6 Appreciating the Benefits of Plant Biodiversity
John Tuxill
At first glance, wild potatoes are not too pools of traditional Andean potato culti- impressive. Most are thin-stemmed, vars and their wild relatives, and now see rather weedy-looking plants that under- hope for reviving the global potato crop.1 ground bear disappointingly small tubers. Wild potatoes are but one manifesta- But do not be deceived by initial appear- tion of the benefits humans gain from ances, for these plants are key allies in biological diversity, the richness and com- humankind’s ongoing struggle to control plexity of life on Earth. Plant biodiversity, late blight, a kind of fungus that thrives in particular, is arguably the single great- on potato plants. It was late blight that, in est resource that humankind has gar- the 1840s, colonized and devastated the nered from nature during our long cul- genetically uniform potato fields of tural development. Presently, scientists Ireland, triggering the infamous famine have described more than 250,000 species that claimed more than a million lives. of mosses, ferns, conifers, and flowering The disease has been controlled this cen- plants, and estimate there may be tury largely with fungicides, but in the upwards of 50,000 plant species yet to be mid-1980s farmers began reporting out- documented, primarily in the remote, lit- breaks of fungicide-resistant blight. These tle-studied reaches of tropical forests.2 newly virulent strains have cut global Within just the hundred-odd species of potato harvests in the 1990s by 15 cultivated plants that supply most of the percent, a $3.25-billion yield loss; in world’s food, traditional farmers have some regions, such as the highlands selected and developed hundreds of thou- of Tanzania, losses to blight have sands of distinct genetic varieties. During approached 100 percent. Fortunately, sci- this century, professional plant breeders entists at the International Potato Center have used this rich gene pool to create the in Lima, Peru, have located genetic resis- high-yielding crop varieties responsible tance to the new blight strains in the gene for much of the enormous productivity of Appreciating the Benefits of Plant Biodiversity (97) modern farming. Plant diversity also pro- species a year. By contrast, scientists esti- vides oils, latexes, gums, fibers, dyes, mate that extinction rates have accelerat- essences, and other products that clean, ed this century to at least 1,000 species clothe, and refresh us and that have many per year. These numbers indicate we now industrial uses. And whether we are in the live in a time of mass extinction—a global 20 percent of humankind who open a bot- evolutionary upheaval in the diversity and tle of pills when we are feeling ill, or in the composition of life on Earth.5 80 percent who consult a local herbalist Paleontologists studying Earth’s fossil for a healing remedy, a large chunk of our record have identified five previous mass medicines comes from chemical com- extinction episodes during life’s 1.5 bil- pounds produced by plants.3 lion years of evolution, with the most Yet the more intensively we use plant recent being about 65 million years diversity, the more we threaten its long- ago, at the end of the Cretaceous period, term future. The scale of human enter- when the dinosaurs disappeared. Earlier prise on Earth has become so great—we mass extinctions hit marine invertebrates are now nearly 6 billion strong and con- and other animal groups hard, but plants sume about 40 percent of the planet’s weathered these episodes with relatively annual biological productivity—that we are little trouble. Indeed, flowering plants, eroding the very ecological foundations of which now account for nearly 90 percent plant biodiversity and losing unique gene of all land plant species, did not pools, species, and even entire communi- begin their diversification until the ties of species forever. It is as if humankind Cretaceous—relatively recently, in evolu- is painting a picture of the next millen- tionary terms.6 nium with a shrinking palette—the world In the current mass extinction, howev- will still be colored green, but in increas- er, plants are suffering unprecedented ingly uniform and monocultured tones. losses. According to a 1997 global analysis Of course, our actions have produced ben- of more than 240,000 plant species coor- efits: society now grows more food than dinated by the World Conservation ever before, and those who can purchase it Union–IUCN, one out of every eight have a material standard of living unimag- plants surveyed is potentially at risk of inable to earlier generations. But the unde- extinction. (See Table 6–1.) This tally niable price that plant diversity and the includes species already endangered or ecological health of our planet are paying clearly vulnerable to extinction, as well as for these achievements casts a shadow those that are naturally rare (and thus at over the future of the development path risk from ecological disruption) or that countries have pursued this century. extremely poorly known. More than 90 To become more than a short-term civi- percent of these at-risk species are lization, we must start by maintaining bio- endemic to a single country—that is, logical diversity.4 found nowhere else in the world.7 The United States, Australia, and South Africa have the most plant species at risk (see Table 6–2), but their high standing is partly due to how much better- INTO THE MASS EXTINCTION known their flora is compared with that of other species-rich countries. We have a Extinction is a natural part of evolution, good idea of how many plants have but it is normally a rare and obscure become endangered as the coastal sage event; the natural or “background” rate of scrub and perennial grasslands of extinction appears to be about 1–10 California have been converted into sub- (98) State of the World 1999
Table 6–1. Threatened Plant Species, 1997
Status Total Share (number) (percent) Total Number of Species Surveyed 242,013 Total Number of Threatened Species 33,418 14 Vulnerable to Extinction 7,951 3 In Immediate Danger of Extinction 6,893 3 Naturally Rare 14,505 6 Indeterminate Status 4,070 2 Total Number of Extinct Species 380 <1
SOURCE: Kerry S. Walter and Harriet J. Gillett, eds., 1997 IUCN Red List of Threatened Plants (Gland, Switzerland: World Conservation Union–IUCN, 1997). urban homes and cropland, for example. Mexico and Guatemala, where it occurs in But we simply do not know how many eight separate populations. Botanist species have dwindled as the cloud forests Garrison Wilkes of the University of of Central America have been replaced by Massachusetts regards seven of these pop- coffee plots and cattle pastures, or as the ulations as rare, vulnerable, or already lowland rainforests of Indonesia and endangered—primarily due to the aban- Malaysia have become oil palm and pulp- donment of traditional agricultural prac- wood plantations. tices and to increased livestock grazing in Increasingly, it is not just individual the field margins and fallow areas favored species but entire communities and by teosinte. Overall, teosinte is not yet ecosystems of plants that face extinction. threatened with extinction. But because The inter-Andean laurel and oak forests of Colombia, the heathlands of western Australia, the seasonally dry forest of the Table 6–2. Top 10 Countries with the Pacific island of New Caledonia—all have Most Threatened Plants been largely overrun by humankind. In Percentage of the southeast corner of Florida in the Country’s Total United States, native plant communities, Country Total Flora Threatened such as subtropical hardwood hammocks (number) and limestone ridge pinelands, have been reduced to tiny patches in a sea of subur- United States 4,669 29 ban homes, sugarcane fields, and citrus Australia 2,245 14 orchards. These irreplaceable remnants South Africa 2,215 11.5 are all that is left of what southeast Florida Turkey 1,876 22 once was—and they are now held togeth- Mexico 1,593 6 Brazil 1,358 2.5 er only with constant human vigilance Panama 1,302 13 to beat back a siege of exotic plants, India 1,236 8 such as Brazilian pepper and Australian Spain 985 19.5 casuarina.8 Peru 906 5 Biodiversity is also lost when gene SOURCE: Kerry S. Walter and Harriet J. Gillett, eds., pools within species evaporate. The clos- 1997 IUCN Red List of Threatened Plants (Gland, est wild ancestor of corn is a lanky, sprawl- Switzerland: World Conservation Union–IUCN, ing annual grass called teosinte, native to 1997). Appreciating the Benefits of Plant Biodiversity (99) the plant hybridizes readily with domesti- Mesoamerica, the central Andes, the cated corn, every loss of a unique teosinte Mediterranean Basin, the Near East, high- population reduces genetic diversity that land Ethiopia, and eastern China. He also may one day be needed to breed better- inferred correctly that most centers cor- adapted corn plants.9 respond to where crops were first domes- ticated. For instance, native Andean farm- ers not only brought seven different species of wild potatoes into cultivation, they also domesticated common beans, OF FOOD AND FARMERS lima beans, passion fruit, quinoa and