Over 200 organizations from 35 countries have challenged the grant in 1992 of a patent for neem products to W.R. Grace, a United States-based firm, on the grounds that knowledge of neem processing and products already exists in India. The petitioners claim that the company has copied the procedures of extracting oil (containing Azadiracthin) from neem seeds from Indian farmers who have been extracting neem oil and using it as a pesticide and for medicinal purposes for centuries. The petitioners point out that, although Grace's process to extract Azadiracthin is more sophisticated, it is a "mere extension of the same process that Indian farmers have been using for hundreds of years". The contention is that "a patent cannot be granted for trivial changes to known products and processes". The international challenge to Grace's patent marks a confrontation between traditional cultures and transnational corporations for control over the genetic resources of the planet. (Source: India Times, 15 September 1995.)
Merck, the world's largest pharmaceutical company, was selected as one of the winners of America's Corporate Conscience Awards for 1995 for its achievements in global ethics, specifically its "ground-breaking" partnership with Costa Rica's National Institute of Biodiversity whereby it supports the institute's work and helps preserve the rainforest. In presenting the award, the Council on Economic Priorities stressed that, under the partnership agreement, it is the first time that a developing country will receive royalties should a drug be developed from samples taken from within its borders. (Source: The Earth Times, 15-30 May 1995.)
The World Conservation Union (IUCN) Medicinal Plants Specialist Group is preparing a directory of groups, organizations and projects dealing with medicinal plants worldwide. Conservation issues are the main topics, although research and management will also be covered. The objectives are to improve communication among concerned people, to obtain details on existing initiatives and to support the coordination of activities on the same topics. The Directory will be published in early 1996.
For more information, please contact
Dr Max Kasparek, Bleichstr. 1, 69120 Heidelberg, Germany.Fax: +49-6221-471858.A new publication, The People and Plants Handbook, has been announced under the WWF-UNESCO-Kew initiative "People and Plants". The handbook aims to disseminate the large amount of information collected by the People and Plants initiative on programmes and people linked to the broad aspects of biological resources management, conservation and community development. The handbook will be structured in modules. The first modules will cover: information sources and programmes on ethnobotany, legal and ethical issues of resource management, biological resources assessment techniques, GIS, agroforestry, community forestry and medicinal plants. Later modules will also address many topics related to NWFPs.
Books already published in the People and Plants Conservation Manuals series include: Ethnobotany, a methods manual (Gary Martin); Plant invaders, the threat to natural ecosystems (Quentin Cronk and Janice Fuller); People and wild plant use (Anthony Cunningham); Botanical surveys for conservation and land management (Peggy Stern and Peter Ashton); and Botanical databases for conservation and development.
For more information, please contact
Alison Hoare, Assistant Editor, People and Plants Handbook, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Richmond, Surrey TW9 3AE, UK.Fax: +44-181 332 5278; E-mail: [email protected]The Herb Production and Processing Company originated as an activity of the Department of Medicinal Plants (now known as the Department of Plant Resources). In 1981, the company was created as an autonomous entity to take over the commercial activities related to the manufacturing of medicines, including cultivation, training, extension and development. At present, primary production (of essential oils and medicinal extracts) uses about ten plant species that are both cultivated by farmers (about 95 percent) and collected in the wild (only about 5 percent). The company is capable of exporting products to neighbouring countries such as lichen resinoid (from the tree moss Parmelia tinctorum), sugandha kokila oil (from the berries of Cinnamomum cecidodaphne), tagetes oil (from the overground flowering parts of Tagetes glandulifera), jatamansi oil (from the rhizomes of Nardostachys jatamansi) and palmarosa oil (from the whole plant of Cymbopogon martinii), as well as some crude drugs. Most of the production is consumed within the country by local pharmaceutical factories, the soap industry and manufacturing units of toothpaste and aftershave lotions, etc.
