Human-mediated introduction of Livistona palms into central Australia: conservation and management implications

Baral²,

Paudel

et al. 2016

PLoS ONE

Indigenous plant use-systems have evolved under, and constantly adapted to human and non-human impacts. In the last decades however, increasing socioeconomic and cultural transformations, including land-use change, outmigration, globalized markets, the introduction of new species, and climate change have led to a decreasing availability of indigenous resources, and are ultimately leading to a reduction of local use-knowledge. Participant observations, discussions, walks-in-the-woods, semi-structured interviews and informal meetings were carried out in 12 villages of far western Nepal between 2011 and 2015 to assess how sociocultural changes have affected the sustenance of indigenous systems and local biodiversity, when compared to studies carried out in the previous decades. Our findings show that there were no statistically significant differences in subject variable means, but differences were relatively important to plant parts-use and plant growth-forms (p = 0.183 and 0.088 respectively). Cissampelos pareira, Acorus calamus, Calotropis gigantea were found to have the greatest relative importance, whereas Ageratina adenophora, Melia azedarach, Carum carvi were most important based on use values. Among them, C. pareira and A. adenophora were introduced. The spatial distribution of species collected for medicine showed that all habitats were important for collection however, habitats close to villages were more favored. The use of non-indigenous and easily available species and more accessible habitats is becoming more prevalent as primary forests become increasingly overexploited, indigenous species become limited, and sociocultural cause of land use change expand. The utilization of indigenous and non-indigenous species and nearby habitats, although possibly affecting the quality of medicinal species, nonetheless reveals the dynamism of indigenous medicines as an adaptive asset mitigating human and non-human environmental changes.

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Land-Use and Socioeconomic Change, Medicinal Plant Selection and Biodiversity Resilience in Far Western Nepal

Baral²,

Paudel

et al. 2016

PLoS ONE

“…In the present study, we considered that indigenous species are those which grow naturally or they have long been cultured into an area after some sorts of human modifications. Globally, native or nonnative status is generally determined by one (or both) of two concepts: (1) presence in an area before an arbitrary cut-off date imparts native status and (2) human-mediated movement of individuals results in nonnative status [ 35 ].…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Medicinal Plants and Ethnomedicine in Peril: A Case Study from Nepal Himalaya

Pandey

Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine

et al. 2014

The impacts of climate change were severe on indigenous medicinal plant species and their dependent communities. The harvesting calendar and picking sites of these species were no longer coinciding and the changes were affecting harvesters' and cultivators' abilities to collect and use those species. Secondary sites: road-heads, wastelands, regenerated forests, and so forth, were being prioritized for collection and the nonindigenous medicinal plant species were being increasingly introduced into the medical repertoire as a substitution and to diversify the local medicinal stock. Acceptance and application of nonindigenous species and sites for livelihood and ethnopharmacopoeias with caution were considered as an important adaptation strategy. Findings on species and site specific accounts urged further researches on medicinal plants, ethnomedicine, and their interrelationship with impacts of climate change.

On the Ecology of Australia’s Arid Zone

“…However, this does not preclude the need for management (Webber and Scott 2012). The application of novel genetic methods may provide insight into the historical biogeographic context of species such as Livistona mariae palms and their possible introduction by humans into arid Australia (biocultural dispersal; Kondo et al 2012;Trudgen et al 2012).…”

Section: Native Weedsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Evolution, Physiology and Ecology of the Australian Arid-Zone Frog Fauna

Roberts

Edwards

2018

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