amaranths (both grains), and a host of lit- Nowhere is the value of biodiversity more tle-known tuber and leaf crops such as evident than in our food supply. Roughly oca, ulluco, and tarwi—more than 25 one third of all plant species have edible species of food plants in all.11 fruits, tubers, nuts, seeds, leaves, roots, or Over the millennia, farmers have stems. During the nine tenths of human developed a wealth of distinctive varieties history when everyone lived as hunter- within crops by selecting and replanting gatherers, an average culture would have seeds and cuttings from uniquely favor- had knowledge of several hundred edible able individual plants—perhaps one that plant species that could provide suste- matured slightly sooner than others, was nance. Today, wild foods continue to sup- unusually resistant to pests, or possessed a plement the diet of millions of rural poor distinctive color or taste. Subsistence worldwide, particularly during seasonal farmers have always been acutely attentive periods of food scarcity. Tuareg women in to such varietal diversity because it helps Niger, for instance, regularly harvest them cope with variability in their envi- desert panic-grass and shama millet while ronment, and for most major crops, farm- migrating with their animal herds ers have developed thousands of folk vari- between wet and dry-season pastures. In eties, or “landraces.” India alone, for rural northeast Thailand, wild foods gath- instance, probably had at least 30,000 rice ered from forests and field margins make landraces earlier this century.12 up half of all food eaten by villagers dur- On-farm crop selection remains vital in ing the rainy season. In the city of Iquitos developing countries, where farmers con- in the Peruvian Amazon, fruits of nearly tinue to save 80–90 percent of their own 60 species of wild trees, shrubs, and vines seed supplies. In industrial nations, by are sold in the city produce markets. contrast, the seed supply process has Residents in the surrounding countryside become increasingly centralized during are estimated to obtain a tenth of their this century, as professional plant breed- entire diet from wild-harvested fruits.10 ers have taken up the job of crop improve- For the last 5–10 millennia, we have ment and as corporations have assumed actively cultivated the bulk of our food. responsibility for supplying seeds. The Agriculture arose independently in many power and promise of scientifically based different regions, as people gradually plant breeding was confirmed by the lived closer together, became less 1930s, when the first commercial hybrid nomadic, and focused their food produc- corn was marketed by the Pioneer Hi- tion on plants that were amenable to Bred Company. Hybrids are favored by repeated sowing and harvesting. In the seed supply companies because they tend 1920s the legendary Russian plant explor- to be especially high-yielding (the bottom er Nikolai Vavilov identified geographic line for commercial farming) and centers of crop diversity, including because “second-generation” hybrid seeds (100) State of the World 1999 do not retain the traits of their parents. U.S. wheat crop owes its productivity to This means that farmers must purchase landrace genes from Asia and other hybrid seed anew from the supplier regions, a contribution worth at least rather than saving their own stock. Some $500 million annually.15 farmers have also been legally disenfran- As we enter the next millennium, agri- chised from seed-saving; under European cultural biodiversity faces an uncertain Union law, it is now illegal for farmers to future. The availability of wild foods and save and replant seed from plant varieties populations of many wild relatives of that have been patented by breeders.13 crops is declining as wildlands are con- verted to human-dominated habitats and as hedgerows, fallow fields, and other sec- ondary habitats decline within traditional Traditional crop varieties are indis- agricultural landscapes. In the United pensable for global food security. States, two thirds of all rare and endan- gered plants are close relatives of cultivat- ed species. If these species go extinct, a pool of potentially crucial future benefits Although farmers can now purchase for global agriculture will also vanish.16 and plant seeds genetically engineered There is also grave concern for the old with the latest molecular techniques, the crop landraces. By volume, the world’s productivity of our food supply still farmers now grow more sorghum, depends on the plant diversity main- spinach, apples, and other crops than ever tained by wildlands and traditional agri- before, but they grow fewer varieties of cultural practices. Wild relatives of crops each crop. Crop diversity in industrial continue be used by breeders as sources nations has undergone a massive turnover of disease resistance, vigor, and other this century; the proportion of varieties traits that produce billions of dollars in grown in the United States before 1904 benefits to global agriculture. Imagine but no longer present in either commer- giving up sugarcane, strawberries, toma- cial agriculture or any major seed storage toes, and wine grapes; none of these crops facility ranges from 81 percent for toma- could be grown commercially without the toes to over 90 percent for peas and cab- genetic contribution of their respective bages. Figures are less comprehensive for wild relatives. With the rescue mission of developing countries, but China is esti- their wild kin now under way, we can also mated to have gone from growing 10,000 place potatoes on this list.14 wheat varieties in 1949 to only 1,000 by Traditional crop varieties are equally the 1970s, while just 20 percent of the indispensable for global food security. corn varieties cultivated in Mexico in the Subsistence farmers around the world 1930s can still be found there—an alarm- continue to grow primarily either land- ing decline for the cradle of corn.17 races or locally adapted versions of pro- Crop varieties are lost for many reasons. fessionally bred seed. Such small-scale Sometimes an extended drought destroys agriculture produces 15–20 percent of harvests and farmers must consume their the world’s food supply, is predominantly planting seed stocks just to survive. Long- performed by women, and provides the term climate change can also be a prob- daily sustenance of roughly 1.4 billion lem. In Senegal, two decades of below-nor- rural poor. Moreover, landraces have con- mal rainfall created a growing season too tributed the genetic infrastructure of the short for traditional rice varieties to pro- intensively bred crop varieties that feed duce good yields. When fast-maturing rice the rest of us. More than one third of the cultivars became available through devel- Appreciating the Benefits of Plant Biodiversity (101) opment aid programs, women farmers ing such genetic uniformity are enor- rapidly adopted them because of the mous, and keeping them at bay requires greater harvest security they offered.18 an extensive infrastructure of agricultural In the majority of cases, however, farm- scientists and extension workers—as well ers voluntarily abandon traditional seeds as all too frequent applications of pesti- when they adopt new varieties, change cides and other potent agrochemicals. A agricultural practices, or move out of particularly heavy burden falls on profes- farming altogether. In industrial coun- sional plant breeders, who are now tries, crop diversity has declined in con- engaged in a relay race to develop ever cert with the steady commercialization more robust crop varieties before those and consolidation of agriculture this cen- already in monoculture succumb to evolv- tury: fewer family farmers, and fewer seed ing pests and diseases, or to changing companies offering fewer varieties for environmental conditions.22 sale, mean fewer crop varieties planted in Breeders started this race earlier this fields or saved after harvest. The seed sup- century with a tremendous genetic ply industry is now dominated by multi- endowment at their disposal, courtesy of national corporations; increasingly, the nature and generations of subsistence same companies that sell fertilizers and farmers. Despite major losses, this well- pesticides to farmers now also promote spring is still far from empty—estimates seeds bred to use those products.19 are that plant breeders have used only a In most developing countries, diversity small fraction of the varietal diversity pre- losses were minimal until the 1960s, when sent in crop gene banks (facilities that the famed international agricultural store seeds under cold, dry conditions development program known as the that can maintain seed viability for Green Revolution introduced new high- decades). At the same time, we can never yielding varieties of wheat, rice, corn, and be sure that what is already stored will other major crops. Developed to boost cover all our future needs. When grassy food self-sufficiency in famine-prone stunt virus began attacking high-yielding countries, the Green Revolution varieties Asian rices in the 1970s, breeders located were widely distributed, often with gov- genetic resistance to the disease in only a ernment subsidies to encourage their single collection of one population of a adoption, and displaced landraces from wild rice species in Uttar Pradesh, India— many prime farmland areas.20 and that population has never been In areas where agriculture is highly found again since. Conserving and rein- mechanized and commercialized, crops vigorating biodiversity in agricultural now exhibit what the U.N. Food and landscapes remains essential for achiev- Agriculture Organization (FAO) politely ing global food security.23 calls an “impressively uniform” genetic base. A survey of nine major crops in the Netherlands found that the three most popular varieties for each crop covered F EDICINES AND 81–99 percent of the respective areas O M planted. Such patterns have also emerged MATERIAL GOODS on much of the developing world’s prime farmland. One single wheat variety blan- In a doctor’s office in Germany, a man keted 67 percent of Bangladesh’s wheat diagnosed with hypertension is prescribed acreage in 1983 and 30 percent of India’s reserpine, a drug from the Asian snakeroot the following year.21 plant. In a small town in India, a woman The ecological risks we take in adopt- complaining of stomach pains visits an (102) State of the World 1999
