 |
|
“Non-Wood Forest Products (NWFP) consist of goods of biological origin other than wood, derived from forests, other wooded land and trees outside forests.” «Les produits forestiers non ligneux sont des biens d’origine biologique autres que le bois, dérivés des forêts, des autres terres boisées, et des arbres hors forêts.» «Productos forestales no madereros son los bienes de origen biológico distintos de la madera derivados de los bosques, de otras tierras boscosas y de los árboles fuera de los bosques.» (FAO’s working definition) |
 | AGRIBUSINESS IN SUSTAINABLE NATURAL AFRICAN PLANT PRODUCTS (ASNAPP) |
The ASNAPP project, cofunded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), was initiated in 1999 to help develop the natural products sector in Africa by promoting income-generating activities for rural entrepreneurs in such a way that improves the livelihoods of rural communities.
ASNAPP's overall aim is to build capacity for the development of sustainable natural plant product businesses in a socially and environmentally sensitive manner. ASNAPP uses a market-driven, commodity-systems approach which minimizes the risk to growers and is focused on crop clusters such as teas, dyes, spices and aromatic plants. A subfocus of the project is the commercialization of plants that are also used in traditional medicine and can assist in primary health care.
ASNAPP uses ongoing training programmes to promote organic production methods, business development skills and education.
For more information, please contact:
The Center for New Use Agriculture and Natural Plant
Products, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, 59 Dudley Road, New
Brunswick, New Jersey 08901, USA.
Fax: +1 732 9329441;www.asnapp.org/
The inner core of high-quality baseballs contains a cork ball encased within a rubber ball. Cork is the bark of the cork oak tree (Quercus suber), which is native to Europe (primarily Spain and Portugal) and North Africa, and natural rubber comes from the "sap" (or more accurately, the latex, a compound produced in defence to a wound) of the rubber tree (Hevea braisliensis ), which is native to Brazil and grown in Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, India and China. (Source:http://wood.orst.edu/common)
In early July, a United States biotechnology company called Epicyte announced that it had won a broad patent on the production of antibodies in plants. The patent, assigned to Scripps Research Institute, allegedly covers any kind of antibody produced in any kind of plant. (Source: Epicyte Press Release, 9 July 2002-www.epicyte.com/home.html.)
Africa stands to lose huge benefits from its biodiversity for lack of legal protection against biopiracy, concluded the Second South-South Biopiracy Summit held in Johannesburg, South Africa during the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD). Biodiversity - the fifth thematic area of WSSD - is Africa's richest asset. The knowledge that African people have developed over centuries on the properties of plants, seeds, algae and other biological resources is now coveted by scientists for medicinal, agricultural and other purposes.
Biopiracy is the theft of biological matter, such as plants, seeds and genes. In the absence of laws regulating access to these resources, pharmaceutical, agrochemical and seed multinationals exploit Africa's biological wealth and obtain of intellectual ownership rights to the resources and knowledge of communities. Multinational companies make huge profits from African biodiversity but do not share them with the communities that discovered, kept and transmitted the knowledge, activists argue.
Thousands of patents on African plants have been filed. To name just a few: brazzeine, a protein 500 times sweeter than sugar from a plant in Gabon; teff, the grain used in Ethiopia's flat "injera" bread; thaumatin, a natural sweetener from a plant in West Africa; the African soap berry and the Kunde Zulu cowpea; and genetic material from the West African cocoa plant.
Increasingly, developing countries are going to court over patents on their indigenous plants. The latest patent to make headlines involves the Hoodia cactus from the Kalahari Desert. For centuries, the San people of southern Africa ate pieces of the cactus to stave off hunger and thirst. Analysing the cactus, the parastatal Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) in South Africa found the molecule that curbs appetite and sold the rights to develop an anti-obesity drug to pharmaceutical company Pfizer. It could be worth billions of US dollars. The San complained. Its council threatened a lawsuit. Earlier this year [2002] the CSIR agreed to share eventual royalties, and the Hoodia cactus became a landmark case whereby indigenous communities stake a claim on their knowledge and the profits derived from it.
"Western medicine is protected. Wildlife is protected. But our knowledge isn't, like it's worth nothing," said T.J. Matiba, a Venda traditional healer, founder and president of South Africa's Council of Traditional Healers since 1985.
Paradoxically, the poorest people in the world live in the world's biodiversity hot spots. If they derive a benefit from their natural resources and indigenous knowledge, they would be keen to protect them. That approach, however, is in conflict with world trade rules.
The UN Convention on Biological Diversity, ratified by 183 countries and in force since 1993, recognizes the sovereignty of states and communities over their genetic resources. But the Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights agreement (TRIPS) of the World Trade Organization (WTO) does not. Since 1995, WTO requires its member countries to comply with TRIPS. It has been said that this contradiction creates "schizophrenia" between patent legislation and protection of indigenous knowledge.
The root problem is that the existing system of intellectual property rights and patents does not accommodate non-Western systems of knowledge ownership and access. Under international law, an invention qualifies for patent protection only if it is new and involves an inventive step. This excludes traditional products, developed and handed down over generations. The system is rooted in the European industrial and scientific tradition. It views knowledge as a commodity owned by an individual or a company with the goal of trade, whereas indigenous knowledge has a transgenerational, communal and cultural nature. (Source: Extracted from UN Integrated Regional Information Networks, cited in BIO-IPR, 2 September 2002, GRAIN Los Baños [email protected] .)
Genetic Resources Action International (GRAIN) and Kalpavriksh (an Indian environmental action group) have published a new briefing on the state of traditional knowledge and biodiversity in the Asia-Pacific region. Most people across Asia, a region rich in biodiversity, are directly dependent on plant genetic resources for their livelihoods. But both these resources and the knowledge related to them are under threat. The quest for "green gold" by transnational companies and global institutions is penetrating all countries of the region, bringing with it a rise in the problem of biopiracy. The misappropriation of traditional knowledge has been helped by changes in regulations - mainly the introduction of intellectual property rights. Governments are increasingly trying to manage rights to biodiversity and traditional knowledge through exclusive monopoly systems, while mechanisms to protect and strengthen the collective rights of local communities remain weak.