The company has a factory in the Kathmandu valley for the processing of medicinal extracts and high-value essential oils. It also has a processing and production unit in every farm. These include four central processing units utilizing resources from surrounding areas and 21 subsidiary collection and processing units. Of these 21 units, 19 are owned by the company but are managed by farmers on contract, while two are entirely owned by farmers. Some 600 families are involved in the cultivation and processing business as satellite units of the company. In addition there are also a few independent farmers' cooperatives engaged in growing and processing medicinal plants. From 1980 to 1984 the company received FAO assistance for the cultivation of medicinal and aromatic plants. It also received UNIDO assistance in establishing a laboratory and quality control system. The company is now interested in receiving further support for rationalizing and improving production in all its phases. (Source: C. Chandrasekharan, Travel report, April 1995.)
This experimental farm, located in Aradhana, Nepal, about 134 km west of Kathmandu, is a research and extension centre on natural farming. The centre carries out research on irrigated and rainfed nature farming. The centre plans to set up a small-scale biodiversity conservation centre and cultivate medicinal and aromatic plants.
For more information, please contact
Dr Bhaarat P. Dhital, Chairman, ANFC, GPO Box 4218, Kathmandu, Nepal.Fax: +977-1-470-816.Since 1988 Prunus africana has been pre-transformed in Madagascar in order to extract an active substance used to treat benign prostatic hyperplasia. Because of the pre-transformation, the economic value of the product has risen significantly. Today, P. africana is probably the most important medicinal plant commercialized in Madagascar. Its value is double that of all other medicinal plants exported from Madagascar (including, for example, Centella asiatica and Catharanthus roseus). In 1993, the amount of dry bark transformed for export reached 300 tonnes. Because of increasing demand, the amount of bark harvested in 1995 will probably double compared with 1993.
This intensification, with present harvesting technology, poses a threat to the conservation of the wild population of P. africana. In Madagascar, bark stripping (which is tested in Cameroon to extract the bark without killing the tree) is not applied, and the trees are felled to obtain the bark. Harvesting is carried out by farmers who are not aware of the rules for exploitation and do not know about improved harvesting methods or the high quality of timber, which is left as waste in the forest. The price paid to farmers is not even 3 percent of the price demanded for the bark extract. At present, no activities are carried out to promote domestication and cultivation of the species. (Contributed by: Sven Walter, University of Giessen Steinstr. 43, D-35390 Giessen, Germany. Tel: +49-641-389539.)
A collaborative venture between the Chemistry Department of the Federal University of Alagoas (UFAL) and the Herbarium in the Environmental Institute of the State of Alagoas (IMA) aims to recover and test popular knowledge about medicinal plants in Alagoas, a state in the northeast of Brazil. The first phase of the project is an ethnobotanical survey based upon interviews with local healers, indigenous herbalists and local users. So far, 207 different species, both native and cultivated, have been identified as being used for medicinal purposes in Alagoas. Barbatimao (Phitecellobium avaremotemo) and sambacaitá (Hyptis pectinata) are the two most frequently employed species. Data from the collections and the associated interviews are stored in a database. A medicinal plant garden has also been installed in UFAL as a first step towards the implementation of a "living pharmacy" programme. This programme encourages the use of native medicinal plants of proven pharmacological efficacy among local communities. The project will publish an illustrated manual to publicize in a simple fashion the use of the better known plants in Alagoas.
For more information, please contact
Dr Karen Pipe-Wolfestern, Coordinator, Plantas do Nordeste, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Richmond, Surrey TW9 3AE, UK.FRLHT was founded in 1991 to help save India's medical heritage. The Foundation's main areas are traditional medicine and primary health care, in situ and ex situ conservation of medicinal plants, computerized databases on medicinal plants, building of traditional medical centres in specialized fields, and international cooperation in traditional medicine. The Foundation has promoted the Medplan Conservation Society, which publishes a quarterly journal called Amruth.
For further information, please contact
FRLHT, 50 MSH Layout, 2nd Stage, 3rd Main, Anandnagar, Bangalore 560024, India.Fax: +91-80-3334167.
The World Conservation Monitoring Centre and IUCN/SSC are developing
a new Tree Conservation Information Service as part of a three-year
project funded by the Government of the Netherlands. The service
will provide information on distribution, conservation status,
local uses and economic values of tree species worldwide to help
in the planning of sustainable forest management and tree conservation.
