Home gardens are popular micro land-use system and are socioeconomically linked with people for their livelihood. In the foothill region of Eastern Himalaya, very less documentations are available on species richness of the home gardens, particularly on the ethnomedicinal plants. We assumed that the home garden owners of the study site are domesticating ethnomedicinal plants which are not easily accessible to them in the wild due to distant forest. This study was planned to explore and document the diversity and population status of ethnomedicinal plants in the home gardens along with its ethnomedicinal use. The present study was conducted in the home gardens of Cooch Behar district of West Bengal from May 2017 to May 2018. A multidisciplinary approach like collection of plant specimen, interview with structured questionnaire for documenting the utilization pattern, and quadrat methods for population study was applied. We selected 150 study sites randomly in the village cluster. The owners of the gardens were the respondents for the household survey. The study documented diversity, population size, and medicinal uses of ethnomedicinal plant species identified by the garden owners growing or being grown in their gardens. A total of 260 plant species were reported, of which, 53 were utilized for different ethnomedicinal applications. These 53 species were represented by 35 families and 45 genera. Most of these ethnomedicinal species were woody perennials (37.73%). Cocus nucifera dominated the list with highest number of use followed by Hibiscus rosa-sinensis. The use value of the species varied from 0.006 to 0.53, while the fidelity value (%) ranged from 2.29 to 93.75%. The leaves of the plants were mostly used for ethnomedicinal applications (19 species) followed by fruits (12 species) and bark (9 species), and the least was the root (7 species). We documented 20 different ailments/diseases cured by using these plants. In some cases, more than one species are used to cure a disease or ailment. As many as 10 species were used to cure only stomach-related problems. Some more diseases like cough and cold and jaundice were treated using six and four species, respectively. This documented list of 260 plant species including 53 ethnomedicinal ones from the home gardens of the study area indicates that these gardens are key in maintaining diversity and source of healthcare system in agricultural dominant landscape. Documenting such ecological status and traditional applications becomes a prerequisite for developing conservation and management strategies of home gardens to be included in the mainstream conservation processes.

/pdf/floristic-composition-and-utilization-of-ethnomedicinal-3ytxhnnhfa.pdf

Floristic composition and utilization of ethnomedicinal plant species in home gardens of the Eastern Himalaya.

The forest flora of eastern North America includes many herbaceous plant species traded in domestic and international medicinal markets. Conservation concerns surrounding wild-collection exist and transitioning to cultivation in agroforestry systems has potential economic and ecological benefits. Costs and revenues associated with adopting forest cultivation were modeled for eight North American medicinal forest plants. Sensitivity analysis examined profit potential in relation to (1) discount rates; (2) propagation methods; (3) prices; (4) growing period; (5) production costs; and (6) yields. Results indicate that intensive husbandry of six of eight species would be unprofitable at recent (1990–2005) price levels. Exceptions are American ginseng (Panax quinquefolius L.), and under certain circumstances (e.g., maximum historic prices, low production costs) goldenseal (Hydrastis canadensis L.). Direct marketing to consumers and retailers might improve grower profits, but is undermined by the availability of cheaper, wild-collected product. We suggest that the North American medicinal plant industry could play a key role in facilitating any transition from wild to cultivated product, perhaps through development of a certification and labeling program that brands “forest cultivated” products. This could generate price premiums, to be passed along to growers, but must be accompanied by aggressive consumer education. A “forest cultivated” certification and labeling program has potential to benefit industry and consumers if assurances regarding product identity and quality are a central feature. Plant species that are not viable candidates for commercial cultivation due to limited consumer demand (i.e., species with “shallow,” erratic markets) are best addressed through proactive government and industry initiatives involving targeted harvester education programs.

Transitioning from wild collection to forest cultivation of indigenous medicinal forest plants in eastern North America.

Trees or other woody vegetation growing outside designated forest areas are known as trees outside forest (TOFs). These trees have many ecosystem services and economic benefits like their potential role in agriculture, food supply and income by providing goods and services, conservation of biodiversity and carbon (C) sequestration. They can improve soil fertility through fixing atmospheric nitrogen, retaining soil moisture, regulating water shed, reducing topsoil loss and litter fall and regulating microclimate, thus increasing crop yield. In addition to providing aesthetic beauty especially to urban surroundings, they are pollutant sink, reduce ozone levels, check dust flow, reduce noise pollution and cools air temperature. Most importantly, these trees are useful timber resources and will alleviate pressure on native forests. Forest and TOF are thus considered as two faces of a coin in relation to their capacity for C stock and biodiversity. Substantial amount of trees are going on lands other than forest land used in every country with a potential of sequestering about 38 giga tonnes of C annually. In India, for example, there are about 24–25 thousand million TOFs, out of which trees in agricultural landscape in Indian state of Uttar Pradesh only sequester 20 million tonnes of C. The C sequestration potential of the TOFs is thus enormous to be included in global climate mitigation strategy through reducing emission from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD+) activities. Moreover, as these are additional plantations, so are they complementary with other land uses in mitigating climate change. Unfortunately, due to absence of efficient inventory methods, TOFs are still not accounted fully in the national forest inventories, due to which very less or no information are available for TOFs. Accounting TOF and its services will not only help to understand its importance for national C budget but also its ecological and economic role benefiting human society.