This 30-page briefing provides details, with numerous examples, of the changes that are occurring in the Asia-Pacific region, from international agreements and regional initiatives to action taken by farming communities. Many people at the grassroots level are working to fight back and protect their resources and knowledge from blatant exploitation. Emerging strategies on what communities and organizations could do to ensure the further strengthening of community rights are outlined. (GRAIN and Kalpavriksh, Traditional knowledge and biodiversity in Asia-Pacific: problems of piracy and protection , October 2002, 30 pp., is available on GRAIN's Web site: www.grain.org/publications/tk-asia-2002-en.cfm) (Source: BIO-IPR resource pointer [email protected] .)
The National Institute of Industrial Property (INPI), Brazil is preparing a database of the medicinal plants used by Indians, in partnership with indigenous communities. Xavante Indian leaders asked INPI to patent the medicinal formulas of plants used by indigenous communities, which are being targeted by international biopiracy, often sponsored by large world pharmaceutical companies. INPI informed the Xavante Indians that the formulas can only be patented after the Congress resolves the question of Brazil's natural genetic heritage.
IBAMA (Instituto Brasileiro do Meio Ambiente e dos Recursos Naturais Renováveis) statistics reveal that Brazil's natural heritage is estimated to be worth $R 2 trillion. Specialists in the areas of environmental law and patent law have criticized the lack of legislation regulating the sector. (Source: Amazon News , 25 April 2002.)
Indigenous peoples' and farmers' organizations from the
Andes and the Amazon gathered at the offices of the Ecological Forum in Lima,
Peru on 28 June 2002 to denounce formally United States patents on maca
(Lepidum meyenii), the high-altitude Andean plant (of the Cruciferae
[mustard] 
family) that has been grown for centuries by indigenous people in the Puna highlands of Peru, both as a staple food crop and for medicinal purposes.
Today, companies are selling maca-based products as natural enhancers of sexual function and fertility. While maca exports have the potential to create new markets and income for Peruvian farmers, recent United States patents on maca may actually foreclose the opportunity for the true innovators of the Andean crop.
Efrain Zuniga Molina of the Association of Maca Producers of Valle del Mantaro (Peru) said that the Andean region was becoming known as the "biopiracy capital" of the world. "We've seen patents on ayahuasca, quinoa, yacon, the nuña popping bean, and now maca." A representative of the maca growers' association in the Department of Huancavelica (Peru) said that these patents claimed novel inventions, but that everyone knew they were based on the traditional knowledge and resources of indigenous people.
The farmers are calling on two United States companies to abandon patents related to maca, and they are asking the Peruvian Government and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) to investigate and condemn monopoly claims related to maca that appropriate traditional knowledge of farming communities. (The Geneva-based WIPO promotes intellectual property as a means of protecting traditional knowledge.) (Source: ETC Press Release-www.etcgroup.org/search2.asp?srch= maca
For more information, please contact: ETC Genotype, 478
River Avenue, Suite 200, Winnipeg, Manitoba R3L 0C8, Canada.
Fax: +1 204 2847871;www.etcgroup.org
The Forest Research Institute of Malaysia (FRIM) has signed a memorandum of understanding with Japanese-owned Nimura Genetic Solutions (M) Sdn Bhd (NGS) to collaborate in bioprospecting of new drugs. FRIM, and the country at large, are expected to benefit from collaborative research and development programmes through technology transfer, intellectual property rights and patent ownership related to new discoveries in drug and food supplements.
FRIM director-general Datuk Dr Abdul Razak Mohd Ali said that NGS would benefit from FRIM's vast experience in tropical rain forest diversity, its large pool of research expertise and the extensive range of supporting research facilities available within FRIM's campus.
Nimura specializes in isolation, characterization, fermentation and extraction of useful and active compounds from micro-organisms, particularly from the soil for the purpose of drug discovery. FRIM will stand to benefit from royalties once NGS has been able to isolate and test microbes against bacteria and disease organisms and then sell the microbes to pharmaceutical manufacturers.
FRIM said that drug discovery was a very lengthy process requiring between 10 and 15 years of painstaking research and development, and the cost exceeded US$150 million ($M 570 million) for the development of a single drug. (Source: New Straits Times , 4 March 2002, cited in BIO-IPR Listserve[email protected])
A global environmental conference in April 2002 hammered out guidelines to encourage big business to pay indigenous communities for the right to use native plants to make commercial drugs and cosmetics. Delegates from 166 countries adopted global guidelines at the end of a two-week United Nations-sponsored conference designed to encourage leading pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies to strike deals with countries where they use genetic resources. (For the full story, please see:http://enn.com/news/wire-stories/2002/04/04222002/reu_drugs_46994.asp) (Source: Conserve Africa International[email protected])
For some time now, tropical forest conservationists have been wondering whether encouraging the sale of products such as mushrooms, berries or medicinal herbs may reduce the need for farmers to cut down tropical forests. In a new volume in the Tropenbos-Kalimantan Series, Wil de Jong explores whether commercialization of such forest products can actually reduce tropical deforestation.
Most of the material for this study comes from West Kalimantan, an Indonesian province on the island of Borneo. Local Dayak farmers grow rice, manioc and bananas as their staple food in agricultural fields for which lush primary forest had to be cut. However, they also collect numerous non-timber forest products (NTFPs). In fact, 630 species were recorded for which people had some use or other.