The WCMC plant database BG-Base currently holds
90 000 plant name records, of which over 10 000 are trees. These
data are being reviewed as a basis for the new service and views
and information on existing tree, timber and forestry databases
are being sought.
To contribute with information to the service or to have more information on this initiative, please contact
Sara Oldfield, Project Leader, WCMC, 219 Huntington Road, Cambridge CB3 ODL, United Kingdom.Fax: +44-1223-277136; E-mail: [email protected]The World Health Organization is preparing a book entitled Examples of monographs of widely used medicinal plants. Each model monograph covers the plant species description and geographical distribution, description of the drug, identity and purity tests, assays, major chemical components, clinical uses, clinical pharmacology, contra-indications and adverse effects, precautions, posology, and other uses. Examples of the species included in the monographs are: senna, rauvolfia, aloe, centella, echinacea, rhubarb, chamomile, ephedra and valeriana.
For more information, please contact
Dr Xiaorui Zhang, Medical Officer, Traditional Medicine-Action Programme on Essential Drugs, WHO, CH 1211 Geneva, Switzerland.Fax: +41-22-791-36 39.The Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education (ICFRE), with support from the Ford Foundation, has published a series of extension materials on various forest species. Each publication covers aspects of utilization, natural regeneration, plantation techniques, biomass and nutrient dynamics, disease and pest management, nutrient requirements, growth and yield and economics of planting. The species covered are: kahir (Acacia catechu), babul (A. nilotica), A. tortilis, dhok (Anogeissus pendula), ardu (Ailanthus excelsa), safed siris (Albizia procera), kadam (Anthocephalus chinensis), neem (Azadirachta indica), bamboo, chironji (Buchanania lanzan), Casuarina equisetifolia, Eucalyptus spp., Jatropha curcas, mahua (Madhuca longifolia), Moringa oleifera, chir pine (Pinus roxburghii), Pongamia pinnata, poplar (Populus spp.), vilayati babul (Prosopis juliflora), khejri (P. cineraria), red sandalwood (Pterocarpus santalinus), canes (rattan), salvadora (Salvadora oleoides), Santalum album, Sesbania spp., rohida (Tecomella undulata), arjun (Terminalia arjuna) and tamarind (Tamarindus indica).
For more information, please contact
Dr D.N. Tewari, Director-General, ICFRE, PO New Forest, Dehra Dun, Uttar Pradesh, India.A successful domestication programme is based on a species for which there is available market capacity for the improved products, or for which market capacity can easily be developed in the future. This implies that the species is important for a wide range of people within an ecological zone or over a range of ecological zones. The International Center for Research in Agroforestry (ICRAF) has developed guidelines to determine farmer preferences, farmers' ideas on traits for improvement and how these traits can be researched in a structured and stepwise priority setting approach. Priority species for an ecological zone are selected in close collaboration with farmers. Together with gathering information on farmers' preferred species, the setting of priority species also involves surveying the present value of the products of the target species for sale or domestic use. Research institutions in the area are consulted to ensure agreement on the research priority and the future collaboration among scientists in the region. This process leads to the selection of a few species for which germplasm exploration and collections can be initiated. For example, in the West African humid lowlands, five species were identified as being of highest priority for farmers: Dacryoides edulis, Irvingia gabonensis, Ricinodendron heudelotii, Garcinia kola and Chrysophyllum albidum. Subsequent "researchability" and valuation surveys ranked I. gabonensis and D. edulis as the most promising species for improvement work and later adoption in the region. This model has been repeated for the semi-arid lowlands of West Africa and is in the process of being applied in the Peruvian Amazon.
For more information, please contact
Dr R. Leakey, Director of Research Division, ICRAF, PO Box 30677, Nairobi, Kenya.Fax: +254 2 521001; E-mail: [email protected]The first issue of PLANT TALK, a new quarterly magazine on plant conservation, was released in March 1995. The magazine covers important issues and events in plant conservation worldwide, success stories in plant conservation, reviews of the Red Data Books, reports on new flora and checklists and information on new protected areas for plants. PLANT TALK is published by the Botanical Information Company Ltd.
