Hmong ethnobotany and conservation in Laos

A participatory ethnobotany study with indigenous Hmong elders on spiritual-cultural practices and livelihood uses of plants and their conservation suggests that the traditional cultural uses for plants may be a mechanism for the conservation of biodiversity in the rapidly deteriorating forests of Luang Prabang in the Lao People's Democratic Republic. Results offer an overview of traditional Hmong cultural uses and conservation of biodiversity in the rapidly deteriorating forests of Luang Prabang in the Lao People’s Democratic Republic.

Read 'Hmong ethnobotany and conservation in Laos' in Ethnobotany Research and Applications (Whitney et al. 2014; 2015)

Tshawb nrhiav nroj tsuag tau muaj kev koom tes nrog cov kws tshuaj ntsuab Hmoob nyob rau zos Long Lan, Xeev Luang prabang, Los Tsuas Teb chaws tau pib tshawb los rau ntawm lub xyoo 2012 thiab 2013. Nrhiav txog lub laj lim thiab tswv yim ntawm cov laus neeg nyob zos Long Lan thiab cov zos nyob ib puag ncig twb yog ib qhov sij hawm muaj txiaj ntsig tau paub txog txoj kev cai coj siv nroj tsuag thiab pov hwm nyob nrog lub neej. Tau paub txog ntawm 74 hom tau muaj 49 yam (nroj tsuag) twb tau muab sau zoo, qhov nov muaj 25 yam tshuaj ntsuab (17 yam yog cov muaj hnub nyooj ntev thiab 8 yam yog cov muaj hnub nyooj luv), 20 yam yog cov ua ntoo, 17 yam yog cov nroj, 10 yam yog cov hmab, thiab 2 yam yog suab. Muab xam tau pom txog nroj tsuag muaj txiaj ntsig zoo heev rau ntawm txoj kev siv yoom thiab pov hwm nyob nrog lub neej. Qhov tshawb rhiav no tau ceeb toom txog tias txoj kev siv yoom nroj tsuag raws li txoj cai Hmoob coj yog ib txoj cai zoo rau ntawm kev pov hwm hav zoov hav tsuag rau qhov hav zoov niaj hnub no raug luaj ntov nyob rau xeev Luang prabang, los Tsuas Teb. 

Check out the related iNaturalist collection (still growing).

References

Whitney, Cory, Min (Meej Vaj) Vang Sin, Giang Le Hong, Can Vu Van, Keith Barber, and Lanh Tran Thi. “Conservation and Ethnobotanical Knowledge of a Hmong Community in Long Lan, Luang Prabang, Lao People’s Democratic Republic.” Ethnobotany Research and Applications 12 (2014): 643–58. https://doi.org/10.17348/era.12.0.643-658.
———. “Hmong Conservation: Lessons in Ethnobotany from the Elders of Long Lan, Luang Prabang, Lao People’s Democratic Republic.” In 38th Annual Conference of the Society of Ethnobiology “The Many Faces of Ethnobiology,” 70–71. May 6-9: Society of Ethnobiology, 2015.

Nordic ethnobotany and conservation

Hotspots of biodiversity continue to be the focus of conservation efforts and ethnobotany explorations around the world. This makes sense since hotspots are the places that harbor the majority of the world's species. However, loss of species and habitats also happens in “cold-spots” of biodiversity such as Iceland and the Faroe Islands. I happen to be from one of these cold-spots and have witnessed a big loss of biodiversity in my lifetime. 

I used the opportunity of my Masters Thesis work at University of Kassel, Witzenhausen to find out about more about how other people from cold-spots use native biodiversity and if there is any relationship between use and conservation. I was inspired by David Quammen's ideas about Island Biogeography, so eloquently expressed in his book 'Song of the Dodo' and by Karl Hammer's various articles and books on the ethnobotany of Italian Islands. 

My 'explorations', if I can call them that, took place back in 2009 but have since been published in the journal Human Ecology as well as the open access archive Organic eprints. I thought it might be a good idea to share a bit about them here for any interested friends.

Icelanders and Faroese live in fragile ecosystems that have been changed since the Vikings cut many of the forests and then introduced rooting and grazing of livestock changing the forests to grazing lands around 1,000 years ago. Today there are many conservation minded islanders that are attempting to generate a more sustainable relationship with their environment. I was hosted by the people of Slow Food Iceland and Terra Madre Nordic to name a few and funded by the Partridge Foundation and my alma mater College of the Atlantic. I spent the summer of 2009 learning from Icelandic and Faroese wild collectors about their use of plants as well as algae and fungi for food and medicine. 

Some of the species like the Angelica, Birch and Icelandic Moss are used by many people. These are important and their habitats are often conserved by the people who like to use them.

A lot of the people I spoke with feel that the potential exists for a more diverse harvest and for sustainable management (e.g. Organic certification). Also spreading knowledge about the use of these species can increase their cultural conservation. This seems to be largely about food, which appears to be paramount for increasing the cultural importance of a species.

Organic eprints http://orgprints.org/22897/

Human Ecology doi 10.1007/s10745-012-9517-0

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Here is a regularly updated list of other things Cory writes

Resource Rights

I have just come across a new paper and am incredibly impressed. It's a great piece regarding villager's resource rights in 'National Production Forests' and 'National Protected Areas'.

Porter-Bolland L., Elllis E.A., Guariguata M.R., Ruiz-Mallén I., Negrete-Yankelevich S. and Reyes-García V. 2012. Community managed forests and forest protected areas: An assessment of their conservation effectiveness across the tropics. Forest Ecology and Management.

