Global Biodiversity Assessment

A comparative food ethnobotanical study was carried out in fifteen local communities distributed in five districts in the Palestinian Authority, PA (northern West Bank), six of which were located in Nablus, two in Jenin, two in Salfit, three in Qalqilia, and two in Tulkarm. These are among the areas in the PA whose rural inhabitants primarily subsisted on agriculture and therefore still preserve the traditional knowledge on wild edible plants. Data on the use of wild edible plants were collected for one-year period, through informed consent semi-structured interviews with 190 local informants. A semi-quantitative approach was used to document use diversity, and relative importance of each species. The study recorded 100 wild edible plant species, seventy six of which were mentioned by three informants and above and were distributed across 70 genera and 26 families. The most significant species include Majorana syriaca, Foeniculum vulgare, Malvasylvestris, Salvia fruticosa, Cyclamen persicum, Micromeria fruticosa, Arum palaestinum, Trigonella foenum-graecum, Gundelia tournefortii, and Matricaria aurea. All the ten species with the highest mean cultural importance values (mCI), were cited in all five areas. Moreover, most were important in every region. A common cultural background may explain these similarities. One taxon (Majoranasyriaca) in particular was found to be among the most quoted species in almost all areas surveyed. CI values, as a measure of traditional botanical knowledge, for edible species in relatively remote and isolated areas (Qalqilia, and Salfit) were generally higher than for the same species in other areas. This can be attributed to the fact that local knowledge of wild edible plants and plant gathering are more spread in remote or isolated areas. Gathering, processing and consuming wild edible plants are still practiced in all the studied Palestinian areas. About 26 % (26/100) of the recorded wild botanicals including the most quoted and with highest mCI values, are currently gathered and utilized in all the areas, demonstrating that there are ethnobotanical contact points among the various Palestinian regions. The habit of using wild edible plants is still alive in the PA, but is disappearing. Therefore, the recording, preserving, and infusing of this knowledge to future generations is pressing and fundamental.

/pdf/traditional-knowledge-of-wild-edible-plants-used-in-sbyxbybszv.pdf

Traditional knowledge of wild edible plants used in Palestine (Northern West Bank): A comparative study

Recognized as a priority three decades ago, in situ conservation of crop wild relatives has developed theoretical and methodological focus and achieved significant on-the-ground progress in the last 10 years, most notably under the impetus of the plant genetic resources community. Literature and Internet searches and interviews with experts were undertaken as a basis for reviewing the current status and trends of this effort worldwide. Country-by-country summaries on in situ crop wild relatives conservation activities are presented, and recommendations are made for future action. Principal recommendations include ‘flagging’ of appropriate taxa as crop wild relatives in botanical and conservation databases, undertaking gap analyses to locate crop wild relatives hotspots, and enhancing cooperation between the plant genetic resources and plant conservation communities.

http://www.cropwildrelatives.org/fileadmin/templates/cropwildrelatives.org/upload/In_situ_Manual/In%20situ%20conservation%20of%20crop%20wild%20relatives%20-%20status%20and%20trends%E2%80%99,.pdf

In situ conservation of crop wild relatives: status and trends

Home gardens are defined as a system of production of diverse crop plant species, which can be adjacent to household or slightly further away and is easily accessible. Species composition and management systems of Nepalese home gardens are poorly known. The study was conducted to develop an inventory on composition of crop species and varietal diversity to characterise the home gardens of Rupandehi and Gulmi of western Nepal, and to observe the species change over the time for last 10–15 years. Semi-structured Interviews, Direct Observation and Focus Group Discussions were employed to collect primary data. Shannon–Weaver index (SWI) was used to determine the species richness. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) was employed to characterise the home gardens. Mid-hill SWI (H′ = 4.41) revealed the higher species diversity (131 species) as compared to terai (123 species). This species richness was significantly higher (p = 0.001) in the mid-hill area. The vegetable species constitute the major component followed by fruits and fodder species that also contributed to the species diversity. The size of home gardens and species richness was positively correlated (r
 s = 0.29, p = 0.001). Twenty crop species have been lost during the last 10–15 years and eleven species were threatened in the studied home gardens. Inaccessibility of local seed crops and deforestation were the major causes reported accounting for this trend. Self-saved seed was the major source of planting material in home gardens. There is a need to study the seed supply system for these home gardens. Therefore, a challenge is to make these home gardens self-supporting through creating a mechanism on strengthening local seed supply systems for long term sustainability of home garden in agrobiodiversity management.

