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11PEOPLE AND PLANTS WORKING PAPER - MARCH 2003

The purposes andThe purposes andteaching of Appliedteaching of AppliedEthnobotany Ethnobotany A.C. Hamilton, Pei Shengji, J. Kessy, Ashiq A. Khan, S. Lagos-Witte & Z.K. Shinwari

Faculty of Forest Ecology

and Forestry Science

Centre for Anthropological Studies

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The designations employed and the presentation of material throughout this publication do not implythe expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of WWF concerning the legal status of anycountry, territory, city, or area of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers orboundaries. The opinions expressed in this paper are entirely those of the authors and do not commitany Organization.

Photos: pp 5, 15, 16 down, 46, 50, 55: Alan Hamiltonp 7: Sonia Lagos-Wittepp 8, 9: David Medina and Rodolfo Peñapp 16 up, 23, 25: Robert Höftp 20: Peter von Sengbusch

Cover drawing: Annette Aiscan-Schmid

Published in 2003 by WWF

Edited by Martin WaltersDesign: Ivette FabbriLayout: Martina Höft

© WWF 2003

Recommended citation: Hamilton, A.C., Pei Shengji, Kessy, J., Khan, Ashiq A., Lagos-Witte, S. andShinwari, Z.K. The purposes and teaching of Applied Ethnobotany. People and Plants working paper11. WWF, Godalming, UK.

An electronic version of this document can be downloaded from http://www.rbgkew.org.uk/peopleplants/wp/wp10/index.html

Authors’ addresses:

Hamilton, A.C.WWF Plants Conservation OfficerPanda House, Weyside ParkCatteshall LaneGodalming Surrey GU7 1XRUNITED KINGDOM<[email protected]>

Pei ShengjiDepartment of EthnobotanyKunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academyof SciencesHeilongtan, KunmingYunnan 650204CHINA<[email protected]>

Kessy, J.F.Sokoine University of AgricultureP.O. Box 3226MorogoroUNITED REPUBLIC OF TANZANIA<[email protected]>

Khan, Ashiq A.WWF-Pakistan, UPO Box 1439PeshawarPAKISTAN

Lagos-Witte, S.Coordinadora General, Grupo EtnobotánicoLatinoamericano (GELA)Apartado Postal 21-9 Santo DomingoREPÚBLICA DOMINICANA<[email protected]>

Shinwari, Z.K.WWF-Pakistan, UPO Box 1439PeshawarPAKISTAN

mailto:[email protected]




http://www.rbgkew.org.uk/peopleplants/wp/wp10/index.html

PEOPLE AND PLANTS WORKING PAPER 11, MARCH 2003THE PURPOSES AND TEACHING OF APPLIED ETHNOBOTANY

A.C. HAMILTON, PEI SHENGJI, J. KESSY, ASHIQ A. KHAN, S. LAGOS-WITTE & Z.K. SHINWARI

Abstract

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THE PURPOSES AND TEACHING OFAPPLIED ETHNOBOTANY

The aim of this paper is to provide recommenda-tions for the teaching of Applied Ethnobotany -which is Ethnobotany applied to conservation andsustainable development. There are several funda-mental reasons for applying the approaches andmethods of Applied Ethnobotany for these pur-poses. First, they allow the knowledge, wisdomand practices of local people to play fuller roles inidentifying and finding solutions to problems ofconservation and sustainable development.Second, local people are fully involved in investi-gations, so that there is a better chance of ‘buy in’.Third, realistic case-studies of ways of balancingconservation with use become available, which isvaluable for informing the development of realis-tic national policies. Over 100 people - many prac-tising ethnobotanists or educators - have been con-sulted, partly through special workshops or studiesundertaken for this purpose. They have been inChina, the Dominican Republic (covering eightLatin American countries), Ethiopia, Kenya,Malaysia, Pakistan, Tanzania and Uganda.

Reviews of the history of Ethnobotany andits teaching are included. Ethnobotany is beingincreasingly recognised as an important subjectfor conservation and sustainable development,but has several weaknesses, including often alack of rigour in its teaching. The histories ofBotany, Forestry, Agriculture and Medicine arealso reviewed, to show how they have evolved astaught subjects and professional disciplines.Some of the specific ways that Applied

Ethnobotany can be useful to these professionsare indicated.

Several matters which developers of coursesor programmes should consider are discussed.They include the challenges posed by interdisci-plinarity, possible types of courses and pro-grammes (including lengths and levels), institu-tional contexts, enrolment requirements, staffing,and material resources. The three types of cours-es and programmes which seem to be most gen-erally useful are: (1) introductory courses withinundergraduate programmes (which might be inAgriculture, Anthropology, Botany, Forestry,Medicine, or indeed other subjects); (2) two-yearMSc programmes (half taught classes: half indi-vidual research), leading to professional-levelability; and (3) short professional courses of fivedays to three months duration, often focusing onspecific well-defined topics.

The core competencies required of appliedethnobotanists are considered, along with howthey may be acquired. So far as knowledge isconcerned, suggestions are made for compulsoryand optional topics to be covered in programmes,as well as some suggestions about their detailedcontent. Methods of acquiring practical skills arediscussed, as well as the importance of adoptingattitudes and behaviour appropriate to the profes-sion. A list of People and Plants publications isincluded, with a guide to where descriptions ofparticular topics, including methods, can befound within them.

We welcome your views on this paper, particularly whether you have found it useful in designing your courses (contacts given below).