The authors offer an assessment of 77 case studies from around the world. Their work reveals that tropical forests managed by communities show a lower annual deforestation rate than forests within official 'Protected' areas.

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Here is a regularly updated list of other things Cory writes
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Here is a regularly updated list of other things Cory writes

Buddhism meets Animism

Bo Ton Mai ceremony for Ficus tree

The elders of a small village here were having troubles with illegal logging and over-harvesting in the communal forests - they took direct action to save the trees.

They organized a Bo Ton Mai ceremony and ordained all the trees as monks. The local pagoda and the most famous monks from the region came along with all the villagers and nearby people. The offenders who had been cutting trees and damaging the forests even took part in the ceremony and acknowledged the sacredness of the forest and the trees.

The problems with forest mis-use did not continue.

Read Susan Darlington's story about Buddhist Ecology in Thailand: http://ccbs.ntu.edu.tw/FULLTEXT/JR-ADM/susan.htm

Slash-and-burn 'improves tropical forest biodiversity'

According to the Science and Development Network slash-and-burn a practice common among indigenous and small scale farmers and foresters, actually improves tropical forest biodiversity.
Slash-and-burn agricultural practices have been banned by many governments because of the risk of uncontrolled fires. However, it turns out that they provide better growing conditions for valuable new trees than more modern methods of forest clearance.

Testing three diferent methods: clear-felling, bulldozing, and slash-and-burn: researchers cleared 24 half-hectare areas of tropical forest in Quintana Roo state, in southern Mexico. Mahogany seeds and seedlings were then planted and after 11 years, the researchers compared the sites and found that slash-and-burn techniques had provided the best growing conditions for mahogany. Many other valuable species also thrived in the slash-and-burn plots, whereas in clear-felled areas more than half of each area contained tree species of no commercial value. In areas cleared by slash-and-burn 60 per cent of species were commercially valuable. Additionally, the largest trees in slash-and-burn areas were 10 percent bigger than those in bulldozed areas.

Results were presented at the annual conference of the International Society of Tropical Foresters at Yale University www.enn.com/top_stories/article/43972

Use of Zostera marina for conservation

Seagrass has a number of important eco system functions including habitat for fish spawning, nutrient cycling, erosion protection and buffering of pollutants (Han et al. 2008). The eelgrass, Zostera marina L., has traditionally been used for a myriad of purposes in these North Atlantic coastal communities (Alm 2003). Unfortunately, During the 1930s, a widespread infection of the slime mold, Labryinthula spp., stopped the harvest of this plant species (Cottam 1934; Muhlstein 1989). The plant community rebounded shortly thereafter and was briefly used for the collection of a product called sea-felt. Fiberglass soon filled that cultural and economic niche and ended the wild harvest once again (Wyllie-Echeverria et al. 2000). Thereafter, the areas where the species had previously been protected for the harvest began to be developed and mismanaged.

The hopeful news is that there may be more uses, which will lead to conservation, for the troubled seagrass habitat areas the circumpolar North Atlantic. Ethnobotany plays a role in these cultural conservation mechanisms (Norton & Hannan 1997). Ethnobotany and paleo-ethnobotany of the species was explored through the archives and structured interviews throughout the North Atlantic. Based on these interviews, awareness raising about the cultural and ecological diversity of Z. marina and its habitat have already lead to preservation of historical work sites and habitat conservation in Nova Scotia (Wyllie-Echeverria et al. 2000).

Alm T. 2003. On the Uses of Zostera marina, Mainly in Norway Economic Botany. 57(4):640-45

Cottam, C., 1934. Eelgrass disappearance has serious effects on waterfowl and industry. pp 191-93 in US Department of Agriculture Yearbook of Agriculture ed by M.S. Eisenhower.

Han, Qiu-Ying; Shi, Ping. 2008. Progress in the study of seagrass ecology, Yantai Institute of Coastal Zone Research for Sustainable Development, Chinese Academy of Sciences. 28(11):5561-5570.

Muhlstein, L. K., 1989. Perspectives on the wasting disease of eelgrass, Zostera marina. Diseases of Aquat. Organ. 7: 211-21

Norton B.G., Hannon B. 1997, Environmental Values: A place-based theory. Environ. Ethics 19: 227-45.

Wyllie-Echeverria, S., Arzel, P., Cox, P. A. 2000. Pacific Conservation Biology. 5:329-35

Ethnobiology and Conservation

Conservation through utilization. 

Work needs to be done that looks at ways to improve the relationship of people to nature through efficient and sustainable use of a diversity of species from native habitats. - I think of it as 'use it or lose it'. I also know that 'we will not fight for what we do not love' and that the cultural importance of native species has lead to much of the activism for environmental conservation. 

Work still needs to be done to find out how ethnobiology can best help with the maintenance of indigenous knowledge of native species, and what the challenges and benefits of this cooperation are. 

Here is a poem about work from Mary Oliver:

My work is loving the world.

Here the sunflowers, there the hummingbird —
equal seekers of sweetness.
Here the quickening yeast; there the blue plums.
Here the clam deep in the speckled sand.

Are my boots old? Is my coat torn?
Am I no longer young, and still not half-perfect? Let me
keep my mind on what matters,
which is my work,

which is mostly standing still and learning to be
astonished.
The phoebe, the delphinium.
The sheep in the pasture, and the pasture.
Which is mostly rejoicing, since all ingredients are here,

which is gratitude, to be given a mind and a heart
and these body-clothes,
a mouth with which to give shouts of joy
to the moth and the wren, to the sleepy dug-up clam,
telling them all, over and over, how it is
that we live forever.