The secret of making a success of the idea that the commercialization of NTFPs can help save tropical forest lies in understanding local forest management. Managing forests is common practice among farmers in West Kalimantan, and in many other places in the world as well. Local farmers protect parts of the original forest to assure the supply of timber and non-timber products. In Kalimantan, these forest remnants may be owned by individuals, families or communities. Something that is possibly more important is that local people are able to achieve a perfect combination of forest management and agriculture. Even though Dayak farmers slash forests to create agricultural fields, significant areas of such farmland are reconverted sooner or later into forest. Hence a typical farm will consist of some agricultural land, but large portions will also be forested, possibly being the natural forest remnants, "secondary" forests that only recently started to grow on what was previously agricultural land, or so-called forest gardens. The latter are small forest plots that used to be agricultural land a long time ago and that have now been restored to full-grown forest areas.
The Kalimantan findings suggest that commercialization of some kind of forest product is likely to influence local forest management. Rubber is a case in point. Rubber collected from the wild in the Amazon basin is produced as a tree crop in West Kalimantan and other provinces in Indonesia. The study shows that in one of the study villages rubber is produced on land previously used for agriculture or forest gardens. In one village, the shift to rubber production did not significantly reduce the conversion of natural forest to agricultural land, but it did increase the rate at which local farmers converted agricultural land back to forests.
Whether these sorts of impact from forest product commercialization actually contribute to the conservation of tropical forests depends partly on the standards employed. One of the chapters in this book compares natural forests and forest gardens in terms of their "forest quality". Natural forests have the highest number of species and a more complex forest structure. However, managed forests, especially forest gardens, have a species richness and forest structure that compare more than favourably with any other tree or non-tree vegetation. The kinds of managed forest in which commercialized forest products are likely to be produced therefore provide better biodiversity conservation, carbon sequestration and water regulation services than most other alternatives, except natural forests.
The new Tropenbos volume concludes that commercialization of NTFPs is more likely to happen if it can be incorporated in existing forest management practices. In that case, commercialization does contribute to tropical forest conservation, if one accepts the high quality and value of managed forests. (W. Jong. 2002. Forest products and local forest management in West Kalimantan, Indonesia: implications for conservation and development. Tropenbos-Kalimantan Series 6. MOF-Tropenbos Kalimantan Programme, Balikpapan, Indonesia.) (Source: Tropenbos International Newsletter , 27 July 2002.)
A three-year project, funded by the Forestry Research Programme of the United Kingdom Department for International Development (DFID) is analysing the opportunities and constraints to commercialization of NTFPs. The research focuses on the relationship between poverty, gender and successful commercialization of NTFPs, and is interested both in identifying the factors that contribute to successful commercialization and in looking at the impact of (different types of) commercialization on communities.
One of the greatest challenges facing the research team was to design a research methodology that could be successfully applied across different communities, commercializing different products, in different geographical areas. Research hypotheses were jointly developed to provide an integrating framework for the project, and research questions were developed iteratively to provide a cross-checking mechanism against the research tools to ensure that enough of the right information was going to be generated. Attempts have been made to achieve methodological integration with survey tools solidly based on results of community, household, and market-level research, and to provide data for a multidisciplinary research team.
Initial stages of data analysis centred around the production of a matrix, matching the research tool (which would provide the information source) to the research question to be answered. In addition, the project cycle has been planned to facilitate some triangulation of results, among all the project partners. This has also highlighted the importance and value in early joint analysis workshops.
For further information please contact:
Ms Elaine Marshall, Senior Programme Officer, DFID/FRP
project manager: NTFP commercialization in Mexico and Bolivia, UNEP-WCMC, 219
Huntingdon Road, Cambridge CB3 0DL, UK.
Fax: +44 1223 277136;
e-mail:[email protected]
Malnutrition is one of the causes of poverty even though it is also its consequence. In all sustainable agricultural projects that aim to improve the livelihoods of people living in project areas, food security means, at all times, a physical, social and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food which meets dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life. For the rural and urban poor living in the humid western and central Africa, the failure to meet their daily nutritional needs can make the difference between life and death, illness and health, especially among children and women. Fortunately, domestication activities, well in place in this area, provide desirable and low-cost tree products with considerable values of energy (fats and sugars), proteins, essential amino and fatty acids, and minerals, as well as dietary fibres. For this benefit to be consistent, the adoption of tree cultivation is a prerequisite, and especially of Dacryodes edulis . The fruits (safou) of this constitute a good example of abundantly consumed tree products and a market survey in Yaoundé (Cameroon) markets has revealed that the intake ranged from five to 16 fresh fruits per consumer per day during the production period of June to September.
The biochemical composition of priced fruits in Yaoundé markets is as follows: lipids 31.9-60.80 g/100 g; available carbohydrates 4.54-8.74 g/100 g; crude proteins 6.6-16.10 g/100 g; available energy 593.6-633.1 kcal/100 g; dietary fibres 8.43-24.31 g/100 g; vitamin C 24.5-28.35 mg/100 g; vitamin A 620.20-690.04 µg/100 g; and iodine value 59.64-74.60 g iodine/100 g fat. Mineral composition shows ranges of 0.16-690.0 mg/100 g for calcium; 0.12-450.0 mg/100 g for magnesium; 0.104-8.51 mg/kg for iron; 0.03-0.78 mg/kg for zinc; and 0.012-0.70 mg/kg for copper.
Moreover, in vitro protein digestibility data have shown that the yields of digestibility are 34.3-72.5 percent for fresh pulp and 42.0-76.7 percent for sun-dried pulp. These values show how important safou is in contributing to meeting daily nutritional needs in consumers.
The biochemical composition of safou, apart from showing a great variation in nutrient contents and protein digestibility - thus an asset for superior trees' selection and improvement - leads to important conclusions vis-à-vis the species contribution to nutritional security. Since the edible portion of safou has on average a raw weight of 47.80 g, it can be concluded that at 88.55 percent dry matter the following quantities of fruits will be needed to cover the recommended dietary allowances (RDA): 35 fruits for the RDA in calories, 52 fruits for the RDA in proteins, 21 fruits for the RDA in vitamin C, 15 fruits for the RDA in vitamin A, 23 fruits for the RDA in iron and calcium, and 16 fruits for the RDA in magnesium. These figures are very encouraging for domestication activities because safou is consumed in households throughout the day from breakfast to dinner in various cooked and combination forms.