1. Dr A.C. Hamilton, Head, International Plants Conservation Unit, WWF-UK, Panda House,Weyside Park, Catteshall Lane, Godalming, Surrey GU7 1XR, UK.

2. Prof Pei Shengji, Head, Department of Ethnobotany, Kunming Institute of Botany, ChineseAcademy of Sciences, Heilongtan, Kunming, Yunnan 650204, China.

3. Dr John Kessy, Senior Lecturer, Department of Forest Economics, Faculty of Forestry andNature Conservation, Sokoine University of Agriculture, PO Box 3226, Morogoro, Tanzania.

4. Ashiq Ahmad Khan and Dr Zabta Khan Shinwari, WWF-Pakistan, UPO Box 1439, Peshawar,Pakistan.

5. Dra Sonia Lagos-Witte, Coordinadora General, Grupo Etnobotánico Latinoamericano (GELA),Apartado Postal 21-9, Santo Domingo, República Dominicana.

PEOPLE AND PLANTS WORKING PAPER 11, MARCH 2003THE PURPOSES AND TEACHING OF APPLIED ETHNOBOTANYA.C. HAMILTON, PEI SHENGJI, J. KESSY, ASHIQ A. KHAN, S. LAGOS-WITTE & Z.K. SHINWARI

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Contents

1 Abstract2 Contents

3 Rationale and methodology of this study3 Why Applied Ethnobotany?4 Methodology

6 Ethnobotany: scope and status6 Ethnobotany: past and present7 Geographical coverage and themes8 Societies, networks and key events

11 Ethnobotany as a taught subject 13 How Ethnobotany can be strengthened

17 Relevance of Applied Ethnobotany to Botany, Forestry,Agriculture and Medicine

17 Professions to which Applied Ethnobotany can contribute18 Botany: past and future20 Forestry: past and future22 Agriculture: past and future26 Medicine: past and future

33 Courses and programmes in Applied Ethnobotany: matters to consider

33 The challenges of interdisciplinarity35 Types of courses and programmes37 The purposes of courses and programmes37 Institutional contexts39 Enrolment requirements39 Student assessment and course evaluation40 Staffing41 Material resources

42 Core competences and their acquisition42 Knowledge43 Practical skills45 Attitudes and behaviour

47 Possible topics to cover in courses and programmes in Applied Ethnobotany

49 Short professional courses

50 Acknowledgements51 References56 Appendix 1: Contributors to this project60 Appendix 2: Publications, videos and website of the People and Plants Initiative63 Appendix 3: Possible subjects to cover within suggested topics in Applied

Ethnobotany68 Appendix 4: Recommended topics of programmes in Ethnobotany

or Applied Ethnobotany according to various authors



Why Applied Ethnobotany?Ethnobotany has been defined as the disciplineconcerned with the interactions between peopleand plants (Jones, 1941). There are many aspectsof Ethnobotany, including the ways that peoplename and classify plants, the values placed onthem, their uses and their management. It reach-es across the natural and social sciences. Plantshave always been of central significance tohuman welfare and always will be. Plants pro-vide people with food, fuel and medicine, as wellas materials for construction and the manufactureof crafts and many other products. Their chemi-cal and genetic constituents are being increasing-ly explored for human benefit. They are majorparts of the physical worlds which people inhab-it and in which they construct their realities.They lie at the base of food-webs, supportingmost other forms of life. They are essential ele-ments of ecological systems on all geographicalscales, helping provide us with equitable cli-mates, fertile soils and reliable supplies of water.The central role of plants in the everyday lives ofrural people is obvious in developing countries,with the daily round of activities revolvingaround agriculture, the care of domestic animals,the gathering of fuelwood, the cooking and eat-ing of largely plant-based food, the constructionof buildings and fences, the use of herbal medi-cine, and so on.

Ethnobotany can be applied for many practi-cal purposes, among which McClatchey and hisco-authors have listed land-use development,agriculture, forestry, cultural conservation, edu-cation and the development of the health foodand herbal medicine industries (McClatchey etal., 1999). Our interest here is in AppliedEthnobotany, which we define as Ethnobotanyapplied to conservation and sustainable develop-ment. Applied Ethnobotany draws on both per-sonal (including traditional) and scientific formsof knowledge, allowing comparisons and inte-gration for the benefits of conservation and sus-tainable development. In the past, ethnobotanicalstudies have all too often been just academicexercises or have served only external interests,with the results benefiting neither local peoplenor conservation. Our approach is cross-discipli-nary, participatory, and geared towards localproblem-solving.

The fundamental strengths of applying theapproaches and methods of Applied Ethnobotanyare that:

• They allow the knowledge, wisdom andpractices of local people to play fuller rolesin identifying and finding solutions to prob-lems of conservation and sustainable devel-opment.

• Local people are involved fundamentally ininvestigations so that there is a betterchance of ‘buy-in’.

• Realistic case-studies of ways of balancingconservation with use become available toinform the evolution of national and otherhigher level policies.

Among the particular challenges to whichApplied Ethnobotany can contribute are(Campbell & Luckert, 2002; Cruells, 1994;Cunningham, 2001; Laird, 2002; Martin, 1995;Schultes & von Reis, 1995):• Conservation of plants (including varieties

of crops) and other forms of biologicaldiversity.

• Botanical inventories and assessments ofthe conservation status of species.

• Sustainability in supplies of wild plantresources, including of non-timber products.