Home gardens in western Nepal: opportunities and challenges for on-farm management of agrobiodiversity

Ethnopharmacology, food production, nutrition and biodiversity conservation: towards a sustainable future for indigenous peoples.

Vernon Heywood“Biodiversity is a non-detachable part of the concept of sustainability. ... biodiversity is es-sential for agricultural production, as agriculture should be for biodiversity conservation.”Brazilian Government proposal to SBSTTA of the CBD, Second MeetingMontreal 2–6 September 1996Although the context of this paper is a “World Biodiversity Update,” any attempt at such would be pre-sumptuous if not impossible. What I will attempt, however, is to highlight some of the major developments inbiodiversity action and policy that have emerged during the past year or two. In fact, several of these aredirectly related to agricultural biodiversity, and indeed to the issue of new crops. Then I shall explore themain trends in the appreciation, conservation and sustainable use of what is termed agricultural biodiversity.The coming into effect of the Convention on Biological Diversity has led to a wide range of activitiesand initiatives as governments attempt to get to grips with the problems of implementing what is no more thanan outline convention. The deliberations of the Conference of the Parties (COP) of the Convention and itsSubsidiary Body for Scientific Technical and Technological Advice (SBSTTA) have been criticized by someas spending too much time on issues such as biotechnology, biosafety, and intellectual property rights (Raven1998) while issues such as the preservation of species have been ignored. Others regard the Convention asproviding incentives for countries to conserve and sustainably use their own biodiversity and ensure that thebenefits derived from it by third parties are equitably shared (Seyani 1998). Certainly, a great deal of contro-versy has been generated by matters such as access to genetic resources, farmers’ rights, and technology trans-fer, reflecting different attitudes and perceptions between developing and developed countries. These areserious issues that demand attention and while those of us who are alarmed at the growing rate of biodiversityloss and habitat destruction are naturally impatient and would like to see more urgent steps being taken tostem the losses, progress in reconciling the different positions is being made and at the same time many coun-tries are taking positive steps to put in place mechanisms for the conservation and sustainable use of theirbiodiversity.Another key development was the endorsement by governments of the Global Plan of Action (GPA) forthe “Conservation and Sustainable Use of Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture” at the Interna-tional Technical Conference on Plant Genetic Resources held in Leipzig, 17–23 June 1996 (FAO 1996).The GPA sets out a global strategy for the conservation and sustainable use of plant genetic resources forfood and agriculture with an emphasis on productivity, sustainability and equity (Cooper et al. 1998) andcomplements the CBD. In fact, a significant development that followed from these two was the convergenceof interest between bodies such as FAO and IPGRI and conservation and development organizations and agenciessuch UNESCO-MAB, IUCN, WWF, and ITDG. On the one hand, the CBD recognized agricultural biodiversityas a focal area in view of its social and economic relevance and the prospects offered by sustainable agricul-ture for reducing the negative impacts of biological diversity, enhancing the value of biological diversity andlinking conservation efforts with social and economic benefits (Decision III/11 Conservation and SustainableUse of Agricultural Biological Diversity of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on BiologicalDiversity). On the other hand, it is recognized that the Global Plan of Action covers a number ofmultidisciplinary areas such as in situ conservation of wild plants and crop relatives in natural ecosystems thatextend the traditional activities of sustainable agriculture and plant genetic resource conservation and thatsuccessful implementation will require the development of new partnerships with a range of intergovernmen-tal and non-governmental organizations as well as with indigenous and local communities.Another area of developing concern is the role of indigenous communities in the conservation and sus-tainable use of biodiversity. Although the all-pervading influence of human action in modifying biodiversityis widely recognized, and the Global Biodiversity Assessment (Heywood 1985) included a whole section onthis topic, the complexity of the social, cultural, ethical, religious, and other human interactions with biodiversity

/pdf/trends-in-agricultural-biodiversity-4q6xzblj3u.pdf

Vernon Heywood

Papers

Trends in Agricultural Biodiversity