This great nutritional value constitutes, on the one hand, an important incentive for increased adoption of tree cultivation among rural communities in western and central Africa. On the other hand, it is the basis for product development to expand the safou market and its use in the food industry to boost the livelihoods of smallholder farmers. (Contributed by: Edouard Kengni, Cameroon.)
For more information, please contact:
Edouard Kengni, ICRAF West Africa, PO Box 2067 (Messa),
Yaoundé, Cameroon.
E-mail:[email protected]
With the certification of more than 221 000 ha of forest
in Telemaco, Borba, in Paraná state in Brazil, Klabin Industries is the first
company in the world to get the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification
for cosmetic and medicinal ingredients.
The rich biodiversity in these forests, with more than 80 000 ha of native forest, allows the extraction of raw materials for producing medicines and cosmetics. The company maintains species under a management system that integrates a complex set of strategies.
The programme started in 1984 and earned FSC certification in 2001. The production of medicines and cosmetics is based on more than 80 medicinal plants, and contributes to improving the quality of life of employees by providing income as well as social and medical assistance.
Today Kablin's medicines have a 97 percent acceptance rate by users (more than 40 000 treatments) because the products are guaranteed to be 95 percent effective, and they cost less than 50 percent of the cost of normal chemical medicines. (Source: FSC News+Notes, March 2002[email protected])
Assigning itself a Herculean task, the World Health Organization (WHO) has taken a first step towards becoming the global watchdog over unconventional medicine. The organization, a United Nations agency, has long focused on Western medicine, but it is looking closely at non-Western treatments, because at least 80 percent of the people in the world's poorest countries use them. Few of those countries can regulate their folk healers or share their plant lore, which may be a miracle cure or a poison.
The group's mission to catalogue and give information about such treatments begins as they grow more popular in the West, and as the danger of some folk remedies increases the numbers potentially at risk.
As defined by WHO, folk medicine - sometimes called traditional and alternative/complementary medicine - includes practices from chiropractic care and fad diets in Manhattan to porcupine quill injections in South Africa, shamanistic trances in Siberia, Arabic unani medicine and faith-healing with chicken guts in the Philippines.
Today, the Western-trained doctors who run the health organization acknowledged that they were making a very modest beginning, on a budget of US$500 000, less than one twentieth of 1 percent of the organization's US$1.1 billion annual budget. The group's ultimate goal is to catalogue all folk remedies, making sure the plants are saved in botanical gardens and the products patented country by country. It also envisions writing common codes of ethics and training for folk healers.
But for the moment, WHO is simply surveying the way different countries train their practitioners and control their medicines. It is compiling the existing studies and has published papers on 100 of the roughly 5 000 medicinal plants that experts believe are in use.
In China, where 95 percent of hospitals have folk medicine wards, treatments are relatively advanced. But the practice is most prevalent in Africa, where at least 80 percent of people use it, sometimes because it is the only alternative. A WHO survey found that while there was only one medical doctor for every 50 000 people in Mozambique, there was a traditional healer for every 200.
Africa is also the least regulated continent. Most African healers learn their art by apprenticeship, so education is inconsistent. But some African countries are taking the first step towards regulation by creating healers' associations and offering courses on topics such as sanitary practices.
Folk practices are still also common in the West. For instance, in France, where homeopathic medicine is popular, 75 percent of people questioned say they have tried alternative medicines, compared with 42 percent of Americans who responded to a 1997 survey. (Source: Extracted from an article in NYTimes.com, 17 May 2002, cited in Conserve Africa Foundation, 16 June 2002.)
The enormous tree-to-tree variation in a wide range of fruit and kernel characteristics of wild trees with domestication potential offers great opportunities for the identification and selection of individual trees that combine three to four desirable traits. These trees can be rapidly multiplied by simple low-technology vegetative propagation techniques within participatory tree domestication programmes to reduce poverty in rural communities, while maintaining the social and cultural benefits of such species.
The quantitative characterization of fruits and nuts in a number of populations of Dacryodes edulis (safou or African plum), Irvingia gabonensis (bush mango or dika nut) has recently been undertaken in Cameroon and Nigeria. A similar study has also been done on Sclerocarya birrea (marula) in South Africa and Namibia. Publications are available on the results of these studies.
Work in progress is expanding this concept to Barringtonia procera (cutnut) and Inocarpus fagifer (Tahitian chestnut) in the Solomon Islands.
I am interested in expanding this approach to other non-wood forest products, not only indigenous fruits or nuts, through collaborative projects/student supervision anywhere in the tropics. (Contributed by: Prof. R. Leakey, Australia.)
For more information, please contact:
R. Leakey, Professor of Agroecology, Agroforestry and Novel Crops Unit, School of Tropical Biology, James Cook University, PO Box 6811, Cairns QLD 4870, Australia.
Fax: +61 7 40421284; e-mail:[email protected]
http://cnsfse01.jcu.edu.au/schools/tropbio/index/html
Gums and resins form an important group of non-wood forest products. Millions of people worldwide, especially in developing countries, depend on the collection of gums, resins and latex for their livelihoods. However, the market for these products has been declining, mainly as a result of the unscientific and brutal tapping methods, overexploitation leading to the death of the tapped trees and the erratic supply of these products in the market. Commercial tapping of gum and resin is done by blazing, peeling or making deep cuts on the bole. On account of injurious and wasteful tapping and overexploitation the populations of gum- and resin-producing plants have declined markedly. In the absence of cultivation of these plants, there is grave concern regarding wild germplasm loss. Simple and effective tapping techniques which ensure optimum yield and regeneration of tapped trees, and their sustainable production, have been developed for gum arabic (Acacia senegal), gum ghatti (Anogeissus latifolia), neem gum (Azadirachta indica), guggul (Commiphora wightii) and gum karaya (Sterculia ur ens).