Ayurvedic healer, and receives a soothing ing rapidly in popularity in industrial and effective herbal tea as part of her treat- countries as well. FAO estimates that ment. In a California suburb, a headache between 4,000 and 6,000 species of medi- sufferer unseals a bottle of aspirin, a com- cinal plants are traded internationally, pound originally isolated from European with China accounting for about 30 per- willow trees and meadow herbs.24 cent of all such exports. In 1992, the People everywhere rely on plants for booming U.S. retail market for herbal staying healthy and extending the quality medicines reached nearly $1.5 billion, and length of their lives. One quarter of and the European market is even larger.27 the prescription drugs marketed in North Despite their demonstrable value, America and Europe contain active ingre- medicinal plants are declining in many dients derived from plants. Plant-based areas. Human alteration of forests and drugs are part of standard medical proce- other habitats all too often eliminates dures for treating heart conditions, child- sites rich in wild medicinal plants. This hood leukemia, lymphatic cancer, glauco- creates an immediate problem for folk ma, and many other serious illnesses. healers when they can no longer find the Worldwide, the over-the-counter value of plants they need for performing certain these drugs is estimated at more than $40 cures—a problem commonly lamented by billion annually. Major pharmaceutical indigenous herbalists in eastern Panama, companies and institutions such as the among others. Moreover, strong con- U.S. National Cancer Institute implement sumer demand and inadequate oversight plant screening programs as a primary of harvesting levels and practices mean means of identifying new drugs.25 that wild-gathered medicinal plants are The World Health Organization esti- commonly overexploited.28 mates that 3.5 billion people in develop- In Cameroon, for example, the bark of ing countries rely on plant-based medi- the African cherry is highly esteemed by cine for their primary health care. traditional healers, but most of the coun- Ayurvedic and other traditional healers in try’s harvest is exported to Western South Asia use at least 1,800 different Europe, where African cherry is a princi- plant species in treatments and are regu- pal treatment for prostate disorders. In larly consulted by some 800 million peo- recent years Cameroon has been the lead- ple. In China, where medicinal plant use ing supplier of African cherry bark to goes back at least four millennia, healers international markets, but clearance of employ more than 5,000 plant species. At the tree’s montane forest habitat, com- least 89 plant-derived commercial drugs bined with the inability of the govern- used in industrial countries were original- ment forestry department to manage the ly discovered by folk healers, many of harvest, has led to widespread, wanton whom are women. Traditional medicine destruction of cherry stands.29 is particularly important for poor and In addition to the immediate losses, rural residents, who typically are not well every dismantling of a unique habitat rep- served by formal health care systems. resents a loss of future drugs and medi- Recent evidence suggests that when eco- cines, particularly in species-rich habitats nomic woes and structural adjustment like tropical forests. Fewer than 1 percent programs restrict governments’ abilities of all plant species have been screened by to provide health care, urban and even chemists to see what bioactive compounds middle-class residents of developing they may contain. The nearly 50 drugs countries also turn to more affordable tra- already derived from tropical rainforest ditional medicinal experts.26 plants are estimated to represent only 12 Traditional herbal therapies are grow- percent of the medically useful compounds Appreciating the Benefits of Plant Biodiversity (103) waiting to be discovered in rainforests.30 food—which may itself be palm fruits, Most tragically of all, many rural soci- palm hearts (the young growing shoot of eties are rapidly losing their cultural the plant), or wild game hunted with knowledge about medicinal plants. In weapons made from palm stems and communities undergoing accelerated west- leaves. At night, family members will like- ernization, fewer young people are inter- ly drift off to sleep in hammocks woven ested in learning about traditional healing from palm fibers. When people die, they plants and how to use them. From Samoa may be buried in a coffin carved from a to Suriname, most herbalists and healers palm trunk.33 are elderly, and few have apprentices study- ing to take their place. Ironically, as this decline has accelerated, there has been a resurgent interest in ethnobotany—the One quarter of the prescription drugs study of how people classify, conceptualize, marketed in North America and and use plants—and other fields of study Europe contain active ingredients related to traditional medicinal plant use. derived from plants. Professional ethnobotanists surveying medicinal plants used by different cultures are racing against time to document tradi- tional knowledge before it vanishes with its Palms are exceptionally versatile, but last elderly practitioners.31 they are only part of the spectrum of use- For the one quarter of humanity who ful plants in biodiverse environments. In live at or near subsistence levels, plant northwest Ecuador, indigenous cultures diversity offers more than just food secu- that practice shifting agriculture use rity and health care—it also provides a more than 900 plant species to meet their roof over their heads, cooks their food, material, medicinal, and food needs; provides eating utensils, and on average halfway around the world, Dusun and meets about 90 percent of their material Iban communities in the rainforests of needs. Consider palms: temperate zone central Borneo use a similar total of dwellers may think of palm trees primari- plants in their daily lives. People who are ly as providing an occasional coconut or more integrated into regional and nation- the backdrop to an idyllic island vacation, al economies tend to use fewer plants, but but tropical peoples have a different per- still commonly depend on plant diversity spective. The babassu palm from the east- for household uses and to generate cash ern Amazon Basin has more than 35 dif- income. In India, at least 5.7 million peo- ferent uses—construction material, oil ple make a living harvesting nontimber and fiber source, game attractant, even as forest products, a trade that accounts for an insect repellent. Commercial extrac- nearly half the revenues earned by Indian tion of babassu products is a part or full- state forests.34 time economic activity for more than 2 Those of us who live in manicured sub- million rural Brazilians.32 urbs or urban concrete jungles may meet Indigenous peoples throughout tropi- more of our material needs with metals cal America have been referred to as and plastics, but plant diversity still “palm cultures.” The posts, floors, walls, enriches our lives. Artisans who craft and beams of their houses are made from musical instruments or furniture, for the wood of palm trunks, while the roofs instance, value the unique acoustic quali- are thatched with palm leaves. They use ties and appearances of the different trop- baskets and sacks woven from palm leaves ical and temperate hardwoods that they to store household items, including work with—aspects of biodiversity that (104) State of the World 1999 ultimately benefit anyone who listens to BIO-UNIFORMITY RISING classical music or purchases handcrafted furniture. Among the nonfood plants traded internationally on commercial lev- The cumulative effects of human activities els are at least 200 species of timber trees, on Earth are evident not just in declines 42 plants producing essential oils, 66 in particular species, but in the increas- species