Allachy project: the development of methodologies for conservation of medicinal plants based on field-level application at Ludian, Yunnan, China

Grantee:

Kunming Institute of Botany
The Chinese Academy of Sciences
Helongtan, Kunming
Yunnan
650204
People's Republic of China.

Project period: June 2006 to May 2008

Highlights

• A community-based project intended to develop methodologies for the conservation of medicinal plants at Important Plant Areas in the Chinese Himalayas.
• Ludian, the project site, is situated in Yunnan Province. It is exceptional for its extensive long-established cultivation of medicinal plants.
• The project will concentrate mainly on development of community-based management systems for sustainable wild plant harvesting.
• The project will also demonstrate techniques for the sustainable cultivation of medicinal plants.

Project account written by Professor Pei Shengji and Yang Lixin

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Click here for an account of a visit to the project, April 2007

Click here for interim project report, July 2007

Project description

Introduction

The Chinese Himalayas are distributed over five provinces in western China, making-up one-fifth of the total landmass of the country. These provinces are Tibet (Xizang), Qinghai, Gansu, Sichuan and Yunnan.

Ludian Community, the project site, is situated in Yulong County, Lijiang Prefecture, Northwest Yunnan. Northwest Yunnan has been identified as one of six Important Plant Areas (IPAs) for medicinal plants in the Chinese Himalayas (as reported at a workshop in Kathmandu, Nepal, in September 2006). IPAs are defined, in general, as the most important sites at national level for the conservation of plant species diversity. The purpose of the present project is to develop approaches to medicinal plant conservation at an IPA in the Chinese Himalayas, based on community approaches.

Ludian is a mountainous area lying at 2000-3500m altitude, rich in plant species, including medicinal plants, and with a fairly diverse range of types of natural vegetation and habitats. The land area of Ludian is 107 km², about 60% being forest covered.

Ludian has 6,000 inhabitants, living in 1,600 households. 90% of them are ethnic Naxi people, with long traditions of collection, harvesting and management of medicinal plants at this site. More than 30% of the households at Ludian are engaged in medicinal plant collection and cultivation, contributing 10-70% of household income. 30% of families are solely dependent on medicinal plants financially.

Some types of wild medicinal plants are threatened at Ludian through over-harvesting, habitat destruction (such as deforestation) and changes in land use. The root causes of over-harvesting are connected to policy changes on land and resource ownership, but population pressure and some development interventions also contribute. The most threatened plants tend to be commercially high value species, such as Gastrodia alata, Taxus wallichiana and Paris polyphylla var. yunnanesis.

Project objectives

The general objective of the project is to contribute to the evelopment of methodologies for plant conservation at IPAs, concentrating on aspects relating to medicinal plants. The specific objectives of the project are:

1. Conservation of threatened species of medicinal plants and their habitats at Ludian;
2. Support for livelihood security through conservation of wild medicinal plants based on sustainable harvesting;
3. Promotion of sustainable medicinal plant cultivation.

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Methodology

This project relies heavily on the use of ethnobotanical approaches and methods. Specific technical methods include:

1. An ethnobotanical inventory of locally used medicinal plants;
2. Use of quantitative methods to assess harvesting of wild medicinal plants;
3. A field survey on habitat change and status of threatened species;
4. Community participation to assess the benefits received by different stakeholders from medicinal plants.

Activities

• Baseline survey of the community at Ludian.
• Assessment of current medicinal plant harvesting and cultivation at Ludian.
• Development of different models for community-based conservation and livelihood development (based on medicinal plants) at Ludian.
• Development of community mechanisms, including institutional development, for medicinal plant conservation and cultivation.
• Provision of on-site demonstration and training for villagers.

Expected outputs

• Report on wild medicinal plant harvesting and impact on habitats at Ludian.
• On-site demonstration sites established, including 30 households home gardens, an area of 0.5 ha for medicinal plant cultivation on farmland and a 1 ha area for cultivation of medicinal plants in natural habitats (e.g. through enrichment planting).
• Two training workshops on medicinal plant harvesting and cultivation.
• One training booklet and one VCD report of project activities.
• Paper on preliminary ideas about community-based approaches and methods for conservation of medicinal plants at an IPA.
• Sustainable harvesting of wild medicinal plants through community participation and based on community organizations.
• Development of benefit-sharing approaches among stakeholders, as locally acceptable.
• A demonstration site on best practise in conservation of medicinal plants established (i.e. Ludian as a whole).

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Project progress so far (November 2006)

1. Participatory planning (pre-project phase)

• Introduction to and collaboration established with Ludian township government and two villages administrations.
• Discussed with 26 farmers at two potential demonstration sites for project activities by project team (April 2006). Together members of the the project team from the Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Science in, this mean that a total of 32 people were involved in project planning at the project site.

2. Baseline survey

• Completed fieldwork of baseline survey
• Analysis of medicinal plant and habitat information collected by project team (on-going in September 2006).

3. Plans for follow up work

• Development of a community organization at two site villages (December 2006).
• Establishment of demonstration sites, including 30 home gardens, 0.5 ha farmland cultivation, and 1ha cultivation in wild habitat (June and July 2007)
• Training work: production of training booklet and activities to demonstrate sustainable harvesting of wild medicinal plants and sustainable cultivation (September 2007).

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