Medicinal Plant Conservation Presently Goes to More Than 450 the MPSG Has Become One of the Largest, Most Recipients Throughout the World
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Medicinal Plant MEDICINAL PLANT SPECIALIST Conservation GROUP Silphion Volume 7 Newsletter of the Medicinal Plant Specialist Group of the IUCN Species Survival Commission Chaired by Danna J. Leaman Focus on National Parks Utilization of medicinal plants in Bach Ma National Park, Vietnam - Tran Thien An & S. Ziegler. .3 Sustainable use of medicinal plants and nature conservation in the Prespa National Park area, Albania - A. Schopp-Guth & W. Fremuth . .5 Working with Tibetan doctors (amchis) for the conservation of medicinal plants and health care development at Shey Phoksundo National Park, Dolpa, Nepal - Y. Aumeeruddy-Thomas. 8 Chair’s Note. 2 Return of the pepper-bark - T. Cunningham . 21 Conservation status of Cimicifuga rubifolia, Obituary Ted Anderson - S. King . 2 C. americana, and C. racemosa - J. Lyke. 22 Regional File Assessment of resources and sustainable harvest of wild Cibotium barometz in China - Jia Trade in the Himalayan medicinal plant product Kutki – J. & Zhang X. 25 New data - C. Smith Olsen. .11 Mainstreaming conservation of medicinal plants Conferences and Meetings - V. Tandon. .13 Coming Up - N. Hofbauer. .27 Conservation of species by protective marking - J. Corbin . .14 Recent Events Taxon File BMZ-funded workshop held in Hong Kong CITES News - U. Schippmann. .15 - S. Lee . .29 Corrigendum Harpagophytum .- .U. Schippmann. .16 Medicinal Plants Forum for Commonwealth Africa - N. Marshall. .29 Boswellia from Somalia, a source of high quality frankincense - K.P. Svoboda, J.B. Hampson & L. Hall. 16 Reviews and Notices of Publication . 29 The status of Guaiacum species in trade - S. Grow List of Members . 37 & E. Schwartzman. .19 ISSN 1430-953X 1 August 2001 regional vice-chairs, Vinay and Sonia will be Chair’s Note working with members in the Himalayas/Indian Subcontinent, and Caribbean/Central America, to Danna Leaman establish regional MPSG sub-groups and develop regional programmes. In partnerships with the Inter- As you will have learned from Uwe Schippmann's national Development Research Centre and the "Chair's Note" in the previous volume (6) of Medicinal Canadian Museum of Nature, we are embarking Plant Conservation, Uwe stepped down as Chair of the upon a fundraising campaign for the Centres of Me- MPSG last year, coinciding with the round of dicinal Plant Diversity Initiative, which will provide appointments of all IUCN specialist group chairs core and programme support for the MPSG and the and invitation of members for the new IUCN regional sub-groups. Triennium. Uwe has chaired the MPSG since it was Enormous thanks to Uwe, to Natalie Hofbauer, and established in 1994, first as Co-chair with Tony to the Bundesamt für Naturschutz (BfN) for the Cunningham for the 1994-1997 Triennium, and as immeasurable organizational and personal commit- Chair during the 1998-2000 Triennium. Uwe and ments of time and energy required to manage the Tony met the huge challenge of forming a globally MPSG membership. I am delighted that Uwe and representative expert network of members committ- Natalie will continue to edit, produce, and distribute ed to the conservation and sustainable use of medici- this wonderful newsletter with support from BfN. nal plants. Under Uwe's leadership, and with con- tinuing contributions from Tony and other members, Medicinal Plant Conservation presently goes to more than 450 the MPSG has become one of the largest, most recipients throughout the world. active, and visible specialist groups of the IUCN On a sadder note, we regret the loss of Ted Ander- SSC. The current and earlier volumes of this son, a member of the MPSG and also of the Cactus newsletter describe many of the research and policy and Succulent Specialist Group [see Obituary by activities in which members of the MPSG are STEVEN R. KING, p. 2], and the death of Richard involved. I have accepted the invitation of David Evans Schultes, who chaired the SSC Ethnobotany Brackett, Chair of the IUCN Species Survival Specialist Group from 1982 to 1990. Commission, to chair the MPSG for the current IUCN Triennium, until the next World Conservation Congress in 2003. Having worked closely with Uwe Obituary Ted Anderson and Tony since 1997 as Executive Secretary of the group, I am assuming this new responsibility with Steven R. King great appreciation for the vision and work involved The Medicinal Plant Specialist Group is deeply in what they have achieved. saddened by the death of Edward F. “Ted” Anderson During the current Triennium (2001-2003), my on March 29, 2001. Ted, as many, many people principal commitments as Chair will be to establish throughout the world knew him, was a consummate a steering committee and regional sub-group plant scientist. He was passionately involved in management structure for the MPSG (a proposal teaching, cactus and succulent systematic research, that has