The introduction of new tapping methods using ethephon (2 chloroelhyl phosphonic acid), a plant growth regulator, have increased exudation of gum/gumresin in certain plants such as Anogeissus latifolia, Acacia senegal, Commiphora wightii, Sterculia urens and Mangifera indica . These methods also ensure the sustainable yield, regeneration and survival of the tapped trees. Ethephon is safe, inexpensive and non-toxic. It is used for enhancing the rubber yield in rubber trees, ripening of fruits (mango, bananas and citrus), induction of abscission, flowering, root initiation, seed germination and breaking of dormancy.
The first systematic study on the improvement of resin tapping was carried out during the Second World War because of the urgent need for oleoresin. Chemical stimulation experiments on resin flow by the application of sulphuric acid, hydrochloric acid and sodium hydroxide have been carried out. The prolongation of oleoresin flow by acid stimulation resulted in 50 to 100 percent higher productions. The oleoresin flow is also prolonged by inoculating wounds on pine trees with the suspensions of pitch canker fungus, Fusarium lateritium and F. pini. Ethephon (2 chloroethylphosphonic acid) and paraquat (1,1 dimythyle 4, 4' bipyridium chloride), or other herbicides when administered alone or in combination into the stem, induces extensive oleoresin soaking within the stem of pines. The treatment does not induce oleoresin soaking in Abies balsamea, Larix laricina. Pseudotsuga and Tsuga canadensis treatment induces formation of gum cavities in the secondary xylem and cortex of cherry, peach, plum and prune.
Application of indol 3-acetic acid (IAA) morphactin (EMD-7301) and kinetin (6-furfuryl aminopurine) increase the number of gum ducts in Sterculia urens but was ineffective in Commiphora wightii. An increase in the number of vertical resin ducts due to application of growth regulator was also reported in Pinus halepensis . These reports, however, do not mention the effect of the hormones on the amount of gum or gumresin secreted.
Application of ethephon enhances exudation of gum and gumresin in certain hardwood species. Neem gum which contains about 35 percent protein has great potential for industrial use, but the neem tree (Azadirachta indica ) is generally not tapped because of the meagre amount of exudation. Administration of ethephon and paraquat (1,1'-dimethyle 4,4' bipyridium salt) into the sapwood of neem mediated copious gum exudation. The treatment induced formation of gum ducts and cavities in the sapwood.
Guggul, an oleo-gumresin exuded by Commiphora wightii is the source of an important drug, the guglip, which possesses hypocholestraemic and hypolipaemic activities and is used in the control of atherosclerosis, the main cause of coronary heart disease. The traditional tapping methods used are unproductive and destructive. Owing to wasteful and injurious tapping techniques, the natural population of this small tree of the semi-arid regions of India has depleted fast. An improved tapping technique using the "Mitchie Golledge" knife coupled with ethephon application can enhance guggul production by about 22 times over that obtained from control and rapid wound healing. April and May are the peak months for guggul tapping as established by localization of resins using epifluorescence microscopy.
Anogeissus latifolia occurs commonly in dry deciduous forests of India. Besides providing fuelwood and timber, the tree yields a valuable gum called gum ghatty. Gum ghatty has been used in India for calico printing, in confectionery, ceramics, food and pharmaceuticals. An improved tapping method based on the application of ethephon yielded an approximately 466-fold increase in gum. A similar method was successfully tested in Mangifera indica .
Gum arabic produced by Acacia senegal has various uses. Acacia senegal trees in India do not yield gum. A study indicated that 0.8 to 0.9 kg of good-quality gum can be obtained per tree by introducing ethephon through a hole in the sapwood in April/May.
A dry exudate from Sterculia urens known as gum karaya is one of the least soluble gums used in many industries such as petroleum and gas, textiles, paper and pulp, pharmaceutical medicine and several other products. The commercial tapping of karaya is done by blazing, peeling or by making deep cuts at the base of the bole with an axe. These methods often lead to the death of the tapped trees. On account of crude tapping methods and overexploitation, the population of karaya trees has declined markedly. In the absence of cultivation of these trees in regular plantations, there is grave concern about the loss of wild germplasm of S. urens . Currently, the governments of Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh have imposed a ban on the tapping and collection of gum karaya to allow the recovery and regeneration of this tree.
As gum karaya is vital for tribal economy and its trade value is substantial, there is a pressing need to develop a scientific and sustainable tapping method to increase the yield and ensure the survival of the tapped trees. A simple and safe technique of tapping with substantial increase in the yield is being developed using ethephon to enhance gum yield and wound healing. After 45 days a thick wound tissue develops at the injured region and almost replaces the damaged tissue. The wound is completely healed 60 days after tapping. The yield increases by approximately 20 to 30 times more than the control. There is a marked difference in the yield among individual trees, presumably owing to heterozygosity. The systematic and scientific tapping technique using ethephon as a stimulating agent for gummosis or gumresinosis could ensure substantial improvement and sustainable production of these materials. The concentration used for treatment is critical for each species. If it exceeds the optimum amount there is a possibility of dieback and death of the plants .
The future of the natural gum and resin industry is uncertain and, therefore, a thorough economic study of the national and international trade is necessary. Synthetic products are preferred by the industry because of the uncertain supply and cost of natural gums and resins. However, unstable oil prices, decreased production and the high cost of the synthetic material create a promising future for natural gums and resins. In spite of the competition from synthetic products, natural gums and resins are preferred in certain industries as they are superior.
