MEDICINAL PLANT’s CONSERVATION IN AGRO-ECOSYSTEMS AND ITS IMPACT

Abstract:
Biodiversity includes all components of biological diversity of relevance to food and agriculture, including genetic crop and livestock resources. Agricultural and forest biodiversity provides food, income and materials for clothing, shelter and medicine. It also executes ecological services essential to human survival, such as nutrient cycling, pest and disease regulation and pollination.
Much has been written about the impacts on biodiversity from land use practices, but only limited work has been done on how foresters and farmers, the "custodians of biodiversity," manage their resources to sustain and enhance them. Through innovation and experiment, foresters and farmers have accumulated rich knowledge of managed biodiversity. Collaborative efforts among scientists, foresters and small farmers have been initiated to tap traditional’ knowledge and skills for the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity in agro-ecosystems.
Management of forest biodiversity has temporal and spatial attributes as well as socio-economic implications. This paper intended to share the experiences and ideas of the community working on biodiversity with the hope that the collected knowledge would be useful for international and national biodiversity programmes and policy.


Key words: Biodiversity Conservation, Medicinal Plants, Strategies

Introduction
India is one of the world's 12 mega diversity centers with 47000 plant species and is divided into twenty agro-eco zones (Prakash and Singh 2001). The increased pressure on forest and other vegetation areas for fodder, fuel wood and livelihood requirements has resulted in degradation of both agriculture and forest areas with associated loss of biodiversity of this highly fragile ecosystem. It is well recognized that 4/5th of the population earn their livelihood on subsistence agriculture and animal husbandry. Husain et al., 2002 studied the socio-economic condition of some areas of Uttaranchal and found that people of the area heavily depend on the forest resources. Further Husain and Raina, 2004 have noticed significant awareness among the farmers towards the conservation of the resources.

National Forest Policy of 1988 emphasizes the involvement of people in protection, regeneration and development of forest ecosystem by preventing further degradation of forest, rehabilitation of degraded forest areas and finding alternate source of timber, fuel wood and fodder. Increasing population has raised the demand for agriculture produce on one hand and reduced the size of land holding on the other. This has resulted in conversion of marginal lands into agricultural lands and encroachment of forestlands. If integrated efforts are not undertaken timely to arrest the degradation processes, this may further complicate the already serious ecological consequences.

The current study focused on developing and adopting an integrated and participatory village agro–ecosystem approach to meet the diverse biomass needs of the communities and simultaneously to promote restoration of biodiversity on degraded lands.

This will require sustainable and integrated management of agricultural lands along with degraded forest and community lands keeping in view the resource requirements of the population. These efforts may result in reduction in land degradation; increase biomass resulting in higher sequestration of carbon and in–situ conservation of genetic diversity of endemic trees and medicinal plants. The added focus on improved livestock management and productivity is expected to increase the income generation activity of the farmers and at the same time reduce pressure on the forest resources.

Methodology
Successive fieldwork has been conducted since 2001 on soil, ecological studies investigations till 2003 and a more detailed study on plants of medicinal importance. Primary ethnobotanical data was obtained from knowledgeable persons or key informants of a community. Each and every community or village has loyal specialists, medicine men or herbal practitioners freely accessible to their respective communities. On the basis of gathered information conservation strategy proposed.

Results and Discussion
Assessment of the rare, endangered and endemic species requires a lot of extensive and intensive field study, exposure and experience in workshops, thorough scientific knowledge and vast literature search. Our knowledge is limited to plant diversity and the process of evaluation. The Botanical Survey of India has done commendable work on rare and endemic species of the country and the regional assessment of medicinal plants has been conducted

Evaluation of rare, endangered and endemic species requires a lot of energy, vast field experience and scientific know how. The present assessment is not at all exhaustive, and the categorization being for the first time in India, will certainly require re-evaluation at the appropriate time. The IUCN criteria also provide that if the original categorization is found erroneous, or if any changes occur, the taxon can be transferred to the appropriate category or removed from the threatened category altogether without delay. The essential message is that identified, threatened and endemic species of ethnomedicinal plants should be given top priority for in-situ and ex-situ conservation. This involves the conservation of genetic resources of plants away from their area of origin or development. Traditionally, International Plant Genetic Research Institute (IPGRI) has collected diversity of crops with orthodox seed and encouraged their conservation in cold storage. Collections were also made of some crops with recalcitrant seed that were stored as live plants in field gene banks. Ex situ conservation occurs mainly in gene banks that can be categorized into four principal types:

