NEWSLETTER of HIMALAYAN BOTANY Number 46 October 2012
ISSN 0915-4914 NEWSLETTER OF HIMALAYAN BOTANY Number 46 October 2012 THE SOCIETY OF HIMALAYAN BOTANY TOKYO Newsletter of Himalayan Botany No. 46 1 Botanical expedition to Natma Taung (Mt. Victoria) National Park, Chin State, west-central Myanmar in 2012 Kazumi FUJIKAWA1, Motohiro HAMAGUCHI1, Nobuko YAMAMOTO2, Hiroshi IKEDA3, Prachaya Srisanga4 and Tin Mya Soe5 1The Kochi Prefectural Makino Botanical Garden, 4200-6 Godaisan, Kochi 781-8125, Japan 2Graduate School of Informatics, Okayama University of Science, 1-1 Ridai-cho, Kita-ku, Okayama 700-0005, Japan 3The University Museum, The University of Tokyo, 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-0033, Japan 4Queen Sirikit Botanic Garden, P.O. Box 7, Maerim, Chiang Mai 50180, Thailand 5Natma Taung National Park, Nature and Wildlife Conservation Division, Forest Department, Kanpetlet Township, Chin State, Myanmar Introduction Myanmar is a biodiversity-rich country located to the southeast of the Himalayan region. Although a checklist by Kress et al. (2003) reported ca. 11,800 species of spermatophytes, it is still far to understand the flora of this country because of the great lack of specimens collected by Burmese and foreign botanists for a long time throughout the country. Thus, Myanmar has been called one of the botanical frontier in Asia. Under these circumstances, the Forest De- partment (FD), the Ministry of Environment Consevation and Forestry (moECAF), Union of Myanmar, and Kochi Prefectural Makino Botanical Garden (MBK) have jointly started a proj- ect “Inventory and Research Program of the Useful Plants of Myanmar” since 2000 under the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU). Of the six forest policy imperatives prescribed by MoECAF, the first imperative of protec- tion involves safeguarding water catchments, ecosystems, biodiversity and plant and animal genetic resources, soil, scenic reserves, and national heritage sites.
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