The tapping methods used are brutal and injurious to the plants, often leading to their death. The technology available is old and the innovations are essential for a sustainable yield and quality control. A concerted effort by researchers and agencies such as research institutions, universities and non-governmental agencies is urgently needed to improve all aspects of the industry such as tapping, collection, processing, grading, classification and marketing. R&D is completely lacking in the area of utilization of natural gums and resins. The industry depends entirely on traditional and certain ad hoc investigations by individuals. Research into genetic improvement and the selection of species for the production of gums and resins should be initiated, possibly leading to the establishment of plantation of these species. The gum and resin industry can provide employment and a steady additional income to rural people. (Contributed by: M.N.B. Nair, India.)
For more information, please contact:
M.N.B. Nair, Thekkepulikkoottil, Nechipuzhoor PO,
Arunapuram 686754, Kerala, India.
E-mail:[email protected]
Tree resin may help control cholesterolFor more than 2 000 years, healers in India have used a tree resin as a folk medicine to treat a variety of ailments. Modern researchers now find it effective in controlling high cholesterol. The tree is known in India as guggul. Its sap contains a compound that blocks the action of a cell receptor, called FXR, which helps regulate a body's cholesterol level, said David D. Moore, a molecular biologist at the Baylor School of Medicine in Houston, United States. He is co-author of a study that appeared in Science Express, the electronic version of the journal Science. Moore said that results suggest that other compounds that could affect FXR could also control cholesterol and that this mechanism is completely different from the action of statin drugs, "which are taken by millions to control cholesterol". (For the complete article, visit: www.startribune.com/stories/484/2717208.html ) (Source: Associated Press, 3 May 2002, cited in CFRC Weekly Summary, 8 May 2002.) |
SciDev.Net has launched a new dossier on indigenous knowledge that has been compiled by the Netherlands Organization for International Cooperation in Higher Education (Nuffic), and is available on the Web (www.scidev.net/dossiers/ indigenous_knowledge/index.html).
The indigenous knowledge dossier critically addresses key issues relating to the potential contribution of indigenous knowledge (IK) to science and development. It does so by presenting the experiences and perspectives of those working in the field - through analytical policy briefs and topical opinion articles - as well as providing links to external Web sites, and offering access to electronic versions of key reports and documents within the field of IK.
For more information, please contact:
Elma Leidekker, Information specialist and member
editorial team IKWW, Nuffic/OS-IK Unit, PO Box 29777, 2502 LT The Hague, the
Netherlands.
Fax: +31 70 4260329;
e-mail:[email protected]-or-[email protected]
www.nuffic.nl/ik-pages or-www.scidev.net
The Traditional Ecological Knowledge Prior Art Database (T.E.K.*P.A.D.), a new project at the American Association for the Advancement of Science's Science and Human Rights Program, aims at protecting indigenous knowledge against inappropriate patents based on this knowledge. T.E.K.*P.A.D. currently contains more than 40 000 entries already in the public domain documenting traditional uses of natural resources. The Web site cross-references plant names, medicinal applications of these plants, and prior art, and links to the United States Patent and Trademark Office and European Patent Office databases. T.E.K.*P.A.D. operates on the principle of "defensive disclosure" which, by describing information in a printed publication or other publicly accessible medium, helps establish as prior art.
T.E.K.*P.A.D. also contains a "Biopiracy Hot List", which contains examples of plants targeted by Western pharmaceutical companies and corporations. The entries are linked to archived documentation of prior art in the T.E.K.*P.A.D. database. Additionally, traditional knowledge holders can submit their knowledge to the database if they wish to place it in the public domain. (The database can be accessed at: http://ip.aaas.org/tekpad)
For further information, please contact:
Stephen A. Hansen, Senior Program Associate, Science and
Human Rights Program, American Association for the Advancement of Science, 1200
New York Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20005, USA.
Fax: +1 202 2894950;
e-mail:[email protected]
The National Institute of Science Communication (NISCOM) of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, New Delhi (India) is developing a Traditional Knowledge Digital Library (TKDL), in collaboration with the Department of Indian Systems of Medicine and Homeopathy, Government of India, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, in order to protect India's traditional knowledge from biopiracy.
The TKDL proposes to digitize, in phases, information available in the public domain on ayurveda, unani, siddha, naturopathy and folklore. The first phase will cover ayurveda. An interdisciplinary team comprising ayurveda experts, computer programmers, scientists, patent examiners and technicians has been working on the project since October 2001.
The TKDL has been patterned on the International Patent Classifications and has been ratified by the World Intellectual Property Organization. Traditional Knowledge Resource Classification, an innovative structured classification system for the purpose of systematic arrangement, dissemination and retrieval, has been evolved by V.K. Gupta, Director of NISCOM, for about 5 000 subgroups against one group in international patent application, i.e. AK61K35/78 related to medicinal plants.
The TKDL will be available in different foreign languages (e.g. English, French, German, Spanish), as well as Indian languages, which will make it accessible to patent examiners globally. It will be made mandatory for patent examiners to refer to TKDL before granting patents on non-original inventions.
For more information, please contact:
Mr V.K. Gupta, Chairman, TKDL Task Force and Director
NISCOM, NISCOM, Dr K.S. Krishnan Marg (near Pusa Gate), New Delhi 110 012,
India.
Fax: +91 11 5787062;
e-mail:[email protected] ;
www.niscom.res.in
|
|
The Biological Conservation Newsletter is a monthly publication of the National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution. The newsletter contains articles on conservation research and current news, as well as an extensive searchable bibliography of current literature, making the newsletter a valuable resource for the biological diversity/conservation community.
For more information, please contact:
Dr Gary A. Krupnick, Editor and Webmaster, Department of
Systematic Biology - Botany MRC 166, National Museum of Natural History,
Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC 20560-0166, USA.