1.Seed gene banks,
2.Field gene banks,
3.in vitro gene banks and
4.Cryo-preserved gene banks

The different gene banks that exist face a range of problems related to evaluation, characterisation, monitoring, regeneration, data management, storage and dissemination of available technical information. For each category of gene banks, specific actions must be undertaken in order to tackle the problems that are threatening the conservation of genetic resources in these banks. The matrix in the recapitulates the various methodological approaches that have been identified to bring some solutions to the problems that gene banks face. There is also a need to evaluate the effectiveness of these existing gene banks for their effectiveness and efficiency. To invest in the development of core collections and finding a combination of techniques for cost effective germplasm conservation in the region and solve the problems of maintaining the viability of germplasm ex situ.

The main objective of gene banks is to encourage, support and undertake activities to improve the management of genetic resources so as to eradicate poverty, increase food security and protect the environment. In situ (agro-ecosystem) conservation is a relatively new approach to the science of plant gene resource conservation. It involves the management of diversity in agro- and natural ecosystems, and focuses on the processes that create and maintain diversity in ecosystems. It thus promotes biodiversity enrichment and conservation in situ, conservation as:

“The maintenance and recovery of viable populations of species in their natural surroundings and, in the case of domesticated or cultivated species, in the surroundings where they have developed their distinctive properties.”

In situ conservation allows for the continued evolution of varieties while conserving adaptive traits in a broad sense. The system can also increase the control of local communities over their genetic resources. To expand its activities and intensify operations and capacity development with national partners in this area. A schematic representation showing the linkage of in situ conservation to ex situ is shown in figure below.


Conservation and Use of Plant Genetic Resources


Some of the key elements and activities under the in situ agro-ecosystem component include understanding diversity in in situ conservation systems, enhancing the benefits of crop genetic resources to ensure in situ conservation on farm, socioeconomic studies and environmental and resource management studies. To encourage conservation of natural ecosystems has a long history, but is a relatively new area. The focus in recent years has been on forest ecosystems. Plant gene resource expends its scope into crop wild relatives and medicinal plants; there will be a need for developing strategies on how to conserve species in the wild habitats. The main interest here is that of protecting the habitat of target species of crop wild relatives and medicinal plants so that the natural evolutionary processes can be maintained so as to generate new variation in the genepool to cope with the rapidly changing environmental conditions. Key activities in this field would involve:

a.Studies on ecogeographic distribution of target species
b.Understanding the population structure, dynamics and genetic variability within and between populations
c.Identification of threats to target species in the wild and actions to mitigate these threats
d.Management of natural ecosystem including establishment of genetic reserves, ecological restoration and species recovery plans

Plant genetic resources of crops and other major socio-economically valuable plant species are the biological base for food security and, directly or indirectly, support the livelihoods of every person on earth. Diversity of plant genetic resources is currently being lost in both the fields and the forests of rural people and in gene banks.

Promoting the conservation and sustainable utilization of the genetic diversity of crops and other major socio-economically valuable plant species will be essential as a basis to world food security and sustainable development. For conservation of the medicinal plant and traditional knowledge the following are important issues –

1.In situ conservation of the wild populations of medicinal plants:

This is essential in order to conserve their inter-and intra-specific diversity and to design a conservation programme in such a way that it also becomes a source of genuine and quality planting materials for user groups. The issue is of critical importance as it can ensure the long-term availability of medicinal plant resources of the country. It is well known that a cultivation programme needs the back up of germplasm banks in order to be viable because even if millions of hectares of selected varieties of various species are put under cultivation, the species can still go extinct in the wild. A well-designed community supported in situ conservation programme spread across the ecosystems of the country is the most cost-effective way to conserve the germplasm of the country’s medicinal plant resources.

2.Sustainable harvest of medicinal plants from the wild:

This issue is very important as currently, ninety percent of the raw material requirements of this sector are extracted from the wild. This harvest is to a large extent unregulated. Over-harvesting due to intensified local use or to meet commercial demand is becoming a growing problem. It is essential to therefore work towards a future scenario wherein 70 to 80 percent of the medicinal plant requirements will be met from cultivation but around 20 to 30 percent of the resources will still need to be sourced from the wild. In fact one third of the medicinal plants that are in trade involve non-destructive harvest, because the parts needed are fruits, flowers and leaves. A well-designed intervention based on the Joint Forest Management (JFM) system, is therefore needed to replace the current unregulated, illegal and often destructive harvest of medicinal plants from the wild.