yielding latexes or gums, and 13 ingly tattered state of entire ecosystems species used as dyes and colorants.35 and landscapes—and when large-scale As with medicinals, the value that plant ecological processes begin to break down, resources have for handicraft production, conservation and management become industrial use, or household needs has all the more complicated. Take the prob- often not prevented their local or region- lem of habitat fragmentation, when al decline. One of the most valuable undisturbed wildlands are reduced to nontimber forest products is rattan, a patchwork, island-like remnants of their flexible cane obtained from a number former selves. Natural islands in oceans or of species of vine-like palms that can grow large lakes tend to be impoverished in up to 185 meters long. Asian rattan species; their smaller area means they palms support an international furniture- usually do not develop the ecological making industry worth $3.5–6.5 billion complexity and diversity characteristic of annually. Unfortunately, rattan stocks are more extensive mainland areas. More- declining throughout much of tropical over, when an island population of a Asia because of the loss of native rain- species is eradicated, it is harder for adja- forest and overharvesting. In the past cent mainland populations to recolonize few years, some Asian furniture makers and replace it.37 have even begun importing rattan sup- As a result, when development—large- plies from Nigeria and other central scale agriculture, settlements, roads— African countries.36 sprawls across landscapes, remaining habi- On a global level, declines of wild tat fragments usually behave like the plants related to industrial crops such as islands they have become: they lose species. cotton or plantation-grown timber could In western Ecuador, the Río Palenque one day limit our ability to cultivate those Science Center protects a square-kilometer commodities by shrinking the gene pools remnant of the lowland rainforest that needed for breeding new crops. More covered the region a mere three decades locally, declines of materially useful ago; now the center is an island amid cattle species mean life gets harder and tougher pasture and oil palm plantations. Twenty- in the short term. When a tree species four species of orchids, bromeliads, and favored for firewood is overharvested, other plants at Río Palenque have already women must walk longer to collect their succumbed to the “island effect” and can family’s fuel supply, make due with an no longer be found there. One vanished inferior species that does not burn as well, species, an understory shrub, has never or spend scarce money purchasing fuel been recorded anywhere else and is from vendors. When a fiber plant collect- presumed extinct.38 ed for sale to handicraft producers Even with these drawbacks, small areas becomes scarce, it is harder for collectors of native habitat can have enormous con- to earn an income that could help pay servation value when they are all that is school fees for their children. Whether we left of a unique plant community or rare are rich or poor, biodiversity enhances habitat. But waiting to protect them until the quality of our lives—and many people only patches remain carries an unmistak- already feel its loss. able tradeoff: smaller holdings require Appreciating the Benefits of Plant Biodiversity (105) more-intensive management than larger plants for growth and development) ones. In smaller reserves, managers often because of our overuse of nitrogen-based must simulate natural disturbances (such synthetic fertilizers and fossil fuels. as prescribed burns to maintain fire- Studies of North American prairies found adapted vegetation); provide pollination, that the plants that responded best to seed dispersal, and pest control services excess nitrogen tended to be weedy inva- in place of vanished animals; reintroduce sives, not the diverse native prairie flora. desirable native species when they disap- Likewise, plant and animal species pear from a site (perhaps due to a series already pressed for survival in fragmented of poor breeding seasons); and perform landscapes may also have to contend with other duties the original ecosystem once altered rainfall patterns, temperature did free of charge. Governments and soci- ranges, seasonal timing, and other effects eties that are unwilling or unable to shoul- of global climate change.41 der these management costs will soon find that the biodiversity they intended to protect with nature reserves has vanished from within them.39 Scientists are already detecting what Invasive species that crowd out native could be the first fingerprints of an flora and fauna are one of the biggest altered global atmosphere on plant headaches for managing biodiversity in disturbed landscapes. In certain suscepti- communities. ble habitats, such as oceanic islands and subtropical heathlands, controlling inva- sives may be the single biggest manage- ment challenge. South Africa has one of Already, scientists are detecting what the largest invasive species problems of could be the first fingerprints of an any nation, and has a great deal at stake: altered global atmosphere on plant com- the fynbos heathlands and montane for- munities. Data from tropical forest est of the country’s Cape region hold research plots worldwide indicate that the more plant species—8,600, most of them rate at which rainforest trees die and endemic—in a smaller area than any- replace each other, called the turnover where else on Earth. Fortunately, South rate, has increased steadily since the Africans are increasingly aware of the 1950s. This suggests that the forests under threat that exotics pose, and in 1996 the study are becoming “younger,” increas- government initiated a program to fight ingly dominated by faster-growing, short- invasives with handsaw and hoe. Some er-lived trees and woody vines—exactly 40,000 people are employed to cut and the kinds of plants expected to thrive in a clear Australian eucalypts, Central carbon dioxide–rich world with more American pines, and other unwanted extreme weather events. Without major guests in natural areas. It is a measure of reductions in global carbon emissions, the scale and severity of the invasive prob- forest turnover rates will likely rise fur- lem that this effort is South Africa’s single ther, and over time could push to extinc- largest public works program.40 tion many slower-growing tropical hard- Large-scale ecological alterations also wood tree species that cannot compete in have great potential to combine their a carbon-enriched environment.42 effects in unpredictable and damaging Global trends are shaping a botanical ways. For instance, much of the world is world that is most striking in its greater now saturated in nitrogen compounds uniformity. The richly textured mix of (an essential element required by all native plant communities that evolved (106) State of the World 1999 over thousands of years is increasingly STORED FOR SAFEKEEPING frayed, replaced by extensive areas under intensive cultivation or heavy grazing, Broad recognition of the need to safe- lands devoted to settlements or industrial guard plant resources is largely a twenti- activities, and secondary habitats— eth century phenomenon. The first warn- partially disturbed areas dominated by ings about the global erosion of plant shorter-lived, “weedy,” often non-native diversity were voiced in the 1920s by sci- species. A 1994 mapping study by entists such as Harry Harlan of the the organization Conservation Inter- United States and Nikolai Vavilov, who national estimated that nearly three quar- realized the threat posed by farmers’ ters of our planet’s habitable land abandonment of landraces in favor of surface (that which is not bare rock, drift- newer varieties that were spreading wide- ing sand, or ice) already is either partially ly in an increasingly interconnected or heavily disturbed. Moreover, within world.45 human-dominated landscapes, relatively The dominant approach to conserving diverse patchworks of small-scale culti- plant varieties and species has involved vation, fallow fields, seasonal grazing removing them from their native habitat areas, and managed native vegetation or agricultural setting and protecting them are being replaced by large, uniform at specialized institutions such as botanical fields or by extensive denuded and 43 gardens, nurseries, and gene banks. Most degraded areas. off-site collections of wild species and orna- The mixtures of species in different mental plants are in the custody of the regions are becoming more similar as world’s 1,600 botanical gardens. Com- well. Lists of endangered plants are bined, they tend representatives of tens of dominated by endemic species—those thousands of plant species—nearly 25 per- native to a relatively restricted area such cent of the world’s flowering plants and as a country or state, an isolated ferns, by one estimate.46 mountain range, or a specific soil type. Most botanical gardens active today When endemic plants vanish, the were established by European colonial remaining species pool becomes more powers to introduce economically impor- uniform. Finally, the