For more information and a subscription, please write to
Plant Talk, PO Box 400, Richmond, Surrey TW10 7KJ, UK or to PLANT TALK, PO Box 65226, Tucson, AZ 85728-5226, USA, for orders from the Americas.The first issue of LEUCNET NEWS was published in March 1995. LEUCNET NEWS, the newsletter of the International Leucaena Research and Development Network, contains articles, research notes and news from collaborators in the network. (Source: APAN Newsletter, August 1995.)
For subscriptions, please contact
Alan Pottinger, Oxford Forestry Institute, Department of Plant Sciences, South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3RB, UK.The first meeting of the FAO Working Group on Forestry Statistics was held in Rome from 20 to 24 November 1995. FAO set up the working group in order to examine the current forestry data coverage of national and international forestry statistics, identify emerging needs and priorities for the development of forestry sector statistics and recommend ways and means for country capacity building in forestry statistics. Problems related to the compilation of statistics on NWFPs were discussed.
For more information, please contact
Felice Padovani, Forestry Statistics Officer, FONS, FAO.Fax +39-6-57055137; E-mail: [email protected]The Handbook on the system of economic accounts for food and agriculture has been published in four languages by the Economic and Social Department of FAO. A provisional handbook that follows the United Nations system of national accounts (UN SNA) was released in 1974. The UN SNA was revised in 1993 to make the system more comprehensive. The handbook, which aims to meet the needs of decision-makers, looks at agriculture, forestry, fisheries, food and nutrition in one framework since the basic needs of populations for food, fodder, fuel, fibre and shelter come from these primary sectors. The first draft of the revised handbook was prepared in August 1994 and was reviewed by all FAO divisions and other international organizations such as the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), EUROSTAT, the United Nations and its regional commissions, and the European Communities.
For more information, please contact
Mr P. Narain, Statistics Officer, ESS, FAO.Fax: +39-6-57053152; E-mail: [email protected]The International Labour Office is preparing an encyclopaedia on occupational health and safety. A chapter on forestry will include a section prepared by FAO on the hazards relating to harvesting non-wood forest products and ways to control and prevent them.
For more information, please contact
Dr Jeanne Mager Stellmann, ILO, Route des Morillons, CH 1211 Geneva, Switzerland.The Expert Meeting on Criteria and Indicators for Sustainable Forest Management in Dry-zone Africa was jointly organized by FAO and UNEP in Nairobi, from 21 to 24 November 1995. Since the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in Rio in 1992, there have been attempts to formulate criteria and indicators for sustainable forest management. The main international initiatives are the "Helsinki process" (for European forests), the "Montreal process" (for non-European temperate and boreal forests), and the guidelines and criteria for tropical high forest, developed by the International Tropical Timber Organization (ITTO). Regional and subregional initiatives have been taken in the Amazon Cooperation Treaty countries, Central American countries, and others. More recently, principles and concepts have been tested at national and local levels, with the assistance of the Centre for International Forestry Research (CIFOR). At the Expert Consultation on the Harmonization of Criteria and Indicators for Sustainable Forest Management, organized by FAO in Rome in February 1995, it was recommended that efforts be made to involve countries and ecological regions not yet participating in ongoing international initiatives, with special reference to the countries of dry-zone Africa.
The meeting in Nairobi recommended seven criteria and 47 generic indicators with regard to forest resources, biological diversity, health, production functions, protection functions, socio-economic benefits and institutional and policy frameworks. The importance of NWFPs in the management of the mixed forest/grassland formations and other woody vegetation types of the subregion was stressed throughout the meeting and is reflected in the proposed criteria and indicators. The extraction of NWFPs was specifically proposed as an indicator of the maintenance and enhancement of the production functions of forests and other wooded lands, and the value of NWFPs, including ecotourism, was proposed as a specific indicator of the maintenance and enhancement of socio-economic benefits of forests. (Source: Travel report by Paul Vantomme, Forestry Officer, FAO, November 1995.)