3.Regulating trade in threatened and other wild species:

India does not yet have an institutionalised mechanism in place for identification of threatened species and their notification and for regulation of wild harvest. The wild populations of around 1000 species of medicinal plants are estimated to be under various degrees of threat. This issue needs to be urgently addressed in order to prevent medicinal plant species from going into extinction. Designing an institutionalized intervention in this regard is in fact an obligation to be met under the requirements of The Biodiversity Act (2002).

4.Mainstreaming traditional medicine into official primary health care programmes:

Today, the content of primary health care services delivered through district rural hospitals, block level primary health care centres and village cluster level primary health care units are all based almost entirely on western biomedicine. Despite the fact that there are safe and efficacious traditional herbal remedies for several primary health care problems, these remedies are not integrated into the primary health care programmes of state governments. This intervention will explore via pilot experiments the scope for judicious complementing of the existing primary health care services by adding inputs from the Indian Systems of Medicine (ISM). This kind of an integrated approach to primary health care has already been established in China and needs to be urgently put in place in India in order to improve the quality and lower the costs of primary health care services. It may also be rewarding to select a few reputed private health centres and work out with them a similar programme for integration of traditional medicine inputs in their health care services.

5.Revitalising local health cultures associated with medicinal plants:

Revitalising is relevant in the context of both health and livelihood security. It concerns the self-reliance of rural and urban households in dealing with common ailments, preventive and promotive health care without the aid of medical professionals and medical institutions. Today, despite pioneering small-scale NGO efforts there are no mainstream strategies for revitalisation of local health cultures associated with the use of ecosystem specific medicinal plants. These local community-based health cultures despite their widespread presence and enormous potential to contribute to the self-reliance of rural communities via home remedies, traditional health foods, customs and the services of a host of folk healers like traditional birth attendants, bone-setters, visha vaidyas, herbal healers, veterinary healers and millions of knowledgeable households are rapidly eroding. They were given no place in official health policy till the recent 2002 policy statement of the Government of India. The policy makes a specific mention of the need to revitalise local health traditions. There is however an urgent need to translate this recent policy into effective actions as these traditions are weakening in part due to the very marginal state patronage and support and for the other part due to the erosion of their natural resource base. Unless an effective plan and strategy for revitalising local health cultures is undertaken they are likely to be irretrievably lost with consequent debilitating effects both on the health security of millions of households, as well as on the conservation of local medicinal plant resources. It is well accepted today that cultural diversity and biodiversity go hand in hand and if we destroy one, the destruction of the other will follow.

6.Involving R & D Centres in the service of traditional medicine:

Involving R & D centres is important because certain sections of the public are looking for scientific explanations for traditional medical practices. It is however important to note that in fact traditional theory does provide explanation and validation for traditional practices. The problem however is that there is no bridge between traditional knowledge and modern science. It is therefore important to identify competent R & D laboratories and research centres that are prepared to dedicate a part of their professional services towards the revitalisation of local health cultures. These services are needed in areas such as product development, development of quality control standards, certification of raw materials and finished products and with respect to pre-clinical and clinical studies. It is however important to develop the modern parameters for best traditional practices based on the traditional theory and clinical practice in order to take advantage of the evolved understanding and the centuries of experience that underlie traditional healthcare. The challenge is to use modern tools creatively to explain traditional knowledge in order to improve the communication between the two knowledge systems.

7.Protection of community Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) related to folk knowledge of medicinal plants:

The relevance of this issue arises from the assumption that sizable economic benefits will accrue from large-scale commercialisation of TM knowledge. This raises the important issue of how best these benefits can be shared between innovators and the holders of Traditional Knowledge (TK). The Traditional Knowledge Digital Library (TKDL) initiative of the GoI has so far only sought to digitise and protect the knowledge of medicinal plants derived from codified traditional medical systems from false IPR claims. Oral traditions of various ethnic communities are at present outside the purview of TKDL. The Biodiversity Act (2002) and the idea of Community Knowledge Register envisaged by it, can provide the opportunity of extending the scope of TKDL to local and community knowledge of medicinal plants. Unless this extension of TKDL is adopted, local health cultures will remain vulnerable to bio-piracy. Their systematic documentation is at this point of their history also an essential step for their revitalisation and use by future generations.

