The Tibetan Plateau Project's programs assist activists, researchers and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) with obtaining information and mobilizing support for the conservation and sustainable development of biodiversity in the Tibetan Plateau region. TPP's initiatives focus on endangered wildlife issues, medicinal plant resources, and public outreach activities.

In particular, TPP's campaigns address the conservation of endangered species of animals and plants indigenous to the Tibetan Plateau region. In 2006, TPP’s Tibetan Antelope Conservation Campaign succeeded in pressuring the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to list the threatened Tibetan Antelope as an endangered species under the ESA, outlawing the import of shatoosh products made from the antelope’s wool into the U.S.

TPP's current endangered species program focuses on medicinal plant conservation in the Tibetan Plateau region of Nepal. The Community Medicinal and Aromatic Plant Conservation and Cultivation Program is a collaboration between the Tibetan Plateau Project and The East Foundation, a Neplai conservation and development NGO, to conserve Himalayan medicinal and aromatic plant species diversity and improve the livelihoods of indigenous communities in the northeastern Himalayan region of Nepal through conservation, agricultural, research and training activities. 

The East Foundation (TEF) is a natural resource management and economic development organization established in 1998 in Sankhuwasabha district, northeastern Nepal, by a group of local environment and development professionals with academic and practical expertise in conservation, agriculture, community development, economics, forestry, and protected areas management. TEF works in remote regions with the rural poor, women and disadvantaged groups to address development and natural resource opportunities and challenges.

Introduction

The East Foundation was established in 1998 in part to extend conservation and development opportunities to impoverished regions located beyond the boundaries of eastern Nepal’s Makalu-Barun National Park and to protect northern Sankhuwasabha district’s unique natural and cultural diversity while improving the livelihoods of local residents.

The project area is located an arduous six-day trek from Khandbari, the nearest large town, along mountain paths and glacial rivers (there is no road, rail or air access).  Minimal services provided by the Government of Nepal include primary schools and trail development. Regional biodiversity and cultural resources are abundant, and the area is particularly rich in medicinal and aromatic plant species. Elevations in the project area range from 435 meters at the Arun river, one of the deepest river valleys in the world, to 8,463 meters at the peak of Makalu, the fifth highest mountain summit in the world.

The majority of inhabitants in this region adjacent to the Tibetan border belong to an indigenous group known as “bhotia” (denoting their Tibetan linguistic, cultural and religious heritage), or to the related Rai and Tamang ethnic groups.  The population is characterized by scattered settlement patterns along the remote eastern Himalayan frontier, where development assistance is frequently scarce. 

Typical residents are ethnically Tibetan farming households practicing subsistence slash and burn agriculture, supplementing their income through animal husbandry and in the cash economy by manual labor, portering, trading, and collecting and selling medicinal plants.  Communities are organized according to Tibetan cultural norms and Nepali administrative procedures, with local leaders, Village Development Committees and Buddhist religious figures guiding community life.

TEF’s past medicinal and aromatic plant (MAP) conservation and cultivation activities in northern Sankhuwasabha include distributing thousands of medicinal plant seedlings to impoverished local farmers, facilitating the formation local MAP user groups, establishing village-based MAP nurseries, assisting farmers with cultivating medicinal plants, and providing capacity building for community user groups.

Background

The medicinal and aromatic plant trade is a profitable source of income in the project area, where nearly 50 commercially valuable medicinal plant species essential to traditional medicine in the Tibetan Plateau region have been identified. Research suggests that slash and burn agricultural practices, the overharvesting of some medicinal plants, deforestation, and overgrazing of essential plant habitat are contributing to the decline of medicinal plants in certain regions.

In addition, research on medicinal plants and the regional MAP trade conducted by TPP and other NGOs has revealed that at least a half-dozen species are categorized as “endangered” or “threatened” by national and international authorities.  However, regulation of the medicinal plant trade in Nepal is frequently spotty and there is little oversight regarding the wild collection and sale of MAPs. 

These species are a key component of indigenous medical practice, as well as trade. Traditional medicine has been practiced throughout the Tibetan Plateau region for centuries to treat a wide variety of diseases and provide preventative care. Tibetan medicine, for instance, is a 1,500-year old tradition that makes extensive use of plant resources for healing. Doctors and patients from Bhutan to Mongolia depend on pharmaceutical preparations based primarily on medicinal plants, in combination with mineral and animal products, for health promotion.

The Tibetan Plateau region supports approximately 10,000 species of plants and an estimated 1,000 of them have established medicinal properties. In the Annapurna region of Nepal alone, more than 300 plants are used in traditional medicine by rural communities to promote healing and counter disease. However, an unknown number of plants is already threatened by habitat destruction and inadequate conservation policies. The disappearance of plants used in traditional medicine is contributing to shortages of key species and leading to the loss of indigenous medical knowledge.

Lack of economic alternatives, access to markets and infrastructure development have forced mountain communities to rely on wasteful, destructive slash and burn agricultural techniques that contribute to deforestation, erosion and loss of soil fertility.  At the same time, these practices are destroying valuable plants that offer residents opportunities for alternative incomes and livelihoods. Few of the benefits of the MAP trade currently reach local communities, which have little formal experience with commercial markets.

The Community Medicinal and Aromatic Plant Conservation and Cultivation Program

Building on previous community MAP cultivation and conservation initiatives, TPP is assisting TEF with promoting the conservation of medicinal plants through the expansion and strengthening of MAP nurseries and cultivation in northern Sankhuwasabha district, skills-development training, and the promotion of capacity building conservation practices to reduce wild collection of plants.

The Program’s goals include reducing wild collection impacts on MAP species, supporting development of alternative livelihoods through the commercial medicinal and aromatic plant trade, reducing threats to local forest ecosystems by minimizing existing slash and burn agricultural practices, developing the capacity of communities to manage MAP resources, and conserving locally occurring MAP diversity through species assessment, conservation and cultivation practices.

Implementation of the Program will benefit local communities by building capacity to manage commercial MAP cultivation, developing income-generating opportunities among farmers, promoting MAP species conservation, and creating alternatives to current slash and burn agricultural practices.  The program will have the added benefit of increasing the supply of MAPs required for the local practice of both traditional and informal-household medicine, reinforcing the promotion of customary healthcare. 

TEF consultations with villagers have demonstrated that MAPs are higher-value products than agricultural crops, such as maize. The MAP nurseries will produce seedlings for cultivation by local residents and subsequent sale into the commercial medicinal and aromatic plant trade, with all profits returning to individual farmers.

Project activities include developing and strengthening MAP species nurseries, promoting MAP cultivation, incorporating MAP conservation activities into the statutes and operational plans of local CFUGs (Community Forest Users Groups), management training, conservation awareness development, and distribute copies of a brochure on the important of endangered MAP species conservation.

The project will develops at least four village-based nurseries to produce up to 1,000 seedlings of the most endangered MAP species per year.  Villagers will transplant a variety of seedlings from the nurseries for cultivation on community or private properties.

TPP’s collaboration with TEF will assist with expanding MAP conservation and cultivation activities to reach additional villages and residents in northern Sankhuwasabha. In the long run, the Program will promote biodiversity conservation in the region by reducing  slash and burn agricultural practices and substituting MAP species cultivation, generating income for local households.

Photos: Tibetan antelope, captive argali sheep – © Galen Rowell/Mountain Light Photography.

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