Community-based conservation and sustainable use of potential medicinal plants in Rasuwa, Nepalese Himalaya

Progress Report, 13 November 2006

By Dr Krishna Shrestha (President of the Ethnobotanical Society of Nepal - ESON)

I am delighted to inform you that the Inception Workshop on "Medicinal plant resources of Rasuwa District: Sustainable utilization and Conservation" was successfully concluded on November 9, 2006 in Dhunche, the district headquarter of Rasuwa. The programme was organized by ESON, in collaboration with two local NGOs namely, Manekor Society Nepal - Rasuwa and Federation of Community Forest User Groups Nepal (FECOFUN) - Rasuwa Branch. A 4-page brochure, prepared in the Nepali language, was distributed to the participants. The brochure contained information on the programme schedule, a brief introduction on medicinal plants, and list of 20 popular medicinal plants of Rasuwa with uses, localities of occurrence, etc.

From ESON, I was accompanied by Dr. Narendra Tiwari (Vice-President), Ila Shrestha (Joint Secretary), Sangeeta Rajbhandary (Treasurer), Ram Chandra Poudel (Executive Member) and two M. Sc. students (Kamal Humagain and Ms. Saroj Yadav).

The programme was chaired by the President of ESON (myself), and the Chief District Officer graced the programme as the chief guest. The Local Development Officer, the District Forest Officer, the Acting Warden of the Langtang National Park, the District Police Officer and a Nepal Army Officer were the key participants. Similarly, the District Soil Conservation Officer, the District Agriculture Officer, the Chief of an ayurvedic hospital, representives of two political parties, herbal traders, and Tamang communities, representing community forest user groups (CFUGs), were also present in the programme.

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The main outcomes of the workshop were:

1. The project will be implemented in two sites of Rasuwa District (one inside the National Park and other outside the park) in collaboration with Manekor and FECOFUN Rasuwa.
2. A detailed inventory of the medicinal plants, strategies for sustainable harvesting of medicinal plants and preparation of operational plans for five community forests of Chilime Village Development Committee (VDC) (outside the national park) will be carried out in collaboration with the District Forest Office and Community Forest User Groups (CFUGs).
3. An inventory of the medicinal plants in the Cholangpati-Gosainkunda area (inside the national park) will be carried out in collaboration with Langtang National Park.
4. A medicinal plant information centre (with display of photographs, GIS maps, charts and posters, literature (library), herbarium specimens and museum specimens) will be established in Dhunche, with the collaboration of ESON, Manekor and the Association of Government Employees.
5. Two training programmes on utilization of medicinal plant resources, and sustainable harvesting/in-situ conservation of MPs will be carried out in May/June and August/September 2007 respectively.
6. Two masters (M.Sc.) students will carry out dissertation works, with the help of two field assistants (selected from local communities) in the two project sites, under the supervision of myself and Sangeeta.

After the inception meeting, we visited Chilime VDC (one of the project sites) and an interactive programme with the local CFUGs was organized for the next day. Five to seven participants (all Tamangs), representing five CFUGs, were present for the programme. Thirty-two others (16 male and 16 female) attended the meeting. With the help of these people, we were able to prepare medicinal plant resource maps of all five community forests. What a great experience!

Yesterday myself, Dr NN Tiwari, Sangeeta and Ila returned to Kathmandu via Dhunche, whereas Ram, Kamal and Saroj continued to work at both project sites for a further two days.

In brief, the programme was a great success. We are extremely happy with the outcome of the workshop and our site-based interaction programme. We are grateful to our local collaborators and the authorities of government offices, and other concerned people for their extremely helpful attitude and great hospitality offered to us.

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