional context. It is also important to develop ecological studies that will best inform management.

Assessing nature’s contributions to people

Recognizing culture, and diverse sources of knowledge, can improve assessments A major challenge today and into the future is to maintain or enhance beneficial contributions of nature to a good quality of life for all people. This is among the key motivations of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), a joint global effort by governments, academia, and civil society to assess and promote knowledge of Earths biodiversity and ecosystems and their contribution to human societies in order to inform policy formulation. One of the more recent key elements of the IPBES conceptual framework (1) is the notion of natures contributions to people (NCP), which builds on the ecosystem service concept popularized by the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA) (2). But as we detail below, NCP as defined and put into practice in IPBES differs from earlier work in several important ways. First, the NCP approach recognizes the central and pervasive role that culture plays in defining all links between people and nature. Second, use of NCP elevates, emphasizes, and operationalizes the role of indigenous and local knowledge in understanding natures contribution to people.

Himalayan medicinal plant diversity in an ecologically complex high altitude anthropogenic landscape, Dolpo, Nepal

The conservation of high-altitude medicinal plants is of concern throughout the Himalayan region, because they are important for traditional health care and in large-scale collection for trade. Because little is known regarding their conservation status in relation to the diversity of land-use patterns and habitats, this paper explores patterns of species composition and diversity of medicinal plants in five different pasture types in a traditionally-managed high-altitude landscape in northwest Nepal. Environmental variables, including human activities, strongly affected species composition, diversity and cover-abundance of medicinal plant species. Species richness of rare and commercially threatened medicinal plants (CTMP) showed patterns similar to overall medicinal plant species richness. Sub-alpine meadows, which have intermediate levels of human pressure related to grazing and relatively high levels of resource availability in terms of rainfall and soil nutrients, were richer in medicinal-plant species than alpine meadows. The coexistence of various plant communities under different human management regimes also enhanced landscape-level species diversity by maintaining some species restricted to particular habitat or pasture types. A number of medicinal plant species reported to be resistant to grazing were most abundant in heavily grazed sites. This pattern suggests that medicinal plant species may be positively influenced, to a certain extent, by human activities (mainly grazing). The combination of grazing and high levels of harvesting, however, had a negative impact on diversity and cover-abundance of rare and CTMP species. Maintenance of medicinal plant diversity and cover-abundance is critically dependent on managing grazing and resource harvesting to maintain levels that are both ecologically and economically sustainable. Forage for livestock and medicinal plants for local health care cannot be managed independently; a systems approach is needed, incorporating social management to accommodate the needs of different users. This could be achieved by maintenance of a mosaic landscape, in which different use patterns and pressures, reflecting the values attached to resources by different users and favouring different types of biodiversity, co-exist.

Resilience of Sweet Chestnut and Truffle Holm-Oak Rural Forests in Languedoc-Roussillon, France: Roles of Social-Ecological Legacies, Domestication, and Innovations

The Cevennes sweet chestnut (Castanea sativa Mill.) forest-orchards and the holm-oak (Quercus ilex L.) black truffle (Tuber melanosporum Vittad.) associations of the garrigue in Languedoc-Roussillon have suffered a century of decline because of great reductions of rural populations and lack of understanding of the ecological and social dimensions of these rural forests by sectorial public agencies. Levels of tree and forest domestication alternated during historical periods in parallel with statuses of disorganization and reorganization of local social groups. Social-ecological legacies intrinsically linked to trees, forests, and landscape domestication, as well as knowledge, social, and technical practices have been mobilized and provided a basis for knowledge innovations, new domestications, uses, and new institutional networks related to changes in social set- ups. Collective actions emerging from local needs to revive territories in a modern context, cross-scale and reciprocal exchanges of rural and scientific knowledge, as well as institutional changes are interrelated variables that have enabled innovations and have increased resilience of these rural forests. This paper opens new avenues for future research on the interplay between the effects of social-ecological legacies and innovations on the resilience of social-ecological systems. We explore how knowledge and practices of present day local farmers, relying on rural forests that have survived a long period of crisis verging on collapse, have enabled renewal processes. We aim in particular at understanding the interplay between local social-ecological legacies attached to biocultural elements such as domesticated trees, forests, landscapes, and present empirical practices and exchanges with extra-local and scientific knowledge. We compare renewal processes of two rural forests: the sweet chestnut (Castanea sativa Mill.) forest-orchards of the Cevennes and the black truffle (Tuber melanosporum Vittad.) holm-oak (Quercus ilex L.) association of the scrubland open forest (garrigue) in the region of Languedoc-Roussillon (hereafter LR). We compare ongoing movements to relaunch production of these rural or domestic forests that started in the 1950s in the context of changing economics and policies. Rural or domestic forests (RFs) are managed by farmers and are an element of agroecosystems, as opposed to forests as defined by conventional forestry. They carry patrimonial values, are embedded in local territories, and have specific socio-political histories (Michon et al. 2007, Genin et al. 2010). METHODS Our research methods mainly draw from ethnoecological and ecological studies conducted between 2007 and the present. We collected data on remnants of past knowledge and practices through conducting a series of open interviews with the oldest inhabitants of these communities (70 to 80 years old; hereafter elders). Their knowledge refers to their individual practices and transmissions of the value of these RFs by their parents and grandparents, born in the 1870 to 1880s. The latter had witnessed the virtual collapse of these RFs. The vision and knowledge of these inhabitants have been shaped not only by their individual practices, but also by collective memories and practices linked to shared and transmitted learning processes attached to trees, forests, and landscapes, a process termed as social-ecological memories by Barthel et al. (2010). Because they lived in a period of crisis, their understanding forms the basis upon which the regions current inhabitants, i.e., their

Notes taxonomiques et identification des Ficus malgaches

Abstract To facilitate identification of Ficus from Madagascar, using our field experience, we re—examined all the samples available a series of herbaria. We propose a small identification guide which complements the taxonomic treatment by C.C. Berg. Ficus species are remarkably homogeneous all over Madagascar: they do not present the generalized micro—endemism so frequently observed in Malagasy animals and plants.

Assessing nature's contributions to people: recognizing culture, and diverse sources of knowledge, can improve assessments

Recognizing culture, and diverse sources of knowledge, can improve assessments A major challenge today and into the future is to maintain or enhance beneficial contributions of nature to a good quality of life for all people. This is among the key motivations of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), a joint global effort by governments, academia, and civil society to assess and promote knowledge of Earths biodiversity and ecosystems and their contribution to human societies in order to inform policy formulation. One of the more recent key elements of the IPBES conceptual framework (1) is the notion of natures contributions to people (NCP), which builds on the ecosystem service concept popularized by the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA) (2). But as we detail below, NCP as defined and put into practice in IPBES differs from earlier work in several important ways. First, the NCP approach recognizes the central and pervasive role that culture plays in defining all links between people and nature. Second, use of NCP elevates, emphasizes, and operationalizes the role of indigenous and local knowledge in understanding natures contribution to people.