• Enhanced food security, nutrition andhealthcare.

• Preservation, recovery and diffusion oflocal botanical knowledge and wisdom.

• Reinforcement of ethnic and national identity.

• Greater security of land tenure and resourceownership.

• Assertion of the rights of local and indigenous people.

• Agreements on the rights of communitiesin protected areas.

• Identification and development of new eco-nomic products from plants, for instancecrafts, foods, herbal medicines and horti-cultural plants.

• Contributions to new drug development.

The betterment of rural livelihoods is a com-plex task and it is not suggested that AppliedEthnobotany is a universal panacea. Naturalresource issues are only part of wider livelihoodissues, and botanical issues only part of naturalresource issues. There will always be uncertain-ties about how people will perceive their futureoptions and the livelihood strategies that theywill adopt. However, what is certain is that mostrural people in developing countries will contin-

Rationale and methodology of this study

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ue to be heavily reliant on local wild plants.Further, it is the poorest people, in particular,who will remain most dependent on resources ofwild plants and who stand most to gain if theseresources are managed in sustainable ways.Applied Ethnobotany can therefore play a signif-icant part in the battle to relieve poverty.

The intention of the present paper is to pro-vide information useful to those wishing todevelop courses or programmes in AppliedEthnobotany. Many people have been consultedto produce the present synthesis, which certainlywill require revision with time and as other expe-riences are incorporated. Each course or pro-gramme is expected to differ in detail, mouldedas appropriate to the contexts of particulardepartments, universities and countries orregions. On the other hand, it is noteworthy thatfindings of the consultations undertaken for thepresent project show an unexpected degree ofagreement about the contents of courses and pro-grammes in Applied Ethnobotany and on howthey should be taught. There appears to be anemerging consensus.

Ethnobotany is sometimes seen as a ‘soft’subject, but, actually, it can and should be intel-lectually demanding for both staff and students.As Janice Alcorn has commented (Alcorn,1995): “The ethnobotanical field workerobserves the living system of which plant use isa part. Careful observation is not, however, aneasy job. It requires looking at human activitiesand organisations from a plant’s viewpoint andlooking at plants and plant communities from aculturally informed as well as a scientific per-spective. Only by looking at the material in thisway can the ethnobotanical field worker recog-nise links between the subunits investigated byresearchers in different disciplines. Methods ofdifferent disciplines reveal different aspects ofthe system under study … . It is up to the field-experienced worker to integrate the data and spotnew areas requiring investigation.”

Ethnobotanists are faced with a continuinglearning process throughout their careers. Thereis much to gain from the sharing of experiencesand ideas within countries and internationally,though barriers of language remain a challenge,as between anglophone and francophone Africa(Höft & Höft, 1997). Networking is an invalu-able tool. No-one has all the answers. We believethat progress in developing courses or pro-grammes in Applied Ethnobotany will dependgreatly on the sharing of experiences and thelearning of lessons by those who are practicallyinvolved.

It is anticipated that Ethnobotany willbecome a powerful field of scientific activity inthe 21st Century (Botanical Society of America,1995). Unusually for a modern academic subject,there are particular opportunities for innovative

contributions from ethnobotanists from develop-ing countries. The advantages of such ethnob-otanists can include personal experience of theproblems that rural people face, intuitive appre-ciation of local cultures, and knowledge of locallanguages. Ethnobotanical research requires rela-tively little equipment and is cheap comparedwith many other fields of science.

Ethnobotany is a key subject for conserva-tion and sustainable development. Capacity-building in Applied Ethnobotany is urgentlyneeded in developing countries because of theintimate links between rural people and localplants. This is not to say that AppliedEthnobotany is not also useful as a taught subjectin industrial countries, including to train peopleable to explore the many, largely hidden, eco-nomic dependencies of people in such countrieson plants and the implications of consumer cul-tures for conservation. Furthermore, some eth-nobotanists from industrialised countries willbecome involved in collaborative research withcolleagues in the developing world.

Sonia Lagos-Witte has written of theurgency of developing Applied Ethnobotany,noting (Lagos-Witte, 1994):• The rapidity with which environmental

damage occurs today.• The rapid loss of floristic and cultural

diversity.• The state of absolute material poverty of

most of the indigenous and peasant peopleof tropical regions.

• The demands of these people for solutionsto their problems and to take active roles inmaking decisions about the management ofnatural resources and about the legal statusof their traditions and knowledge.

MethodologyThe present document is a product of the Peopleand Plants Initiative of WWF and UNESCO,with the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, as anAssociate. Many people have contributed to itsformulation (Appendix 1). Several meetingsand other activities were organised to provideopportunities for ethnobotanists and other inter-ested people to present their experiences andideas about how Applied Ethnobotany shouldbe taught:• A meeting was held on 20-21 August 2001

organised by Professor Pei Shengji atKunming Institute of Botany, ChineseAcademy of Sciences, to discuss curriculain Ethnobotany for China (Pei Shengji,2002a).

• Sonia Lagos-Witte and Alan Hamiltonorganised a workshop on curriculum devel-opment in Applied Ethnobotany on 21-23February 2000 at the Jardín Botánico

5

Nacional Rafael Ma. Moscoso, DominicanRepublic (Lagos-Witte, 2002). This work-shop was for representatives of GrupoEtnobotánico Latinoamericano (GELA),members of which attended from a numberof countries in Latin America.