evolved within the group over the last few ethnobotany, conservation and most of all fieldwork years), to work with members and partners to throughout the world. He was devoted to his wife develop, raise funds for, and implement our Adele and his family. There are few people and programme and objectives, and to set up more scientists like him, which makes his loss all the more efficient communication tools for the group (such as significant. an electronic list-serve and a website). Invitation of Ted’s work over the past 45 years included a members for the current Triennium is currently recently finished masterwork “The Cactus family” underway, within the context of establishing the which he was extremely pleased to have completed steering committee and regional sub-groups where after thousands of hours of work. His book on these are most clearly needed (Himalayas and Indian Peyote “Peyote: The Divine Cactus” was first Subcontinent; Caribbean and Central America; published in 1980. A revised second edition was North America/Mexico). Uwe and Tony have agreed released in 1996 and dedicated to his wife Adele. He to continue their guiding role in the group as co-authored the “Threatened Cacti of Mexico” and members of the steering committee, currently joined in 1993 he published a beautiful book called “Plants by Vinay Tandon and Sonia Lagos-Witte. As and People of the Golden Triangle” on the ethno- 2 Medicinal Plant Conservation 7 botany of the tribal people of Northern Thailand. Ted’s original fascination with cacti and tropical Focus on National Parks plants was sparked by a fellowship to study cacti at the Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden in Clare- Utilization of medicinal plants in Bach mont, California. He earned his B.A. in biology Ma National Park, Vietnam from Pomona College and his M.A. and Ph.D. in botany from Claremont Graduate School. He taught Tran Thien An & Stefan Ziegler botany at Whitman College in Walla Walla, Bach Ma National Park, situated in central Vietnam, Washington, for thirty years and during that time he 40 km southeast of Hue and 65 km northwest of Da received two Fulbright-Hays lectureships to teach in Nang, is one of the eleven national parks in the other countries. He spent sabbatical leaves in Latin country. The national park was created in 1991 to America and Southeast Asia where he studied cacti conserve the only green transect left in Vietnam, and documented the ethnobotanical use of plants. stretching from the South China Sea to the border Ted also served on the Scientific Strategy Team with Laos. The dominant habitats are tropical (SST) of Shaman Pharmaceuticals where he contri- evergreen monsoon forest in the lowland areas and buted his expertise on plant medicines that he had subtropical evergreen monsoon forest at altitudes studied around the world. He was also highly focus- between 900 and 1450 m. The park is located within ed on the ethics and benefit sharing process that was the transition zone of northern (Sino-Himalayan, developed and implemented by Shaman Pharmaceu- Indo-Burmese) and southern (Malesian) floras and is ticals and the Healing Forest Conservancy. regarded to be an important ‘Floristic Biodiversity Centre’ for Indochina. I personally was amazed by how much energy and passion Ted displayed for fieldwork, science and A recent survey on the exploitation of medicinal international travel. Each time I spoke to him he plants in the buffer zone of Bach Ma National Park described his recent fieldwork and travels in Chile, has shown that 432 of the approximately 1400 de- Argentina, Peru, Mexico, Thailand, the Southwest scribed species in the park are used by the local United States, and many trips to Europe to visit population for a variety of medicinal purposes. The major Herbaria, friends and other scholars. In fact survey was based on direct observations in three we will all read many different tributes to Ted as communities and interviewing 50 local people, person, a scientist, mentor, husband, father, and including male and female herbalists. Although most plant lover. His many passions and facets, like a informants were able to name between 20 and 30 sparkling gem, radiated into so many interwoven species of medicinal plants which can be found in worlds. the area, it is the commune’s herbalist or practitioner who has sound experience of collecting and process- Ted Anderson will be missed but never forgotten for ing medicinal plants and preparing the raw material the person he was and for his contributions to the for medical application. Each commune has between world of plants and plant sciences. Thank you, Ted, five to ten herbalists who also give advice on health for following your passions with such gusto. Thank and sell plant products for medical treatment. The you for teaching so many students. We will think of herbalists usually belong to one of the ethnic you, like as a divine cactus: sacred and powerful in minority groups living in the buffer zone of the your love for the natural world.