spectrum of distinct tant and ornamental plants throughout populations and varieties within plant the far-flung reaches of empires, and to species is shrinking, a problem most promote the study of potentially useful advanced in our endowment of domesti- plants. Nowadays many botanical gardens cated plants.44 have reoriented their mission toward Countries that emerged in a world species preservation, particularly in their filled with biodiversity now must gain and research and education programs. Since maintain prosperity amid increasing bio- the late 1980s, botanical gardens have uniformity. We are conducting an coordinated efforts through an interna- unprecedented experiment with the secu- tional conservation network, which helps rity and stability of our food supply, our ensure that the rarest plants receive pri- health care systems, and the ecological ority for propagation and, ultimately, infrastructure upon which both rest. To reintroduction.47 obtain the results we desire, we must con- Gene banks have focused almost exclu- serve and protect the plant biodiversity sively on storing seeds of crop varieties that remains with us, and manage our use and their immediate wild relatives. (The of natural systems in ways that restore bio- principal exception is the Royal Botanic diversity to landscapes worldwide. Garden’s Millennium Seed Bank in Appreciating the Benefits of Plant Biodiversity (107)
England, which holds more than 4,000 Table 6–3. Gene Bank Collections for wild species and is expanding toward a Selected Crops collection of one quarter of the world’s Estimated Share flora.) Gene banks arose from plant Accessions of Landraces breeders’ need to have readily accessible Crop in Gene Banks Collected stocks of breeding material. Their conser- (number) (percent) vation role came to the forefront in the 1970s, following large losses linked to Wheat 850,000 90 genetic uniformity in the southern U.S. Rice 420,000 90 corn crop in 1970 and the Soviet winter Corn 262,000 95 wheat crop of 1971–72.48 Sorghum 168,500 80 In 1974, governments and the United Soybeans 176,000 70 Common Nations established the International Beans 268,500 50 Board for Plant Genetic Resources (now Potatoes 31,000 80–90 known as the International Plant Genetic Cassava 28,000 35 Resources Institute, or IPGRI), which cob- Tomatoes 77,500 90 bled together a global network of gene Squashes, banks. The network includes university Cucumbers, breeding programs, government seed Gourds 30,000 50 storage units, and the Consultative Group Onions, Garlic 25,000 70 on International Agricultural Research Sugarcane 27,500 70 (CGIAR), a worldwide network of 16 agri- Cotton 48,500 75 cultural research centers originally estab- SOURCE: Donald L. Plucknett et al., Gene Banks and lished to bring the Green Revolution to the World’s Food (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1987); Brian D. Wright, Crop Genetic Resource developing countries, and funded primar- Policy: Toward A Research Agenda, EPTD Discussion ily by the World Bank and international Paper 19 (Washington, DC: International Food aid agencies.49 Policy Research Institute, 1996); U.N. Food and The number of unique seed samples or Agriculture Organization, The State of the World’s “accessions” in gene banks now exceeds 6 Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (Rome: 1996). million. The largest chunk of these, more than 500,000 accessions, are in the gene banks of CGIAR centers such as the International Rice Research Institute in tain whether even the best-studied crops the Philippines and the International have been adequately sampled.50 Wheat and Maize Improvement Center There are additional reasons for inter- (CIMMYT) in Mexico. At least 90 percent preting gene bank totals conservatively. of all gene bank accessions are of food The total annual cost of maintaining all and commodity plants, especially the accessions currently in gene banks is world’s most intensively bred and eco- about $300 million, and many facilities, nomically valuable crops. (See Table hard-pressed for operating funds, cannot 6–3.) By the late 1980s, IPGRI regarded a maintain seeds under optimal physical number of these crops, such as wheat and conditions. Seeds that are improperly corn, as essentially completely collected; dried or kept at room temperature rather that is, nearly all of the known landraces than in cold storage may begin to lose via- and varieties of the crop are already rep- bility within a few years. At this point, they resented in gene banks. Others have ques- must be “grown out”—germinated, plant- tioned this assessment, however, arguing ed, raised to maturity, and then reharvest- that the lack of quantitative studies of ed, which is a time-consuming and labor- crop gene pools makes it difficult to ascer- intensive activity when repeated for (108) State of the World 1999 thousands of accessions per year. These recognize that such facilities, even when problems suggest that an unknown frac- impeccably maintained, provide only one tion of accessions is probably of question- piece in the conservation puzzle. Off-site able viability.51 storage takes species out of their natural Only 13 percent of gene-banked seeds ecological settings. Wild tomato seeds can are in well-run facilities with long-term be sealed in a glass jar and frozen for safe- storage capability—and even the crown keeping, but left out of the cold are the jewels of the system, such as the U.S. plant’s pollinators, its dispersers, and all National Seed Storage Laboratory, have at the other organisms and relationships times had problems maintaining seed via- that have shaped the plant’s unique evo- bility rates. For extensively gene-banked lution. Gene banks and botanical gardens crops (primarily major grains and only save a narrow—albeit valuable—slice legumes) where large collections are of plant diversity. When stored seeds are duplicated in different facilities, the odds grown out over several generations off- of losing the diversity already on deposit site, in time they can even lose their native are reduced. But for sparsely collected adaptations and evolve to fit instead the crops whose accessions are stored at just conditions of their captivity.54 one or two sites, the possibility of genetic erosion remains disquietingly high.52 Despite such drawbacks, off-site facili- ties remain indispensable for conserva- EEPING IVERSITY IN LACE tion. In some cases, botanical gardens and K D P gene banks have rescued species whose wild populations are now gone. They can In the end, plant diversity can be securely also help return diversity to its proper maintained only by protecting the native home through reintroduction programs. habitats and ecosystems where plants have Although the uplands of East Africa are evolved. Countries have safeguarded wild- not the center of domestication for com- lands primarily through establishing mon beans, the farmers of the region national parks, forest reserves, and other adopted them as their own several cen- formally protected areas. During this cen- turies ago, and have developed the tury, governments have steadily increased world’s richest mix of local bean varieties. protected area networks, and they now When Rwanda was overwhelmed by civil encompass nearly 12 million square kilo- conflict in 1994, the height of the genoci- meters, or about 8 percent of the Earth’s dal violence occurred during the land surface. Many protected areas guard February-to-June growing season, greatly irreplaceable botanical resources, such as reducing harvests and raising the Malaysia’s Mount Kinabalu National Park, prospect of widespread famine. Amid the which safeguards the unique vegetation relief contributions that flowed into the of southeast Asia’s highest peak. A few country once the situation had stabilized reserves have been established specifically were stocks of at least 170 bean varieties to protect useful plants, such as the Sierra that had been previously collected in de Manantlan biosphere reserve in Rwanda and stored in gene banks world- Mexico, which encompasses the only wide. These supplies helped ensure that known populations of perennial wild Rwandan farmers had stocks of high-qual- corn.55 ity, locally adapted beans for planting in Yet current protected area networks the subsequent growing season.53 also have major limitations. Many highly Still, even the most enthusiastic boost- diverse plant communities, such as tropi- ers of botanical gardens and gene banks cal deciduous forests, are greatly under- Appreciating the Benefits of Plant Biodiversity (109) protected. In addition, many protected tion of Traditional Healers.58 areas officially decreed on paper are min- Such collaboration between locals and imally implemented by chronically under- professional resource managers is also funded and understaffed natural crucial to reversing the overexploitation resource agencies. But perhaps the most of valuable wild plants. Very few commer- fundamental limitation of national parks, cially marketed wild species are harvested wilderness areas, and similarly strict desig- sustainably, in ways or at levels that do not nations arises when they conflict with the degrade the plant resource. Despite the