• A workshop was organised on 3-4 May2002 by WWF-Pakistan and WWF-UK atNathiagali, Pakistan, mainly to bringtogether experiences and ideas from peoplein Pakistan, but with attendance also byethnobotanists from Uganda. Written con-tributions were received from several peo-ple from other countries (Shinwari,Hamilton & Khan, 2002).

• A session on curriculum development inApplied Ethnobotany was organised on 20September 2002 by Professor Pei Shengjiand Alan Hamilton at the 8th InternationalCongress of the International Society ofEthnobiology, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

• John Kessy of Sokoine University ofAgriculture, Tanzania, undertook a surveyof experiences and views about the teach-

ing of Ethnobotany in Kenya, Uganda andTanzania, concentrating on Departments ofBotany and Forestry (Kessy, 2002).

• A presentation on curriculum developmentin Applied Ethnobotany was made by AlanHamilton on 15 October 2002 during theNational Symposium on Ethnobotany andEconomic Development in China, thisbeing the first national-level meeting onEthnobotany to be held in the country.

The project has benefited from some earlierexperiences associated with the People andPlants Initiative. Sonia Lagos-Witte and collabo-rators carried out a survey in 1995 to determinethe status and opportunities for teaching ofApplied Ethnobotany in Central America(Lagos-Witte et al., 1995). A similar study wasundertaken later in Malaysia (Saleh, 2000). ThePeople and Plants Initiative has, itself, run manycourses in Applied Ethnobotany, principallyshort courses for professionals, but also a moreextensive three-part regional course in South-east Asia in 1997-1999.



Contributors to a session on curriculum development in Applied Ethnobotany on 20 September 2002 at the 8th Congress of the InternationalSociety of Ethnobiology, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. From left to right: 1. Dr Khasbagan (China), 2. Dr Fasil Kebebeh (Ethiopia, Congress Organiser),3. Prof Pei Shengji (China), 4. Dr Chusie Trisonthi (Thailand), 5. Dr Esezah Kakudidi (Uganda), 6. Prof Hu Huabin (China), 7. Prof Sanyu Devi Joshi(Nepal), 8. Dr Alan Hamilton (UK), 9. Prof Abhoy Kumar Das (Nepal).

Ethnobotany: past and presentThe first published use of the term ‘Ethno-botany’ was by John Harshberger in 1896, refer-ring to a botanical culture revealed througharchaeological research in the Mancos Canyon,Colorado, USA (Harshberger, 1896). From thisstart, the scope of the subject has expanded toinclude studies of modern cultures, greater inter-disciplinarity and, more recently, greater atten-tion to its applications to conservation and sus-tainable development. It is a science that hasbeen rapidly evolving, a state of affairs that willlikely continue for some time. Many early stud-ies, as some still are today, were largely or entire-ly descriptive, being concerned essentially withdocumenting the local names and uses of plants(Cunningham, 1997; Etkin & Meilleur, 1993;Fernández, 2002; Fonseca, 2000; Martinez,2002). Attention was commonly directedtowards more indigenous communities ratherthan peasants (i.e. non-indigenous local people)(Prance, 1995), not infrequently with a biastowards medicinal plants. By and large, thesestudies have proved of little practical value to thelocal people who provided the information. Forexample, many studies of medicinal plants inPolynesia have been insufficiently interdiscipli-nary and with inadequate attention to local con-cepts of medical conditions to be of much valuefor devising improvements in healthcare (Etkin& Meilleur, 1993). Not infrequently,Ethnobotany has been used as a means of extract-ing knowledge of the uses of plants, especially asmedicines, from communities, with the aim ofdeveloping new commercial products elsewhere.

Over the last decade in particular,Ethnobotany has tended to become more analyt-ical, quantitative, cross-disciplinary and multi-institutional. Ethnobotanists are now much moreengaged with questions of conservation, sustain-able development, cultural affirmation, and theintellectual property rights of local and indige-nous people (Botanical Society of America,1995; Fernández, 2002; Martinez, 2002). Agrowing inclusion of ecology is leading to newinsights into the origin and dynamics of tropicalecosystems (Prance, 1995). Several stages in thehistorical progress of the subject in Africa havebeen recognised (Cunningham, 1997): 1. an initial emphasis on recording vernacular

names and uses; 2. a broadening to include more work on

nutritional and chemical analyses of edibleand wild plants;

3. investigations into the quantities of materi-

als used and/or the frequency of use (fromabout 1960);

4. quantitative studies of human impacts onplant resources, particularly those enteringcommercial trade (from about 1990); and

5. valuations of plant resources (from about1995).

Worldwide, some of the major developmentshave been:• A widening of Ethnobotany from a focus

on indigenous people to embrace all sec-tions of humanity.

• A greater use of anthropological methodsto comprehend better how, and why, peopleclassify, value, and give symbolic signifi-cance to plants.

• A growing awareness that ethnobotanicalknowledge should be appreciated as part ofwider knowledge-systems or ‘cognitivematrices’.

• Greater scientific rigour in terms of settingand testing hypotheses, and quantification.

• More emphasis on participatory researchaimed directly at the identification and res-olution of practical problems of conserva-tion and sustainable development.

• Greater recognition of the intellectual prop-erty rights of local and indigenous people,especially respect for secret medicalknowledge and acknowledgement of theneed to provide a fair return of benefits tothe local level when research aims at theidentification of new commercial products.