8.Contributing to broadening of the cultural and intellectual base of curricula:

This issue is important with respect to the school system as it can influence thousands of young minds and sensitise them to the contemporary relevance of traditional knowledge of medicinal plants. A similar intervention at another level is also relevant in medical colleges. In several medical schools abroad, education planners have already introduced a module on Complementary and Alternative Medicine into the syllabi. In India, which is home to such a rich medical heritage, introduction of a module on ISM into the syllabi of all medical colleges is perhaps long overdue.

9.Meeting unrealised rural livelihood potential:

Development of livelihoods targeted particularly on women and the rural poor is undoubtedly an important development objective in the context of poverty alleviation. A large rural employment potential through organising collection, cultivation and semi-processing of medicinal plants is latent in the projected growth of the herbal sector. One of the ways this can be realised is through community-owned enterprises. However for this potential to be achieved it needs systematic efforts at the grass roots for organising and training small and marginal farmers and Self-Help Women Groups, (SHWGs) to undertake organic cultivation and collection of medicinal plants. It is also necessary to build suitable infrastructure and provide quality know-how, under the auspices of a well-designed enterprise. Further, community-owned enterprises need whole-hearted support of the best R & D, financial and marketing agencies in order to function effectively.

Addressing policy issues: Successful interventions on the various issues outlined above will have significant policy implications in the forestry, health, R & D, IPR and rural employment sectors. These policy implications for the various sectors are outlined below:

Forestry - for in situ conservation, for sustainable harvest from the wild and for regulating trade in wild species.
Primary health care - for recognising the complementary role of Indian systems of medicine in primary health care.
R & D Institutions - for supporting the R & D needs of community-owned enterprises and local health cultures.
IPR - for extending IPR protection for informal Traditional Knowledge of local communities.
Rural employment - for encouraging financial institutions, corporates, fair trade organisations, rural development departments, private foundations and NGOs to proactively support the capacity building, finance and marketing needs of community owned enterprises of the rural poor.
Education – for enriching syllabi with inputs from Traditional Knowledge.

One of the Millennium Development Goals target focuses on maintaining species and ecosystem diversity, and it recognizes the central role that within species genetic diversity plays in improving production and use of crops and useful wild species. The need to conserve this genetic diversity has long been recognized and supported by national and international activities, particularly the Global Plan of Action. Target 9 creates the appropriate framework and objective to secure the diversity needed to achieve key CBD objectives and the Millennium Development Goals.

Although for crop plants, the emphasis to date has been on ex situ conservation, the value of maintaining crop genetic diversity in situ in production systems is being increasingly recognized. Farmers and rural people play a crucial role in the conservation and utilization of plant genetic resources on farm and in nature. The best of traditional knowledge and modern technologies will be needed to reach the target.

Natural ecosystems hold important socio-economically valuable plant species, including useful forestry species, endemic and threatened wild crop relatives, wild plants for food production and important medicinal and ornamental species. The genetic diversity of these species is essential to viable population maintenance and evolution, and is potentially an economically important component of natural ecosystems which cannot be maintained ex situ.

Unique and particularly diverse populations of these genetic resources must be protected in situ when they are under threat. This target will therefore be closely linked to other targets. Given the enormous loss and fragmentation of natural habitats that has occurred during the last century there is worldwide concern about the problem of species extinction. Medicinal plant resources also face this threat and more so because even today 90% of their use is based on harvest from the wild. Whereas cultivation can reduce the pressure on wild populations it cannot conserve the wild germplasm. There is growing understanding of the fact that in situ conservation of medicinal plants is the only solution, which can ensure their long-term availability.


References

Husain, H.J., Raina, A.K. and Phrasi, S.C.(2002), “Socio-economic Impact of Integrated Watershed Management” In: Resources Conservation and Watershed Management :Technology Options and Future Strategies (Eds) S.K.Dhyani, K.P.Tirphati, Ratan Singh, A. Raizada, N.K. Sharma, A.S. Mishra, S.S. Shrimali, B.L. Dhayani, A.R. Sharma and O.P.S. Khola. ICSWC, Dehradun, (India). pp 329-332.

Husain, H.J. and Raina, A.K. (2004) “Adoption of Agriculture Technology Before and After the introduction of Watershed Management Project Indian Journal of Forestry Vol. 27(2.) pp201

Prakash, Anand and Singh, K.K (2001) Use of medicinal plants by certain tribal people in North India. J.Trop, Med.Plants,2(2):225-229