Fax: +1 202
7862563;
e-mail:[email protected]
http://rathbun.si.edu/bcn/
The Journal of Bamboo and Rattan Rattan is a peer-reviewed scientific journal that provides a forum for scientific articles and reviews on all aspects of fast-growing, multipurpose pliable species. The scope of the journal encompasses income security, craft industry, small to medium-size enterprises, industrial fibre and fuel. Articles related to the natural distribution and conservation of species, genetics and biotechnology, harvesting and production systems, and environmental applications are also included, as well as papers on marketing and policy restraints in relation to bamboo, rattan and related species.
The International Journal of Forest Usufructs Management is published half yearly. Review/research articles on various issues/aspects of NTFPs are solicited.
For more information, please contact:
Ms Alka Shiva, President and Managing Director, Centre of
Minor Forest Products, HIG-2, No. 8, Indirapuram, PO Majra, Dehra Dun 248 171,
India.
Fax: +91 135 629936;
e-mail:[email protected]
www.angelfire.com/ma/MinorForestProducts
FAO's Crop and Grassland Service (AGPC) has commissioned the Foundation for Revitalization of Local Health Tradition (FRLHT), Bangalore, India, to bring out a global newsletter on "Organic production of medicinal, aromatic and natural dye plants" (MADPs). The newsletter aims to bring together the experiences of persons and organizations in organic agriculture/ horticulture and forestry, from across the globe, in one volume.
For more information, please contact:
Series Editor, Organic Farming Annual, Foundation for
Revitalization of Local Health Tradition (FRLHT), 50 M.S.H Layout, II Stage, 3rd
Main, 2nd Cross, Anandnagar, Bangalore 560 024, Karnataka, India.
Fax: +91
080 3334167;
e-mail:[email protected]or[email protected]
The use of neem oil, leaves, stem and bark as an insecticide is not new in India. However, nowadays the preparation of various products in different forms is emerging. In search of an alternative and safe method of protection from mosquitoes, vanishing-based, perfumed neem cream has been prepared by the Malaria Research Centre, Delhi. It gives 90 to 100 percent protection against malaria vectors and about 70 percent against Culex quinquefasciatus .
The ingredients of this cream comprise vanishing base, perfume and 5 percent neem oil, mixed thoroughly in an appropriate proportion. Four to five grams of neem cream should be applied on exposed body parts. The cream has been accepted by users owing to its easy application, pleasant odour, a repellent action of up to four hours after application and no adverse reactions. It has been found to be better than other creams. (Source: Natural Product Radiance , March-April 2002.)
In South Africa, there is a great deal of interest in and research into termites. In Africa and Australia mainly tribal communities and farmers are using them in many forms, such as medicines, pesticides and fertilizers.
A resin-type substance produced by termites through their excreta and secretions is used to strengthen their houses, which are not even affected by floods. The secretions can be used as a cement and it could be very useful to discover other similar uses, for instance waterproofing.
Antibacterial and antifungal properties have also been found in termite house soil. Consequently, termites may prove to be a blessing in disguise and not only a nuisance. Termite queens are also reported as being edible in China and Southeast Asian countries.
Surprisingly, gold particles have been found in termite
house soil. Researchers have cleaned the termite soil in large sieves by dipping
and washing in water many times until finally, when all the mud has passed
through the sieves, only the gold particles are left. Termite house soil is sold
as gold for medicinal purposes and many other purposes. Termite house soil is
used for diabetes, joint pains, arthritis and many more diseases. Afeucan tribal
people and villagers all use it; they make a cake out of the soil and apply it
like a poultice on joint pains.
Detailed studies are being carried out on termites, their houses and soil. There are possibilities for research in Indian forests and also in other parts of the world where very old termite houses are available, both in moist and dry areas.
Termites and their soil are without doubt an NTFP of animal and mineral origin like mica sand, etc., and many wonderful uses may be discovered for termite insects and their houses. (Source: Extracted from an article by Ms Alka Shiva, Centre of Minor Forest Products, Dehra Dun, in MFP NEWS, XII(4), 2002.)
Stevia rebaudiana, also called sweet honey leaf, is a herbaceous perennial, native to Brazil, Venezuela, Colombia and Paraguay where the native Guarani have been using it for more than 1 500 years to sweeten otherwise unpalatable medicinal drinks since it is a natural herbal sweetener. Dry Stevia leaf is up to 30 times sweeter than sucrose. The sweetness in Stevia is attributed to the two compounds, stevioside and ribaudioside A, which can be up to 250 times sweeter than sucrose. Stevioside has a few advantages over artificial sweeteners in that it is stable at high temperatures and has a pH range of 3 to 9. Stevia is used as a sweetener or flavour enhancer in Japan, China, the Republic of Korea, Israel, Brazil and Paraguay. (Source: Science Reporter, September 2002, cited in MFP NEWS, XII(4), 2002.)
Two NTFP training sessions were held in Port McNeill, British Colombia, Canada in September 2002.
• Harvesting and Handling Floral Greens (Module 1), such as salal, conifer boughs, ferns and mosses, to ensure that products meet market requirements and that these products are harvested in a safe, sustainable and efficient manner.
• Adding Value to Floral Greens (Module 2) provided hands-on training in designing and producing value-added products such as wreaths, garlands and moss baskets.
For more information, please contact:
Diane Carley, Communications Coordinator, NTFP
Demonstration Project, Sointula, BC, Canada.
E-mail:[email protected]
www.island.net/~ntfp
Tlaxcala, Tlaxcala, México, 7 de septiembre a 30 de noviembre de 2002.
Seminario universitario de 13 sesiones teórico-prácticas dirigido a empresarios, médicos tradicionales, profesionistas, promotores de salud, funcionarios, miembros de ONG, técnicos y personas interesadas en terapias alternativas.
Organizado por la Red Mexicana de Plantas Medicinales y Aromáticas S.C.L. (REDMEXPLAM), el Jardín Botánico Universitario de Plantas Medicinales, Secretaría de Investigación Científica de la Universidad Autónoma de Tlaxcala y Ecología y Desarrollo de Tlaxcala y Puebla A.C.