Wade Davis has expounded on some of the chal-lenges facing contemporary ethnobotanists(Davis, 1995): “Ethnobotanists must record notonly lists of plant uses but a vision of life itself.This is the second and much more difficult task -to understand not just how a specific group ofpeople uses plants but how that group perceivesthem, how it interprets those perceptions, howthose perceptions influence the activities ofmembers of that society, and how those activi-ties, in turn, influence the ambient vegetation andthe ecosystem upon which the society depends.”

Apart from its theoretical significance,Ethnobotany is emerging as a subject of greatpractical value. Its application can lead to astrengthening of cultural diversity and conserva-tion, greater sustainability in the exploitation ofplant resources, and the development of newplant products. It has helped in Latin America(and doubtless elsewhere) to change the image oflocal people so that organisations that make deci-sions about development have more respect forthe cultures and authority of rural communities,


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Ethnobotany: scope and status

resulting in a search for ways to collaborateunder conditions of respect and equality(Robineau, 1996). Ethnobotanical research cansometimes be a form of cultural rescue(Caballero, 1986). It enables the recording anddocumentation of traditional knowledge aboutthe empirical uses of plants - knowledge which iswidely disappearing. The rescue and documenta-tion of traditional knowledge can contribute tothe strengthening of indigenous cultures. It canresult in the demonstration of the value of cultur-al diversity within the context of the processes ofglobalisation, modernisation and integration ofindigenous peoples into national societies(Robineau, 1996).

The People and Plants Initiative was startedin 1992, as a partnership between WWF,UNESCO and the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.Its aim has been to build capacity in Ethnobotanyamong individuals and institutions in the devel-oping world. It has tried to contribute to thedevelopment of Applied Ethnobotany and itspractical adoption around the world. Activitieshave included the training of young ethnob-otanists, support for the development of net-works and courses, and the dissemination ofcase-studies and methodologies through the pro-duction and distribution of publications andvideos (Appendix 2). There have been nationalor regional programmes with co-ordinated seriesof activities in several countries in Africa, Asia,Latin America, and the South Pacific.

Ethnobotany is closely related to severalother subjects. One of these, Economic Botany(known as Plant Resources in China), has beenestablished longer. It concentrates on plant prod-ucts and their uses. The core components ofcourses in Economic Botany cover categories ofplant product, such as wood, resin and fragrances,with less attention given to the social and cultur-al dimensions of using and managing plantresources than is the case with Ethnobotany. Inpractice, there can be considerable overlap in thecontents of courses in the two subjects(McClatchey et al., 1999). Economic Botany issimilar to Wild Plant Utilisation, a full pro-gramme of which is taught at Northeast ChinaAgricultural University. Ethnoecology, a termintroduced in 1954 (Conklin, 1954) and moreconcerned with the ecological basis of humanrelations with the environment, is less focused onbotanical aspects of the environment thanEthnobotany or Ethnobiology. ConservationBiology is more strictly concerned with conser-vation than Ethnobotany. In practice, courses inthe subject often have inadequate coverage, notonly of plants, but also of the social, cultural, eco-nomic and communication aspects of conserva-tion (Brown, 2001; Kanowski, 2001; Liras,1994). These deficiencies are unfortunate, even ifthe prime interest of a conservation biologist is to

protect species of charismatic animals, becausethe retention of suitable habitat generally requiressupport from the local populace, and this supportis more likely to be forthcoming if conservation-ists pay attention to the needs of local people forplant resources, so important to their livelihoods(Cunningham, 1996b; Wild & Mutebi, 1996).Medical Botany, once a major part of the educa-tion of doctors in Europe, is still taught in somecountries, for instance to students of integratedmedicine in China, and in more than 30 universi-ties and colleges teaching Traditional ChineseMedicine in the same country.

Geographical coverage and themes The aim in this section is to give an indication ofcurrent activities in Ethnobotany, at least forparts of the world for which syntheses haveproved more ready to hand. We realise that thisis an unbalanced account and apologise for itsdeficiencies. One of our reasons for includingthis section is to demonstrate the magnitude ofvariations between countries. We consider thedevelopment of national capacity in AppliedEthnobotany as critical. Ethnobotany is a univer-sal subject in terms of its theory, but it will con-tribute little to the intellectual life of a country orto the resolution of practical problems, unless itbecomes well embedded within educational andtraining institutions, and in practice. This meansthe emergence of a critical mass of national eth-nobotanists who are knowledgeable, active andethical. Thus, the development of courses andprogrammes within countries is vital.

The number of published studies inEthnobotany varies considerably across LatinAmerica (Caballero, 1986; GELA, 2002). A sur-



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“Ethnobotanists must record notonly lists of plant uses but a

vision of life itself...”

Participants at a workshop on curriculum develop-ment in Applied Ethnobotany, 21-23 February 2002,

Dominican Republic.

8

Table 1. Rank order (1=highest) of number of studies on different themes in Ethnobotany in LatinAmerica (Martinez, 1994). N = study by nationals; F = study by non-nationals; All = all studies (by nationals, non-nationals, and nationality not recorded).