cultural and economic importance that lack of progress, however, the foundations plants hold for local communities.56 of sustainability are becoming increasing- A great deal of the natural wealth that ly clear. Secure and enforceable tenure is conservationists have sought to protect is essential—either in the form of rights to actually on lands and under waters long harvest a plant or tenure over the land it managed by local people. Indigenous grows on. Harvesters also need enough societies worldwide have traditionally pro- economic security to be able to afford the tected prominent landscape features like tradeoffs involved in not harvesting every- mountains or forests, designating them as thing at once. Access to fair and open sacred sites and ceremonial centers. In markets is important, as is having tech- parts of West Africa, sacred groves hold nology appropriate for the harvesting some of the last remaining populations of task. Information about the ecology and important medicinal plants. On Samoa productivity of a plant can make a big dif- and other Pacific islands, communities ference. Consumers willing to pay a pre- manage forests to produce wild foods and mium for well-harvested products also medicines, raw materials for canoes and help—like those generated through certi- household goods, and other benefits.57 fication programs for “environmentally Not surprisingly, actions such as evict- friendly” products.59 ing long-term residents from newly desig- Few wild harvests meet all these crite- nated forest reserves, or denying them ria, but a growing number of initiatives access to previously harvested plant are coming close. In Mexico, ancient stands, have generated a great deal of ill cone-bearing plants called cycads have will toward protected areas worldwide. been heavily exploited for their ornamen- Fortunately, workable alternatives are tal value, both for sale domestically and emerging in a number of cases where for horticultural export to the United long-term residents have been made States, Japan, and Europe. Most cycads equal partners in managing protected are wild-harvested by uprooting or cut- lands. In the Indian state of West Bengal, ting, but a botanical garden in the state of 320,000 hectares of semi-deciduous sal Veracruz is working with local villagers to forest is managed jointly by villagers and reduce pressures on several overexploited the state forestry department, with vil- species. In one community, Monte lagers taking primary responsibility for Oscuro, residents set aside a communal patrolling nearby forest stands. Since plot of dry forest to protect a relict popu- joint management began in 1972, the sta- lation of cycads in exchange for help with tus of the sal forests has improved, and building a community plant nursery. regenerating stands now provide villagers Seeds are collected from the wild plants, with medicines, firewood, and wild-gath- then germinated and tended in the nurs- ered foodstuffs. Medicinals also feature ery by villagers who have received train- prominently in a 4,000-hectare rainforest ing in basic cycad propagation. Some of reserve in Belize, which is government- the young cycads are returned to the for- owned but managed by the Belize Associa- est to offset any potential downturn in the (110) State of the World 1999 wild population from the seed harvest. ic, and technological reasons why farmers The rest are sold and the profits deposit- maintain elements of traditional farming, ed in a community fund.60 such as unique crop variety mixtures. For Presently the largest hurdle is finding instance, native Hopi communities in the good markets for the young plants the southwest United States maintain indige- communities are producing; cycads are nous corn and lima bean varieties slow-growing, and horticultural buyers because the germinating seeds are indis- prefer larger plants. Better monitoring pensable for religious ceremonies. Mende and enforcement of the international farmers in Sierra Leone continue to grow ornamental plant trade would help, for native red-hulled African rice for the Mexican cycad species are listed with the same reason. Andean peasant farmers still Convention on International Trade in grow pink and purple potatoes, big-seed Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and corn, quinoa, and other traditional crops Flora (CITES) of 1973, which provides a because that is what they themselves pre- powerful legal tool for controlling inter- fer to eat; the commercial varieties they national trade in threatened plants and grow are strictly to sell for cash income.62 animals. CITES is generally regarded as One option to help farmers maintain one of the more effective international crop diversity could involve supporting environmental treaties. It prohibits trade farmers’ informal networks of seed in the most highly endangered species exchange and procurement, so as to (listed in the Treaty’s Appendix I), and improve their access to diverse seed keeps watch on vulnerable species (listed sources. In some rural communities in in Appendix II) by requiring that coun- Zimbabwe, villagers contribute seeds tries issue a limited number of permits for annually to a community seed stock. At the species’ export and import between the start of the planting season, the seeds signatory countries. Although CITES pro- are redistributed to all community mem- vides powerful tools for enforcing sustain- bers, a step that gives villagers access to able harvests, it is still up to the countries the full range of varietal diversity present involved to use them.61 in the immediate vicinity and ensures that no one goes without seeds for planting. Grassroots organizations in Ethiopia, In some rural communities in Peru, Tonga, and many other countries have sponsored community seed banks, Zimbabwe, villagers contribute seeds regional agricultural fairs, seed collection annually to a community seed stock. tours, demonstration gardens, and similar projects to promote informal seed exchange between farmers, increase their access to crop diversity, and help them Combining local and international replenish seed stocks after poor harvests.63 strengths also is crucial for sustaining the Another approach to maintaining vari- genetic diversity of our food supply. What etal diversity involves reorienting formal is needed most is agricultural develop- plant breeding toward the local needs of ment that strengthens rather than simpli- farmers. Typically plant breeders create fies plant diversity to meet the needs and uniform, widely adaptable “pure-bred” goals of farmers—especially subsistence varietal lines, and only toward the end of farmers in developing countries who still the process are the lines evaluated with maintain diverse agricultural landscapes. farmers. Participatory plant breeding Meeting this challenge requires under- methods involve farmers at all stages. In standing the particular cultural, econom- the most advanced programs, breeders Appreciating the Benefits of Plant Biodiversity (111) and farming communities work together ern African countries, for instance, are over several crop generations to evaluate, only eligible for government agricultural select, combine, and improve a wide credit programs if they agree to plant range of varieties, both those available modern improved varieties. International locally and those from other regions. In development aid and structural adjust- this way, participatory plant breeding can ment policies commonly promote nontra- improve the suite of locally preferred ditional export crops, which can trigger varieties without resorting to varietal uni- habitat conversion (erasing wild plant formity; this approach maintains—or diversity) and replace indigenous crop potentially even enhances—the genetic mixtures. Until fundamental policy diversity present in farmers’ fields.64 changes are taken to heart by govern- Participatory plant breeding has been ments, international lenders, and related pioneered primarily by grassroots devel- institutions, the path to sustaining plant opment organizations and innovative biodiversity—wild or domesticated—will national plant breeding programs in remain difficult.66 developing countries; it has not been taken up by commercial seed producers, perhaps because its benefits tend to be diffuse and not easily appropriated for SHARING THE BENEFITS commercial gain. The CGIAR centers are exploring participatory approaches, but Governments can begin to chart a new also remain heavily involved in standard course by resolving the most prominent breeding programs. For instance, the policy issue affecting plant diversity today: corn and wheat center CIMMYT recently how to distribute biodiversity’s economic collaborated with university breeders and benefits fairly and equitably. Establishing seed companies to develop better-yielding a system of intellectual property rights to corn varieties targeted for highland plant resources has proved contentious Mexico—areas where corn landraces con- because of a simple pattern—plant diver- tinue to be grown by small-scale farmers sity (both wild and cultivated) is held under diverse environmental conditions. mostly by developing countries, but the In doing so, CIMMYT