Para más información, dirigirse a:
Yolanda Betancourt Aguilar, Directora del Programa de
Educación Ambiental y Divulgación Científica, Jardín Botánico Universitario, Av.
Universidad N° 1, Tlaxcala, Tlax., México.
Correo electrónico:[email protected]
www.redmexicana.cjb.net
This fellowship provides US$15 000 per year for two years to one individual conducting research to understand better and improve the impacts of non-timber forest product (NTFP) harvest and marketing on rural livelihoods and tropical forest ecosystems. The fellowship area is restricted to Latin America.
For more information, please contact:
Deanna Newsom, TREES Program Associate, Rainforest
Alliance, Goodwin-Baker Building, 65 Millet Street, Suite 201, Richmond, Vermont
05477, USA.
Fax +1 802 4343116;
e-mail:[email protected];
www.rainforest-alliance.org/programs/research/kleinhans.html
The International Centre for Community Forestry, IIFM, Bhopal organized the 3rd International Training Course on Sustainable NTFP Management for Rural Development from 26 November to 13 December 2002 in Bhopal, India. The course was developed to address the prevailing situation of NTFP management in the Asian and African regions.
For more information, please contact:
Dr Prodyut
Bhattacharya, Course Director, Indian Institute of Forest Management (IIFM),
Nehru Nagar, PO Box 357, Bhopal 462 003, Madhya Pradesh, India.
Fax: +91 755
772878;
e-mail:[email protected]
www.iifm.org
Non-wood functions and products of forests are a major component of this new course.
For more information, please contact:
Dr Richard Mather, Forest Products Research Centre, Buckinghamshire Chilterns
University College, Queen Alexandra Road, High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire HP11
2JZ, UK.
Fax. +44 1494 605051;
e-mail:[email protected];
www.fprc.co.uk orwww.fh-eberswalde.de/ifeit/
TREES, a unit of the College of Forestry and Natural Resources (CFNR), University of the Philippines Los Baños, regularly offers international training courses and study tours. Their 2003 courses and study tours include:
• Biodiversity monitoring and assessment techniques, 22
April-2 June 2003 (6 weeks)
• Study tour on forestry and environment training
management, 13-26 May 2003 (2 weeks)
• Forest products marketing, 3 June-14
July 2003 (6 weeks)
• Agroforestry for sustainable development, 3 June-14
July 2003 (6 weeks)
• Social forestry for sustainable rural development, 9
September-20 October 2003 (6 weeks)
• Participatory approaches in forestry and natural resources development projects, 21 October-1 December 2003 (6 weeks)
For a complete list of courses and more information, please contact:
The Director, Training Center for Tropical Resources and
Ecosystems Sustainability (TREES), College of Forestry and Natural Resources,
University of the Philippines Los Baños, PO Box 434, College, Laguna 4031, the
Philippines.
Fax: +63 49 5363340;
e-mail:[email protected];
www.apafri.org/trees/index.htm
En 2003 iniciará el primer Diplomado latinoamericano a distancia en plantas medicinales y aromáticas que será impartido a través de Internet y contará con la asistencia científica y técnica de expertos en fitoterapia, aromaterapia y medicina tradicional.
Para más información, dirigirse a:
Miguel Ángel Gutiérrez Domínguez, Director del Jardín
Botánico Universitario, Secretaría de Investigación Científica,
Universidad
Autónoma de Tlaxcala,
Av. Universidad N° 1, C.P. 90070 Tlaxcala, Tlax.,
México.
Fax: 246 4 62 23 13 y 290 73;
Correo electrónico:[email protected] o-[email protected];
www.geocities.com/redmexicana o-www.procomverde.org.co
Turrialba, Costa Rica,18 de agosto al 13 de septiembre del 2003.
El Curso para el manejo diversificado de bosques naturales tropicales es un curso estratégico brindado por el de Centro Agronómico Tropical de Investigación y Enseñanza (CATIE), institución líder en esta temática en América Latina, región que cuenta con la mayor extensión de bosque natural productivo en el mundo.
Este curso reviste en la actualidad una singular importancia debido a la urgente necesidad de hacer compatibles la necesidad de conservación de los recursos forestales con el desarrollo de las poblaciones asentadas en su entorno, a través del manejo diversificado de los recursos existentes.
El evento está dirigido a personal técnico-profesional que labora en relación con el manejo de los recursos forestales tropicales: investigadores, docentes, productores, regentes, extensionistas, funcionarios de la Administración Forestal del Estado, entre otros.
Objetivos:
• Ampliar y actualizar los conocimientos sobre manejo
sostenible de bosques naturales tropicales, abarcando la diversidad de bienes y
servicios que proveen.
• Conocer y compartir experiencias relacionadas con los aspectos sociales, económicos y ambientales que influyen en la toma de decisiones en el manejo diversificado de los bosques naturales.
Para más información, dirigirse a:
Fernando Carrera, Coordinador del curso, CATIE 7170
Turrialba, Costa Rica.
Fax: +506 5561533;
correo electrónico:[email protected];
www.catie.ac.cr/catie
A recent edition of The Overstory (No. 106) introduces the importance of non-timber forest products from urban trees and forests, with examples from New England in the northeastern United States. Contents include: Defining "urban forest" and "urban NTFPs"; Sources of urban NTFPs; Use and markets for urban NTFPs; Urban NTFP collectors; The value of urban NTFPs; and Urban advantages.
For more information, please contact:
E-mail:[email protected];
www.agroforester.com/overstory/overstory.html
Women's knowledge of forest products represents a vast database of species which scientists are unable to catalogue. Tribal women in India, for example, know medicinal uses for some 300 forest species. (Source: Gender. Key to sustainability and food security. FAO. Plan of Action for Women in Development, 1996-2001.)