South America Central America Mexico Caribbean All Latin America

N F All N F All N F All N F All N F AllArchaeobotany 5 4 5 3 1 1 6 1 2 none none none 6 2 3Medicinal plants 2 1 1 1 2 3 2 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1Edible plants 3 3 3 2 5 5 3 5" 6 2" 4 3 3 5 4Cognitive studies 9 7 8 9 9 10 8 7 8 none 8 8 9 8 8Forest use 7" 6 6 7" 6 6 7 9 7 2" 2 2 7 6 7Agroforestry systems 7" 8 7 5 7 7 1 5" 3 none 6 6" 4 7 6

and homegardensDomestication and 1 2 2 4 3 2 4 4 5 2" 5 5 2 3 2

origin of agricultureHistorical studies 6 9 9 none 8 8" 9 8 9 6 7 6" 8 9 9Market studies 10 10 10 7" none 8" 10 10 10 none none none 10 10 10General 4 5 4 6 4 4 5 3 4 5 3 4 5 4 5

vey, published in 1994, of articles onEthnobotany which have appeared in internation-al journals revealed that 41% of all studies inLatin America have been in South America, 14%in Central America, 36% in Mexico and 9% in theCaribbean (∑ = 2768) (Martinez, 1994). Mexicois easily the country with the greatest level ofactivity (36% of the total), followed by Peru(11%), Colombia (9%) and Guatemala (5%).There have been very few studies in the threeGuyanas, Nicaragua, El Salvador or Uruguay.Mexico witnessed a major expansion in researchin the 1970s and 1980s (Toledo, 1995). Anotherindication of relative national strength ofEthnobotany in Latin America is the distributionof members of the Grupo EtnobotánicoLatinoamericano (GELA) (Table 2).

The survey of Miguel Angelo Martinezreferred to above allows a ranking of the numberof ethnobotanical studies in Latin America bytheme (Table 1). The rank-order is as follows (∑= 2768): (1) medicinal plants; (2) domesticationand origin of agriculture; (3) archaeobotany; (4)edible plants; (5) general ethnobotanical studies;(6) agroforestry and homegardens; (7) forest use;(8) cognitive studies; (9) historical studies; and(10) market surveys. There is little difference inthis rank-order between the major sub-regions(South America, Central America, Mexico, theCaribbean), except that ‘archaeobotany’ is top ofthe order in Central America but last (with nostudies) in the Caribbean, and that ‘forest use’ranks second in the Caribbean. Foreignresearchers were responsible for many of the ear-lier ethnobotanical studies carried out in LatinAmerica, these researchers having been mainlyfrom North America, the UK and France.Altogether, 52% of all studies recorded in thissurvey were carried out by non-nationals and38% by nationals, national identity not being

recorded in the other cases. Taking the analysisfurther and omitting the ‘unrecorded’ group, thenit is clear that nationals are responsible for amuch greater percentage of studies in SouthAmerica (48%) and Mexico (47%) than inCentral America (21%) or the Caribbean (22%).The only countries in Latin America in whichnationals have been responsible for the majorityof studies are those lying in or close to theSouthern Cone (Argentina 90%; Brazil 67%;Chile 78%; Paraguay 61%; Uruguay 100%) and,additionally, Cuba (68%), Haiti (52%) andGuadeloupe (88%) (a French territory).

Two recent surveys carried out on behalf ofthe People and Plants Initiative have revealedsomething of the status of Ethnobotany in sub-

Table 2. Distribution of mem-bers of GrupoEtnobotánico Latino-americano (GELA) invarious Latin Americancountries (2002).

Argentina 50Bolivia 7Brazil 70Chile 12Colombia 36Costa Rica 5Cuba 28Dominican Republic 4Ecuador 6El Salvador 2Honduras 6Mexico 208Nicaragua 3Panama 8Paraguay 2Peru 45Puerto Rico 1Uruguay 2




9

Saharan Africa. There is much variation in levelof activity between countries and types ofecosystem.

One of the surveys deals with Western andCentral Africa, in which the leading country inEthnobotany is Cameroon, followed by theDemocratic Republic of Congo and Nigeria(Dounias, Rodrigues & Petit, 2000). There havebeen very few studies in a number of countries,including Liberia, Mali and Mauritania. Abouthalf of all studies have been in the rainforest zoneand about a quarter each in the Sudanian andSahelian zones. Thirty per cent of studies con-cerned with the uses of plants have been on med-icinal plants and 26% on food plants.

The other survey covers Eastern andSouthern Africa (Höft & Höft, 1997). Nearly30% of studies have been carried out in savanna,followed in order of frequency by wetlands, mon-tane forest, woodland, lowland rainforest andthen a number of other vegetation types. Nearly50% of studies have been in protected areas, espe-cially Forest Reserves and National Parks.

In India, Ethnobotany emerged as a distinctdiscipline in the early 1970s, when much docu-mentation of the uses of plants by tribal groups inCentral India was undertaken under the leader-ship of Professor S K Jain, Director of theBotanical Survey of India. The work was laterextended elsewhere, for instance into the south ofthe country. A training course in Ethnobotanywas initiated in 1988. Respect for Ethnobotany,as a significant subject for development, grewfrom the mid-1990s, with greater emphasis onapplications to rural problems. Research inEthnobotany has contributed greatly towardsdeveloping approaches for the enhancement ofthe use of indigenous knowledge in rural devel-opment. Interest in Ethnobotany has also beengrowing rapidly elsewhere in the subcontinent.Ethnobotanical research started in Nepal in about1970 and has since become a popular subject ofresearch (Joshi, 2002). As in India, there hasbeen movement in other countries of the subcon-tinent during the 1990s, away from just docu-mentation of local uses of plants towards moreparticipatory approaches to the identification andsolving of problems of plant conservation andsustainable use.