chose to focus on economic benefits it generates are dispro- hybrid corn varieties. If well tailored to portionately captured by industrial the environmental and economic con- nations. For most of this century, plant straints facing highland Mexican farmers, diversity has been treated as the “com- the new hybrids could boost crop yields— mon heritage” of humankind, freely avail- but farmers will be unable to save their able to anyone who can use it, with pro- seeds and adapt them further to local prietary ownership only granted via conditions. The seed companies involved patent law to individuals who demon- will surely benefit, but past experience strate trade secrets or uniquely improve a suggests that local plant biodiversity may crop variety or other plant.67 pay the price.65 Since the early 1980s, however, there As this last example shows, the most has been widening agreement that indige- fundamental changes to be made in pro- nous people and traditional farmers tecting crop genetic diversity—and plant deserve compensation for their long- biodiversity in general—involve changing standing generation, management, and policies. Governments are often biased knowledge of biodiversity. Grassroots toward promoting intensive agriculture advocates argue that indigenous people dependent on high inputs and genetical- deserve “traditional resource rights” to ly uniform crops. Farmers in most south- the plants they cultivate and know how to (112) State of the World 1999 use, rights that would have the same inter- with the huge cost ($200–350 million) of national legal standing as that afforded to bringing a new drug to market, compa- patent rights. Recognition of such rights nies cannot afford to share a higher per- requires, at a minimum, negotiating equi- centage of royalties. Critics, however, sus- table benefit-sharing agreements at the pect many bilateral bioprospecting community level whenever plants or agreements are not negotiated on an indigenous knowledge about them is col- even footing; when a biotechnology firm lected by researchers. An additional way to approached the U.S. government about acknowledge the world’s debt to rural prospecting for unique microbes inhabit- communities who safeguard plant bio- ing the geysers and hot springs of diversity would be to establish an interna- Yellowstone National Park, for instance, tional fund supporting continued local the Park Service negotiated a royalty management of plant resources. Such a share of 10 percent. Moreover, not all bio- step appears the most practical means of prospecting agreements automatically compensation for the large amount of uphold traditional resource rights; many plant biodiversity that is already in the have been negotiated on a national rather public domain (such as the millions of than community level, involving govern- seed accessions in gene banks or plants ments who many indigenous people think widely used as herbal medicines), since do not adequately represent—indeed, establishing exactly who deserves compen- sometimes actively undermine—their sation for commercial innovations from interests.70 these plant resources is a Herculean task.68 In contrast with bioprospecting, resolv- To date, formal agreements for sharing ing who owns the world’s crop genetic the benefits of plant diversity have been resources is being negotiated multilateral- negotiated most extensively in the search ly, in factious diplomatic arenas. In 1989 for new pharmaceuticals from plants in FAO adopted a Farmers’ Rights proposal biodiversity-rich developing countries. that would compensate farmers for their The first such “bioprospecting” agree- contribution to biodiversity via an inter- ment was announced in 1991 between national trust fund to support the conser- Merck Pharmaceuticals and Costa Rica’s vation of plant genetic resources. The nongovernmental National Institute of 1992 Convention on Biological Diversity Biodiversity (InBio), in which Merck paid also called for incorporating Farmers’ InBio $1.1 million for access to plant and Rights, subsequent to further internation- insect samples, and promised to share an al negotiations. There has been no offi- undisclosed percentage of royalties from cial endorsement of this concept, howev- any commercial products that resulted.69 er, from the industrial nations who would There are now at least a dozen bio- provide the compensation, and the fund prospecting agreements in place world- has remained unimplemented. During wide, involving national governments, the most recent round of international indigenous communities, conservation negotiations, in June 1998, the European groups, start-up companies, and estab- Union appeared ready to support lished corporate giants. Most legitimate Farmers’ Rights, but Australian, U.S., and agreements have followed the Merck- Canadian diplomats continued to InBio model, with a modest up-front pay- stonewall the issue.71 ment and a promise to return between Meanwhile, the intellectual property one quarter of 1 percent and 3 percent agenda of industrial countries is being (depending on the project) of any future advanced by the World Trade Organi- royalties to the biodiversity holders. zation (WTO). All countries acceding to Bioprospecting proponents argue that the General Agreement on Tariffs and Appreciating the Benefits of Plant Biodiversity (113)
Trades are required to establish a system international pale, the current situation for protecting breeders’ rights through remains far from ideal. The lack of a clear, plant variety patents. They can either multilateral system of intellectual proper- adopt the system of administering patents ty rights for plant genetic resources dis- and breeders’ rights followed by industri- tracts governments from the task of con- al nations under the International Union serving these resources for future for the Protection of New Varieties of generations. The right of subsistence Plants (UPOV), or instead design their farmers to save and adapt the seeds they own unique system. The UPOV plant—arguably the most important Convention was established in 1978 and mechanism for sustaining crop genetic substantially revised in 1991; initially it diversity in fields—still has not been rec- gave farmers the right to save commercial ognized by many governments. Without seed for their own use, but the 1991 ver- clear ground rules established, institu- sion allowed signatory countries to revoke tions and industries that depend directly this right. Some countries, including on biodiversity for their well-being have India, are looking at structuring their little incentive to invest in strategies to own plant patent systems to also acknowl- help sustain plant diversity in the fields edge farmers’ rights, but it is unclear and wildlands where it originates. All whether the WTO will approve such countries must redouble their efforts to arrangements.72 surmount the political logjam over plant Despite the foot-dragging in interna- genetic resources, for continued delay tional arenas, de facto boundaries are puts biodiversity at risk, and ultimately emerging for what will and will not be tol- serves no one’s interest.74 erated in the expropriation of crop genet- ic resources. In May 1997, two Australian agricultural centers applied for propri- etary breeders’ rights on two varieties The right of subsistence farmers to of chickpeas. Their application sparked an save and adapt the seeds they plant international uproar because the Australian breeders had obtained both still has not been recognized by many varieties from a CGIAR gene bank, which governments. had provided the seeds with the under- standing they were to be used for research and not for direct financial gain. Moreover, the Australians did little breed- For all of human history, we have ing to improve the two chickpeas, one of depended on plants and the rest of biodi- which was a landrace widely grown by versity for our soul and subsistence. Now Indian farmers, and they even appeared to the roles are reversed, and biodiversity’s be laying the groundwork to market the fate depends squarely on how we shape chickpeas in India and Pakistan. our own future. From reducing over- Ultimately, the Australian government exploitation of wild plants to establishing bowed to international pressure and traditional resource rights for biodiversity rejected the patent application. The stewards, many options are available for CGIAR subsequently called for a moratori- developing cultural links that support um on all claims for proprietary breeding plant diversity rather than diminish it. rights involving germplasm held in trust by Such steps are not just about meeting CGIAR or FAO-sponsored gene banks.73 international treaty obligations or estab- While blatant gene grabs like that of lishing new protected areas, but rather the Australians may now be beyond the are part of a larger process of shaping (114) State of the World 1999 ecologically literate civil societies that are in balance with the natural world. To maintain biodiversity’s benefits, what matters most is how well we meet the chal- lenges of living sustainably with our deeds as well as our words. Notes
