New Page 1

Participatory Conservation of Threatened Medicinal Plants and Habitats in Rasuwa District, Central Nepal

Period of project: 12 months (June 1, 2008 to May 31, 2009)

Supported by: Plantlife International, UK

Project purpose

Major goal of this project is to continue the in situ conservation of Medicinal plants in Rasuwa initiated in the first phase of the project in Chilime and replicate the successful learning in the neighboring village development committees (Thuman and Gatlang) in order achieve optimum conservation outcomes. This phase would also focus on in situ conservation of medicinal plants in the project area by the establishment of medicinal plants conservation area (MPCA) and formation of MPCA management committee to monitor and regulate the activities within MPCA.

Objectives

Identification of important medicinal plants and their sites in Gatlang, Chilime and Thuman VDCs by community-based participatory discussion and resource mapping.
Selection of top five priority species of medicinal plants and two to three potential sites/habitats, ranked by local community.
Prioritize major community-based conservation strategies to conserve important medicinal plants and associated habitats.
Establish the medicinal plants conservation area (MPCA) in the project area for in situ conservation of threatened medicinal plants.
Build capacity of community forest users groups in the sustainable harvesting, pre and post harvesting techniques, and ex situ conservation of potential medicinal plants (threatened and having high market values)
Establishment of Plant Resource Information Centre at district headquarter Dhunche
Based on communities interest and convenience, form VDC level medicinal plants monitoring teams (or MPCA management committee), and develop effective network between medicinal plants monitoring team within VDCs and with neighboring VDCs

Development of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants Network (MAPs-Net) Nepal

Period of project: 6 months (June – November, 2008)

Supported by: ICIMOD

Significance of the project

Detailed data on the distribution of globally important plant species in sites are unavailable, and a comprehensive global threat assessment reflecting true global conservation priorities within most plant groups is lacking. The selection of medicinal plants as a floristic sub-group for this purpose has been considered intuitively reasonable. This is because of the large number of Himalayan species that are regarded as medicinal and the livelihood that, being useful plants, their distribution and conservation status are probably relatively well known. Moreover, there have been substantial declines in traditional knowledge about Himalayan medicinal plants over the last 50 years. This is a serious matter for conservation, as traditional knowledge forms an obvious basis from which to develop modern conservation strategies.

Objectives

Identify, mobilize, convene and appraise key stakeholders actively engaged in MAP sector of Nepal and develop a functional, vibrant, and forward looking network engaged in information and knowledge networking, research methodology development and awareness raising activities;
Carry our desktop state-of-art study on medicinal, aromatic and dye plants (MADP), with emphasis on Nepal Government’s prioritized species, and their products development and marketing to promote sustainable conservation and equitable commercialization;
Build database of a) key researchers/field workers/ advocates/policy makers; b) research and MAP Development & Outreach organizations; c) MAP projects and d) Nepal-based donors;
Promote public-private partnership/forum;
Review MAPs policy for conservation, cultivation, trade and overall management; and
Create an open access mechanism to make the detail information of Map sector accessible to all the stakeholders.