A survey of publications on Ethnobotany inMalaysia has shown the rank order of popularityof themes as: medicinal plants (57% of publica-tions); general Ethnobotany (23%); edible plants(8%); culture, customs and beliefs (5%); indige-nous crafts (3%); home-gardens (2%); householditems and clothing (1%); and spices (1%) (Saleh,2000). There has been a big increase in the num-ber of theses in Ethnobotany produced in institu-tions of higher learning during the last 30 years,starting from only 4 in the 1970s, to 39 in the1980s and 76 in the 1990s. The concentration of

interest on medicinal plants is reflected in a biggrowth in the number of government research oruniversity institutions involved in research intonatural products. Eight of the 10 public universi-ties in Malaysia now have their own naturalproduct research laboratories. The main motivesbehind this development seem to be medical andcommercial, that is the identification of newbioactive chemicals, contained within Malaysianplants, of value for new medical products.Research in Ethnobotany has been unevenly dis-tributed by region and ethnic group, with moststudies being on the Malay and Chinese commu-nities in Peninsular Malaysia and few studies inSabah or Sarawak.

Ethnobotany became a recognised academicsubject in Thailand in 1990. Since then, 10 grad-uates have received MSc degrees from theDepartment of Biology, Chiang Mai University(Trisonthi & Trisonthi, 2002).

Modern Ethnobotany in China can be con-sidered to be rooted in research beginning in theearly 1960s on utilisation of wild plants and ontraditional medicine. These efforts, carried outthroughout the country, were designed for thedevelopment of botanically-related industries.The Barefoot Doctor Programme, starting in thelate 1960s and which aimed to bring more effec-tive medical services to the masses, was accom-panied by a national inventory of TraditionalChinese Medicine (TCM). Numerous handbookson many matters relating to TCM were produced,such as on the cultivation, harvesting, processingand uses of medicinal plants. It was not until1978, following the opening up of China to theoutside world, that Chinese scientists becameaware of the subject of Ethnobotany, as it haddeveloped elsewhere, and were able to read inter-national journals such as the Journal ofEconomic Botany. A Chinese term for the word‘Ethnobotany’ was first used in a publication in1982. Meanwhile, Pei Shengji, who later becomeDirector of Xishuangbanna Botanic Garden(1978), had been working on the documentationof the botanical cultures of the Dai, Hani, Jinuo,Yao and other minorities in XishuangbannaPrefecture, Yunnan Province. This is the mainsite of tropical forest in China. A seminal eventin the development and recognition ofEthnobotany as an applied science was theSecond National Symposium on Rubber andTropical Economic Crops, at which Pei Shengjimanaged to argue successfully against thewholesale replacement of tropical forest inXishuangbanna with rubber plantations. Hecould do so because be came well armed withevidence from research of the value of producefrom the rainforest to the people, both locally andpotentially to the nation, and also concerning thebeneficial influence of forest on surroundinghills for maintaining irrigation systems in the

plains. A further controversy, in the mid-1980s,this time over a government proposal to banshifting agriculture, helped create greater nation-al awareness of the values of traditional ecologi-cal knowledge and practices. A Department ofEthnobotany was established in 1987 within theKunming Institute of Botany of the ChineseAcademy of Sciences, perhaps the first such eth-nobotanical institution world-wide outside theUSA. A second institution dedicated toEthnobotany was started in China in 1996, atInner Mongolia Normal University. Today,Applied Ethnobotany is becoming widely recog-nised throughout China as an extremely usefulsubject for conservation and development.

Societies, networks and key eventsThe youthfulness of Ethnobotany is demonstrat-ed by the recent dates of founding of related soci-eties and networks, and of other events consid-ered to be seminal to its national developmentaccording to local perceptions:1959. Founding of the Society for Economic

Botany (SEB).1978. First Conference of the Society of

Ethnobiology. The society draws its mem-bership mainly from Canada and the USA.

1980. Founding of the Society ofEthnobotanists. The society has a base inIndia.

1981. Founding of China Association ofEthnomedicine and Folk Medicine.

1982. Founding of Traditional Medicine forthe Islands (TRAMIL). Originally restrict-ed to the Caribbean, TRAMIL expandedformally to include Central America in1993 (but with collaborative efforts since1984). TRAMIL supports the use of tradi-tional medicine, notably through its valida-tion through pharmacological and toxico-logical research.

1986. Founding of the Grupo EtnobotánicoLatinoamericano (GELA), affiliated to LaAsociación de Latinoamericana deBotánica.

1986. Onwards. Regular symposia onEthnobotany organised within the frame-work of the Latinamerican BotanicalCongress, held every 4 years.

1987. A symposium held by GELA is seen asthe start of nationally-based Ethnobotanyin Colombia (Martinez, 2002); GELA hasalso organised many other symposia.

1987. First National Training Workshop onEthnobotany in China.

1988. Founding of the International Society ofEthnobiology (ISE).

1990. Founding of the Society ofEthnopharmacology.

Early 1990s. Launch of the GEF/FAO/UNDPinitiative for institutional capacity-buildingfor biodiversity conservation in EastAfrica, seen as giving a boost toEthnobotany in the region (Kessy, 2002).

1992. Start of the People and Plants Initiativeof WWF, UNESCO and the Royal BotanicGardens, Kew. The aim of the initiative isto build capacity in Ethnobotany in devel-oping countries.