Twenty-six local, national and international NGOs, including NGO networks and indigenous people's organizations, participated in a meeting organized by the FAO Forestry Department, Rome, on 10 and 11 March 1995. The meeting was held just before the 12th session of the FAO Committee on Forestry (COFO) and the meeting of Ministers of Forestry on 16 March 1995. The report of the meeting was included as an agenda item for discussion at COFO. The NGOs underlined the importance of effective on-the-ground NGO/FAO collaboration and stated that this was an area that needed to be given more attention by high-level FAO policy decisions than it had previously received. New kinds of consultation mechanisms are urgently needed at all levels. The NGOs expressed their critical views on the Task Manager's Report on Forests to the Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD), on forest product trade mechanisms and environment issues, and on the initiative of FAO/ITTO for the harmonization of criteria and indicators for sustainable forest management. In their discussions the NGOs stressed that the full rights of indigenous people and of local communities must be respected in all decisions on land use that affect them. At the meeting, the World Alliance of Indigenous Peoples Living in Tropical Forests presented a communication for the CSD.
For further information, please contact
J. Clément, Coordinator, NFAP Unit, Forestry Department, FAO.Fax: +39-6-57052151; E-mail: [email protected]INMEDPLAN (Indian Medicinal Plants Network of Distributed Databases) is a national initiative to develop an information resource on medicinal plants. The network has been developed in collaboration with several specialized agencies involved in plant-related research and information and is serviced by FRLHT. The prime objective of the network is to help users to access medicinal plant data pertaining to botany, ecology, agrotechnology, ethnomedicine, pharmacognosy, pharmacology, phytochemistry and traditional systems of medicine. A newsletter is issued by the network.
"TradiMed", a traditional oriental medicine database, has been developed in the Republic of Korea by the National Products Research Institute, Seoul National University. The database tries to integrate traditional Chinese medicine and western science. It contains information on the prescription (efficacy, dosage, negative effects, etc.) of thousands of traditional Korean and Chinese drugs, on the chemistry of natural compounds found in plants and other organisms, as well as full-colour images of medicinal plants and herbs. (Source: INMEDPLAN Newsletter, December 1994.)
For more information, please contact
Natural Products Research Institute, Seoul National University, Republic of Korea.Fax: +82-2-742-9951.The Noristan Plant database, developed by Noristan Ltd. in South Africa, currently represents the most comprehensive collection of folk medicinal data in South Africa. About 46 000 reports on the traditional use of medicinal plants are stored in the database. Information has been collected from published sources, visits to hospitals, farmers, herbalists and traditional healers.
For further details on this and on INMEDPLAN, please contact
J. Rhavi Chander, Programme Officer, FRLHT, 50 MSH Layout, 2nd Stage, 3rd Main, Anandnagar, Bangalore 560024, India.Fax: +91 80333 4167; E-mail: [email protected]A database on natural toxins and poisons in plants found in Singapore is accessible on the Worldwide Web at the address site: htpp://biomed.nus/sg:80/PID/plantlist.html/
The Edinburgh Centre for Tropical Forests (ECTF) has produced 70-minute video cassettes on "Multiplying tropical trees: vegetative propagation and selection".
These videos are now available translated into Bahasa for people in Malaysia/Indonesia.
For more information, please contact
ECTF, Darwin Building, University of Edinburgh, Mayfield Road, Edinburgh, EH9 3JU, Scotland, UK.The Rainforest Alliance has awarded the Kleinhans fellowship for research in tropical non-timber forest products. The fellowship is part of the Rainforest Alliance's programme to develop ecologically and socially sound alternatives to the economic practices that cause tropical forest destruction. The fellowship provides a grant of US$15 000 per year for two years. For 1995, the fellowship research area focused on Latin America, and on dry or wet tropical forests.
For more information, please contact
Rainforest Alliance, 65 Becker Street, New York, NY 10012-2420. Fax: +1-212-677-2187; E-mail: [email protected]