Chapter 6. Appreciating the Benefits Population Division, World Population of Plant Biodiversity Projections to 2150 (New York: United Nations, 1998); use of Earth’s biological systems from 1. Wild potato descriptions based on J.G. Peter M. Vitousek et al., “Human Domination Hawkes, The Potato: Evolution, Biodiversity and of Earth’s Ecosystems,” Science, 25 July 1997. Genetic Resources (Washington, DC: Smith- 5. Calculations of background extinction sonian Institution Press, 1990); Irish potato rates from David M. Raup, “A Kill Curve for famine from Cary Fowler and Pat Mooney, Phanerozoic Marine Species,” Paleobiology, vol. Shattering: Food, Politics, and the Loss of Genetic 17, no. 1 (1991). Raup’s exact estimate is one Diversity (Tucson, AZ: University of Arizona species extinct every four years, based on a Press, 1990); resurgent potato blight informa- pool of 1 million species; the range here of tion from Kurt Kleiner, “Save Our Spuds,” New 1–10 species per year is based on current esti- Scientist, 30 May 1998, from Pat Roy Mooney, mates of total species worldwide. Estimates for “The Parts of Life: Agricultural Biodiversity, current rates of extinction are reviewed by Indigenous Knowledge and the Third System,” Nigel Stork, “Measuring Global Biodiversity Development Dialogue, nos. 1–2, 1996, from and Its Decline,” in Marjorie L. Reaka-Kudla, “Potatoes Blighted,” New Scientist, 21 March Don E. Wilson, and Edward O. Wilson, eds., 1998, and from International Potato Center, Biodiversity II: Understanding and Protecting Our “An Opportunity for Disease Control,” Biological Resources (Washington, DC: Joseph
Olson et al., eds., Identifying Gaps in Botanical University—Ford Foundation Rural Systems Information for Biodiversity Conservation in Latin Research Project, 1988); Iquitos information America and the Caribbean (Washington, DC: from Rodolfo Vasquez and Alwyn H. Gentry, World Wildlife Fund, 1997), and from J. “Use and Misuse of Forest-Harvested Fruits in Orlando Rangel Ch., Petter D. Lowy C., and the Iquitos Area,” Conservation Biology, January Mauricio Aguilar P., Colombia: Diversidad 1989, and from Alwyn Gentry, “New Biotica II (Santafé de Bogotá, Colombia: Nontimber Forest Products from Western Instituto de Ciencias Naturales, Universidad South America,” in Mark Plotkin and Lisa Nacional de Colombia, 1997); western Famolare, eds., Sustainable Harvest and Australia from Wilson, op. cit. note 6; New Marketing of Rain Forest Products (Washington, Caledonia from J.M. Veillon, “Protection of DC: Island Press, 1992). Floristic Diversity in New Caledonia,” Biodiversity Letters, May/July 1993; Southeast 11. Origins of agriculture from Fowler and Florida habitats from Florida Natural Areas Mooney, op. cit. note 1; centers of crop diver- Inventory, county summaries,
Discussion Paper 266 (Washington, DC: World from West Africa, Gatekeepers Series No. SA48 Bank, 1994); hybrid seeds from Jack R. (London: International Institute for Kloppenburg, Jr., First the Seed: The Political Environment and Development, 1995). Economy of Plant Biotechnology, 1492–2000 (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1988), and 19. FAO, op. cit. note 14; Fowler and from Fowler and Mooney, op. cit. note 1; ille- Mooney, op. cit. note 1; RAFI, “The Life gality of seed saving from Tracy Clunies-Ross, Industry 1997,” RAFI Communiqué, “Creeping Enclosure: Seed Legislation, Plant November/December 1997. Breeders’ Rights and Scottish Potatoes,” The 20. NRC, Managing Global Genetic Resources: Ecologist, May/June 1996, and from John Agricultural Crop Issues and Policies Geadelmann, “Three Main Barriers: Weak (Washington, DC: National Academy Press, Protection for Intellectual Property Rights, 1993). Unreasonable Phytosanitary Rules, and Compulsory Varietal Regulation,” in David 21. FAO, op. cit. note 14; NRC, op. cit. note Gisselquist and Jitendra Srivastava, eds., Easing 20; Netherlands study from Renée Vellvé, Barriers to Movement of Plant Varieties for Saving the Seed: Genetic Diversity and European Agricultural Development, World Bank Agriculture (London: Earthscan Publications, Discussion Paper 367 (Washington, DC: World 1992). Bank, 1997). 22. Donald L. Plucknett et al., Gene Banks 14. FAO, The State of the World’s Plant Genetic and the World’s Food (Princeton, NJ: Princeton Resources for Food and Agriculture (Rome: 1996); University Press, 1987); NRC, op. cit. note 20. Fowler and Mooney, op. cit. note 1. 23. FAO, op. cit. note 14; Brian D. Wright, 15. FAO, op. cit. note 14; population esti- Crop Genetic Resource Policy: Toward A Research mate for rural poor supported by subsistence Agenda, EPTD Discussion Paper 19 agriculture originally calculated in Edward C. (Washington, DC: International Food Policy Wolf, Beyond the Green Revolution: New Research Institute, 1996); grassy stunt resis- Approaches for Third World Agriculture, tance from International Rice Research Worldwatch Paper 73 (Washington, DC: Institute, “Beyond Rice: Wide Crosses Broaden Worldwatch Institute, 1986) and reverified by the Gene Pool,”
V. Heywood, and H. Synge, eds., Conservation 31. Lack of healer apprentices from Balick of Medicinal Plants (Cambridge, U.K.: and Cox, op. cit. note 3, and from Mark Cambridge University Press, 1991); Ayurvedic Plotkin, Tales of a Shaman’s Apprentice (New figures from Bajaj and Williams, op. cit. York: Viking Press, 1994). note25, and from S.K. Jain and Robert A. DeFilipps, Medicinal Plants of India, Vol. I 32. Percentage of material needs met by (Algonac, MI: Reference Publications, 1991); plants from the Crucible Group, People, Plants, importance of traditional medicine for rural and Patents: The Impact of Intellectual Property on poor from John Lambert, Jitendra Srivastava, Trade, Plant Biodiversity and Rural Society and Noel Vietmeyer, Medicinal Plants: Rescuing (Ottawa, Canada: International Development a Global Heritage (Washington, DC: World Research Centre, 1994); babassu uses from Bank, 1997), and from Gerard Bodeker and Peter H. May, “Babassu Palm Product Markets,” Margaret A. Hughes, “Wound Healing, in Plotkin and Famolare, op. cit. note 10; Traditional Treatments and Research Policy,” babassu economic importance from Anthony in H.D.V. Prendergast et al., eds., Plants for B. Anderson, Peter H. May, and Michael J. Food and Medicine (Kew, U.K.: Royal Botanic Balick, The Subsidy from Nature: Palm Forests, Gardens, 1998). Peasantry, and Development on an Amazon Frontier (New York: Columbia University Press, 1991). 27. International medicinal trade details 33. Palm cultures from Andrew from M. Iqbal, Trade Restrictions Affecting Henderson, Gloria Galeano, and Rodrigo International Trade in Non-Wood Forest Products Bernal, Field Guide to the Palms of the Americas (Rome: FAO, 1995); U.S. medicinal market (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, from Jennie Wood Shelton, Michael J. Balick, 1995). and Sarah A. Laird, Medicinal Plants: Can Utilization and Conservation Coexist? (New York: 34. Ecuador information from Anders S. New York Botanical Garden, 1997). Barfod and Lars Peter Kvist, “Comparative Ethnobotanical Studies of the Amerindian 28. Lambert, Srivastava, and Vietmeyer, op. Groups in Coastal Ecuador,” Biologiske Skrifter, cit. note 26; A.B. Cunningham, African vol. 46, 1996; Borneo information from Medicinal Plants: Setting Priorities at the Interface Hanne Christensen, “Palms and People in the Between Conservation and Primary Health Care, Bornean Rain Forest,” Society for Economic People and Plants Working Paper 1 (Paris: Botany annual meetings, Aarhus, Denmark, UNESCO, 1993); Panama information from July 1998; India information from Food and author’s fieldnotes, Darién province, Panama, Nutrition Division, “Non-Wood Forest 1998. Products and Nutrition,” in Report of the International Expert Consultation on Non-Wood 29. A.B. Cunningham and F. T. Mbenkum, Forest Products (Rome: FAO, 1995). Sustainability of Harvesting Prunus africana Bark in Cameroon: A Medicinal Plant in 35. Timber tree total calculated from trade International Trade, People and Plants Working statistics of the International Tropical Timber Paper 2 (Paris: UNESCO, 1993). Organization,
36. Terry Sunderland, “The Rattan Palms Hannah, John L. Carr, and Ali Lankerani, of Central Africa and Their Economic “Human Disturbance and Natural Habitat: A Importance,” Society for Economic Botany Biome Level Analysis of a Global Data Set,” Annual Meetings, Aarhus, Denmark, July Biodiversity and Conservation, vol. 4, 1995. 1998; regional status of rattan resources from International Network for Bamboo and 44. Walter and Gillett, op. cit. note 7; Rattan, “Bamboo/Rattan Worldwide,” INBAR Zimmerer, op. cit. note 11. Newsletter, vol. 4 (no date) and vol. 5 (1997). 45. Plucknett et al., op. cit. note 22. 37. Biological dynamics of fragmented 46. Botanic Gardens Conservation Inter- habitats from William S. Alverson, Walter national, “Introduction: Botanic Gardens & Kuhlmann, and Donald M. Waller, Wild Forests: Conservation,”
56. Carel van Schaik, John Terborgh, and 61. Vovides and Iglesias, op. cit. note 60; Barbara L. Dugelby, “The Silent Crisis: The Vovides, op. cit. note 60; “CITES and the Royal State of Rain Forest Nature Preserves,” in Botanic Gardens Kew,”
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