Conservation and Managed Habitats

 

 

Rosa Canelos in medicinal plant garden, Puyo, Ecuador (Photo: D.Lacaze)Through its Conservation and Managed Habitats program, PPI collaborates with local experts, cooperatives and communities to develop management protocols for plant resources of subsistence or commercial importance. Protocols of this program are designed around local knowledge and ecological sciences and are calibrated to satisfy local livelihoods and conservation needs.

Below is information on PPI's Conservation and Managed Habitats activities in Mexico, China, India, Indonesia and Southern Africa.

 

 

Mexico

PPI has a long-term and extensive involvement in many areas of Mexico. In the Selva Maya area of the Yucatán Peninsula and in the cloud forests around the city of Xalapa, Veracruz, Silvia Purata has been working with local communities to identify income generation activities derived from the forest, thereby creating economic alternatives to deforestation.  In addition to helping communities derive effective protocols for forest stewardship PPI has also been supporting a number of local initiatives that promote the sound and more efficient use of specific non-wood resources. In the central state of Puebla Citlalli López is working with a number of coffee-growing communities developing novel protocols for sound management and use of Jonote, an underutilized shade tree in shaded coffee plantations highly valued for artisinal bark paper manufacture, and with enormous promise in recovery of ecologically degraded lands.  In southwestern Mexico, in the state of Guerrero, Chuck Peters and his associates has been working with local communities and supporting the work of NGO GEA, in order to define and develop standards for the sustainable harvesting of a regionally important nontimber forest product, wild maguey (Agave spp), used in creating fermented beverages such as pulque and mescal.

Find out more about these projects by clicking on the links below.

 

Diversified Forest Management as a Strategy for Conservation in the Selva Maya

 

 

 

 

Forest Stewardship in the Cloud Forests of Xalapa, Veracruz

 

 

 

 

Production and managment of 'Jonote' (Trema micrantha) for artisanal bark paper manufacture, Puebla

 

 

 

 

Participatory monitoring of 'Maguey Papalote' (Agave cupreata), Guerrero

 

 

 

 

China

PPI has been working in China through links with the Kunming Institute of Botany (KIB) since the early 1990's when Professor Pei Sheng-ji partnered with the WWF/UNESCO/Kew "People and Plants Initiative."  In recent years Tony Cunnigham has been working closely with Chinese colleagues to better understand the importance of wild mushrooms for local livelihoods and their potential for sustainable harvest.  protocols and produce a range of written manuals and guidelines to encourage the sustainable harvest and management of mushrooms. The high national and international demand,  high value per unit volume and long shelf life of dry mushrooms compared to perishable crops, all make mushrooms and fungi particularly attractive as a source of income to households in remote areas. Recent government policies aimed at reducing logging and farming in mountainous areas have further increased the importance of mushrooms for local livelihoods.  At the same time, however, deforestation and increased harvest rates are depleting wild stocks of mushrooms.  These factors highlight the need to better understand the ecology and harvesting rates of mushrooms and fungi and translate sustainable harvest guidelines into a form useful to local people and foresters.

 

 

 

Mushrooms in Forests and Woodlands: Resource Management, Values and Local Livelihoods

 

 

 

 

 

Wise harvest of wild mushrooms: a practical handbook

 

 

 

 

 

 

India

In India PPI has worked closely with the Keystone Foundation, based in the Nilgiri Hills, Western Ghats, assisting in the process of training and information exchange.  A number of courses on ecological monitoring have been held over the past years, followed up by detailed studies of the harvest, trade and ecology of two important wild-sourced medicinals, Black Dammar (Canarium strictum) and Queen Sago (Cycas circinalis).

Click here to find out more about the Black Dammar posters

Download the report of the first ecological monitoring course held in Tamil Nadu, South India, here

 

 

 

Indonesia

In Indonesia, PPI has worked with the Indonesian NGO Yayasan Pecinta Budaya Bebali (YPBB), and with the Threads of Life Herlina Wonga and Theresia Ngeni, Indonesia. Photo: A.B. CunninghamFoundation, helping weavers to develop sustainable management  plans for traditional plant dyes, exchange knowledge and experiences and strenghten their social organization and business skills.

 

 

 

Southern Africa

Namibia, one of the driest countries in sub-equatorial Africa, is a regional leader way that indigenous plants have been commercialized for the export market, generating income for at least 20,000-25,000 rural producers.  PPI has worked to help develop local capacities for effective, practical management systems for high value plant species in  communal conservancies. Activities have included:

  • developing user-friendly materials and event books to assist with training and management of species; and,
  • developing field-based training courses that lead to the development of management plans for plant products crucial to local livelihoods and with the potential to add value, sustainably, on a commercial scale. 

PPI has also collaborated with the Indian NGO Keystone Foundation has produced a case study on the medicinal plant Merwillea plumbea in South Africa.  See PPI's Health & Habitat webpage for more information on Merwillea plumbea study and to download a copy of the study results.