Allachy project: Identification and conservation of Important Plant Areas for Medicinal Plants in the Himalaya
Sangeeta Rajbhandary and Krishna Shrestha of the Ethnobotanical Society of Nepal (ESON) planning the regional workshop held at Kathmandu in September 2006 © Alan Hamilton
Awardees
- The awardees were the Ethnobotanical Society of Nepal (Professor K.K. Shrestha), Pragya (India: Gargi Banergi), the Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences (Professor Pei Shengji), WWF-Pakistan (Ashiq Ahmad Khan) and the Ministry of Agriculture, Royal Government of Bhutan (Dr Yeshey Dorji). The project was co-ordinated by Plantlife International (Liz Radford).
- A workshop held at Kathmandu on 19-22 September 2006 was organised by the Ethnobotanical Society of Nepal and Plantlife.
Project period: October 2005 to December 2006
Project account by Alan Hamilton, 11 July 2007
- National reports on Identification and Conservation of Important Plant Areas for the Medicinal Plants in the Himalayas were prepared by national teams in Bhutan, China, India, Nepal and Pakistan. They include accounts of threats to these plants and current initiatives on their conservation.
- A workshop to discuss the reports and see the way forward was held at Kathmandu on 19-22 September 2006.
- A report on the results of the project has been published and is available (see link above).
- Plantlife is following up this project with further initiatives to promote networking through the Himalayas for conservation of medicinal plants
Project description
The Himalayas are a major centre for medicinal plants, with millions of people involved in their use and their trade. Virtually all medicinal plants sourced from the Himalayas are collected from the wild with numerous reports of over-harvesting. Most inhabitants of the Himalayas rely mainly on herbal medicine and there are perhaps a further 2 billion people who use medicinal plants from the Himalayas through their taking of Ayurvedic, Chinese or Unani medicines. Medicinal plants are of major economic importance. For instance, in Nepal it is estimated that around 400,000 households (2.6 million people) are involved in the commercial collection of wild medicinal plants, contributing an average of 12% to household income (but nearer to 50% in the case of some poorer families living at higher altitudes).
All the Himalayan countries are faced with similar problems in the management and use of medicinal plants. There are also cross-border issues especially trade in medicinal plants that require co-operation for their successful regulation. This project brought together representatives from Bhutan, China, India, Nepal and Pakistan to discuss priorities in medicinal plant conservation and identify opportunities for regional collaboration.