Ecosystem Services of Trees Outside Forest

Multipurpose trees (MPTs) and agroforestry systems have been omnipresent in India since immemorial times but they still remain very little known. Drastic socio-economic changes in the context of the Green Revolution have affected the tree-based traditional agro-systems for the benefit of productivity and market oriented cropping systems, but at the expense of the environment. As observed in the homegardens of Kerala or the coffee-based systems of Coorg, the many economic and ecological roles MPTs can play constitute a major asset in the reconciliation of a certain level of biodiversity conservation with production requirements in the humid zone. Similarly, in the extended drylands of India, multipurpose trees and palms such as Azadivachta indica, Borassus flabellifer and Prosopis cineraria can contribute to bridging environmental and socioeconomic issues for sustainable development. In this perspective, commercially oriented tree species like Tectona grandis on irrigated lands are to be considered as important drivers of this development. Mangroves, constituting a multipurpose and highly productive but endangered ecosystem, are part of these traditional socio-ecological systems from which integrated and adaptive management models should be designed. (Resume d'auteur)

The tree behind the forest : ecological and economic importance of traditional agroforestry systems and multiple uses of tree in India

VALUE ADDITION: A novel strategy for quality enhancement of medicinal and aromatic plants

NTFPs are primary or supplemental source of livelihood mainly in the poor and developing nations. NTFPs contribute significantly to forest economy of developed and industrialized nations also. NTFPs can be processed or value added into consumer-oriented products. They have commercial importance and can contribute to the economic development of a region or a nation. Commercialization or value addition of NTFPs is now promoted as an approach to rural development especially in tropical forest areas. Unfortunately, commercialization of NTFPs has exploited and deprived the collectors. The chapter describes the prospects, constraints, and strategies to overcome these constraints of NTFP development and its value addition. The successful NTFP commercialization will be transparent, equitable, and sustainable which will have a positive impact on poverty reduction, gender equality, resource access, tenure, and management which demands aggressive policy interventions. The effective policy interventions can improve the stake of all stakeholders involved in NTFP from collection to value addition and ultimately improve collection, value addition, income, and livelihood without sacrificing the principles of sustainable forest conservation.

Value Addition of Non-timber Forest Products: Prospects, Constraints, and Mitigation

Homegardening is an ancient and widespread practice of deliberate mixing of field crops, herbs and shrubs with trees and livestock within the compound of a house, popular in regions with either high or low human population densities in developing and developed countries. They reflect the wisdom of traditional culture and ecological knowledge that have evolved over the years. The gardens resemble the structure of natural ecosystems, i.e. they create a forest-like multi-storey canopy structure on a land marginal to field production and labour marginal to major household economic activities. Multiple environmental and ecological benefits are realized from homegardens in terms of ecologically friendly approaches for food production improving food security and enhancing economic growth along with biodiversity and natural resources conservation. As homegardens are time-tested local strategies that are widely adopted and practiced in various circumstances by local communities with limited resources and institutional support, they can be a part of agriculture and food production systems in many developing countries and are widely used as a remedy to alleviate hunger and malnutrition in the face of a food crisis particularly in a climate change world.

Homegardens: Drops to Sustainability

Relationship of Socio-Economic Factors With Attributes of Homegarden Agroforestry Systems in Northern Part of West Bengal

The present study is a baseline survey of home gardens to explore the variation in species richness based on size, distance and location. The study site is terai zone in northern part of West Bengal covering three districts i, e. Jalpaiguri, part of Cooch Behar and Siliguri sub-division of Darjeeling district. A total of 100 home gardens were selected for the study. Among the sampled garden, 62 % were small (less than 0.5 ha), 26 % medium (0.5-1.0 ha) and only 12 % large (more than one ha). Similarly, 33%, 48% and 19 % of the total sampled gardens were located near, far and farthest from the main road of district or sub-division towns. A total of 55, 42 and 45 species were recorded from near, far and farthest category of home gardens, whereas 60, 38 and 44 number of species was recorded from small, medium and large home gardens, respectively.

Are Size, Distance and Location Responsible for Species Richness in Home Garden Agroforestry Systems?

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Value Addition of Non-timber Forest Products: Prospects, Constraints, and Mitigation

Homegardens: Drops to Sustainability

Relationship of Socio-Economic Factors With Attributes of Homegarden Agroforestry Systems in Northern Part of West Bengal

Are Size, Distance and Location Responsible for Species Richness in Home Garden Agroforestry Systems?