Wild Collection Protects Biodiversity; Yangtze Mountains

WWF, IUCN, and TRAFFIC created an initiative in the mountains of China's Upper Yangtze ecoregion as part of the EU-China Biodiversity Program (ECBP) to support organic wild crop harvesting practices and certification procedures, as well as FairWild principles.

Due to a 1998 logging ban and the 2000 "Grain for Green" program, which discourages farming on steep slopes, households were encouraged to  start in more wild collection of medicinal plants in the mountains (home to endangered wildlife, including the Giant Panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca) and the Takin (Budorcas taxicolor)). This initiative was designed to support the collectors in making use of native species in the mountains, without destroying the habitat. 

Now this project has won the prestigious Equator Prize as an outstanding local initiative working to advance sustainable development solutions for people, nature, and resilient communities in countries receiving support from the UNDP. The project has also scaled up from one village in the 2008 and 2009 harvests up to 22 villages in the 2011 harvest. A survey of project sites in March 2011 found incomes from medicinal plant collection had risen, thanks to the certification schemes; in one village by almost 18 percent.

        

"This project is proving that local harvesters from villages surrounding the Giant Panda conservation area can successfully implement meaningful sustainability standards," said Josef Brinckmann, VP of Sustainability for TMI. 

Megaherbivores Gardeners of the Forest

The journal Biotropica has published a report which shows that the progressive disappearance of seed-dispersing animals like elephants and rhinoceroses is putting the structural integrity and biodiversity of the tropical forest of South-East Asia at risk. 

"Megaherbivores act as the "gardeners" of humid tropical forests: They are vital to forest regeneration and maintain its structure and biodiversity," Ahimsa Campos-Arceiz, the lead author of the study, explained. Thick forest growth means little space for trees to germinate and grow and scarce light. Seed dispersion is made more complicated by the lack of wind due to the trees that are up to 90 m high. Plant life is then limited to seeds dispersed by those animals that eat pulp. They either scatter seeds by dropping their food, regurgitating it or by defecating later on.

        

In the case of large seeds, "plants need a large animal capable of eating, transporting and defecating the seeds in good conditions," said Luis SantamarIa, co-author and researcher at the Mediterranean Institute for Advanced Studies (IMEDEA) of Spain's CSIC Scientific Research Agency. This is where elephants and rhinoceroses come into play because they can scatter large quantities of seeds thanks to the fact that they slowly digest very little of their food.

       

However, habitat loss, poaching, and the conflict between elephant and man has caused a 95 percent loss in Asian elephant (Elephas maximus) historical distribution range and has left the rhinoceros just a step away from extinction: there are less than 50 Java rhinoceroses (Rhinoceros sondaicus) and 200 Sumatra rhinoceroses (Dicerorhinus sumatrensis).

        

"If these megaherbivores disappear from the ecosystem, their contribution to ecological processes will too be lost and the path of the ecosystem will change irreversibly," explained the lead author, who goes on to state that "the most probable consequences are the change in the structure of the undergrowth and the forest and the loss of certain species."

   

For full story, please see: http://zeenews.india.com/news/eco-news/elephants-and-rhinos-act-as-gardeners-of-forests_774917.html

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

Ca' Penelope: Agritourismo

The Organic Agritourismo farm Ca' Penelope, in Maranello, Italy, has become my second home. It is also the home of many animals, several wwoofers and a host of hard working, inspiring, and friendly Italians http://www.capenelope.it/.

The Farmers of  Cà Penelope and I on the new label for their own organic lambrusco wine 

Walking around in these hills I have been noticing, once again, the stark difference between the plowed fields and the fresh edible greens of the forests and fields of springtime... It makes me think of wild collecting and the words of Walt Whitman:

These, I, Singing in Spring. by Walt Whitman

THESE, I, singing in spring, collect for lovers,
(For who but I should understand lovers, and all their sorrow and joy?
And who but I should be the poet of comrades?)
Collecting, I traverse the garden, the world—but soon I pass the gates,
Now along the pond-side—now wading in a little, fearing not the wet,
Now by the post-and-rail fences, where the old stones thrown there, pick’d from the
fields,
have accumulated,
(Wild-flowers and vines and weeds come up through the stones, and partly cover
them—Beyond
these I pass,)
Far, far in the forest, before I think where I go,
Solitary, smelling the earthy smell, stopping now and then in the silence,
Alone I had thought—yet soon a troop gathers around me,
Some walk by my side, and some behind, and some embrace my arms or neck,
They, the spirits of dear friends, dead or alive—thicker they come, a great crowd,
and I
in the
middle,
Collecting, dispensing, singing in spring, there I wander with them,
Plucking something for tokens—tossing toward whoever is near me;
Here! lilac, with a branch of pine,
Here, out of my pocket, some moss which I pull’d off a live-oak in Florida, as it
hung
trailing
down,
Here, some pinks and laurel leaves, and a handful of sage,
And here what I now draw from the water, wading in the pondside,
(O here I last saw him that tenderly loves me—and returns again, never to separate
from
me,
And this, O this shall henceforth be the token of comrades—this Calamus-root shall,
Interchange it, youths, with each other! Let none render it back!)
And twigs of maple, and a bunch of wild orange, and chestnut,
And stems of currants, and plum-blows, and the aromatic cedar:
These, I, compass’d around by a thick cloud of spirits,
Wandering, point to, or touch as I pass, or throw them loosely from me,
Indicating to each one what he shall have—giving something to each;
But what I drew from the water by the pond-side, that I reserve,
I will give of it—but only to them that love, as I myself am capable of loving.

Wild Collection in Organic Agiculture

I am getting more and more inspired to look into the potentials and pitfalls in organic certified wild collection. Most of us are not aware that wild collection comprises such a large portion of the area of organic agriculture around the world. According to the latest statistics from IFOAM and FiBL wild collection and beekeeping makes up 31 of the 35 million hectares under organic certification. Most of this land is in developing countries.

I am now watching a presentation called 'The Sustainable Management of Biodiversity' from the IMO  FairWild and GTZ about wild collection in the Southern Caucasus and in central Asia. Large percentages of the wild collected products of Uzbekistan are being exported and these groups are working to help preserve biodiversity in these areas with the new FairWild standard. This is a global phenomenon and needs to be looked at seriously. If the 'Tragedy of the Commons' can be avoided the potential for wild collection to contribute to the local diet and the possibility for income generation through organic certification of sustainable harvests is very hopeful.


Check out Wild Collection International

Farming in Germany

"We're only truly secure when we can look out our kitchen window and see our food growing and our friends working nearby." -Bill Mollison

Just a quick note during a sunny afternoon in Bonn.

This is a wonderful place for farming and gardening - although I have not done such a great job learning the language - I have been able to go around and make friends all over the Organic and Biodynamic farming community of Bonn. My friends and I have arranged to have a large plot of land on an organic farm outside of Bonn and have turned it in to a little Permaculture garden complete with a giant potato patch, oats, buckwheat, an Iroquis Three Sisters mound corn and squash field and companion plants of all varieties.

The farming plot is next to a small woodlot with a semi abandoned apple orchard and a whole lot of wild edibles.

The day is auspicious and I am sure to get some more sun, some more wild food and some more fresh veggies out of the garden.

More about Permaculture from Bill Molison's Urban Permaculture Guild.

Learn more about the Three Sisters companion planting from Renee's Garden website.

Learn more about companion planting from the No Dig Vegetable Garden.

More about biodynamic agriculture from the article Gardening by the Moon.

Cory's Dr Green Blog Posts:
Beekeeping
No Work Farming
Growing Organic

Wild Dinner

Last night I had an excellent dinner of wild greens and flowers.

There is a perfect little country road outside of Bonn where wild edibles grow aplenty. It runs beside an old apple orchard near 'Gut Ostler' and along a hill leading up to one of their fields. The road has at least three wild hops plants, numb nettles and loads of small fresh dandelion leaves.

We walked out there and picked to our hearts content last night - intending to feed at least two more people my friend and I picked many bags full of hops shoots and dandelion greens. On the bike ride home we picked the first few flowers of the Elderberry bushes along the bike path. The Hops shoots were parboiled and then fried lightly in garlic and butter. The dandelion greens were fried with bacon and potatoes, spiced with chili.

For desert I mixed up a simple pancake batter with buckwheat flower (eggs, milk, little sugar little salt) which an Italian Farmer left at Biofach in Nuremberg. The flowers were pressed into the pancakes while they were still wet on top and then the stems were timmed off quickly before the pancake was flipped.

Ecstatic to be eating from the wild.

Cory's Dr Green Blog Posts:
Small is Beautiful
Give Organic a Chance
Beekeeping
No Work Farming
Growing Organic