1992. First International EthnobotanyCongress, Cordoba, Spain.

1994. Foundation of the Asociación Mexicanade Etnobiología.

1994. Founding of The Natural ProductsResearch Network for Eastern and CentralAfrica (NAPRECA).

1995-1997. Training workshops inEthnobotany held in Bangladesh, China,India, Nepal and Pakistan under the HinduKush - Himalaya Ethnobotany Project ofthe International Centre for IntegratedMountain Development (ICIMOD) in asso-ciation with the People and PlantsInitiative. These were the first nationalworkshops in Ethnobotany held in severalof these countries.

1996. Founding of the Ethnobotanical Societyof Nepal (ESON).

1997. Founding of the African EthnobotanicalNetwork (AEN), affiliated to theAssociation pour l’Etude de la Flored’Afrique Tropicale (AETFAT).

1997. Second International EthnobotanyCongress, Mérida, Mexico.

1997. Founding of the Uganda Network ofEthnobotanists and Ethnoecologists(UGANEB).

2000. Founding of the Sociedad Colombianade Etnobiología.

2000. First National Workshop in Ethnobotanyin Cuba (2000) (Fernández, 2002).

2000. Founding of the Kenya EthnoecologicalSociety (KES).

2001. Third International EthnobotanyCongress, Italy.

2002. Founding of the Pakistan EthnobotanicalSociety (PES).

2002. Founding of the Tanzanian Society ofEthnoscience.


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11

Ethnobotany as a taught subject

For the purpose of discussion, a distinction ismade between a course and a programme. Acourse is taken to be a relatively brief period ofstudy, for example a one-week course for profes-sionals or a module within a programme (e.g. aunit of Ethnobotany within an undergraduateprogramme in Botany). A programme is longerin duration, being a subject of graduation or elsea tailored package of several courses designed togive an effective education in Ethnobotany with-in the context of a wider degree programme.

There is no doubt that the number of coursesin Ethnobotany is increasing. A survey of theteaching of Economic Botany in the USA, under-taken in 1963, found 110 universities offeringsingle courses in this subject, though only 5 atgraduate level (Bartoo, 1964). A growingdemand from students was reported. There wereno courses actually entitled Ethnobotany, whichat the time had yet to be regarded as a distinctacademic subject in its own right. There were nospecialised programmes in Economic Botany,but the author drew special attention to two uni-versities of special merit, Harvard - with pro-gressive teaching by Richard Schultes involvinglaboratory and fieldwork and access to goodresearch facilities - and Iowa State - whichoffered the most in-class lecture time. A subse-quent survey in 1996, not restricted to the USA,showed that, by then, Ethnobotany had oftenbecome recognised as a distinct subject(McClatchey et al., 1999). A major finding was agrowth in the number of programmes inEconomic Botany or Ethnobotany from 2 in 1963(Harvard and Iowa) to 30 in 1996. It was notedthat Ethnobotany, especially concentrating onmedicinal plants, was becoming fashionable. Itwas also found that there was a trend away fromteaching these subjects to just students ofBotany, with an increase in the number of stu-dents enrolled registered in non-botanical depart-ments or inter-disciplinary programmes.

The 1996 survey identified 135 institutionsworldwide offering courses in Economic Botanyor Ethnobotany (McClatchey et al., 1999). Thelargest number was in North America (70 cours-es; 23 programmes), the equivalent figures forother regions being South America (7; 5), Europe(6; 1), Asia (3; 0), Australia (1; 0) and Africa (0;0). A similar predominance of courses in theUSA was also a finding of a small internet surveyof Ethnobotany courses conducted in 2001 byFlorent Bernard and Mark Nesbitt of the RoyalBotanic Gardens, Kew, and one of the presentauthors, Alan Hamilton: 19 out of the 35 coursesor programmes detected were in the USA.Neither of these surveys should be regarded asdefinitive, both likely underestimating the num-

ber of courses outside North America.Nevertheless, it is probably true that there aremany more courses in the USA than in any othercountry, a reflection of the large number of uni-versities and students, and the popularity ofinterdisciplinary subjects. Judging by a remarkthat many of the courses are ‘shallow’(McClatchey et al., 1999) and by descriptions ofthe courses on their websites, it is evident thatmany courses in Economic Botany andEthnobotany in the USA are intellectually unde-manding, being aimed at general ‘liberal arts’students. The first programme devoted toEthnobotany in the UK was launched in 1998. Itis a 1-year MSc programme taught collaborative-ly by the Department of Anthropology of theUniversity of Kent at Canterbury, the DurrellInstitute of Conservation and Ecology and theRoyal Botanic Gardens, Kew (Ellen, 2002).

A survey of 1995 confirmed the leadingposition of Mexico within Latin America as acentre for the teaching of Ethnobotany, notingthe contributions of the Universidad deChapingo and the Centro de InvestigaciónCientifica de Yucatán, the latter linked toresearchers from the Universidad NacionalAutónoma de México (UNAM) (Lagos-Witte etal., 1995). The same survey identified two uni-versities in Central America providing signifi-cant courses on useful plants, namely theUniversidad Nacional Autónoma de Nicaragua-Léon (UNAN) and the Universidad de Panamá.Federal universities in Brazil teachingEthnobotany are shown on Table 3.

A survey published in 1997 confirmed thatthere were very few ethnobotanical courses inAfrica, even though it was estimated that about1500 students were currently learning somethingabout the subject (Höft & Höft, 1997). Therewere no courses at that time in East Africa,where, more recently, there have been some sig-nificant developments (Kessy, 2002). The mostadventurous efforts have been in Uganda, wherethe Department of Botany, Makerere University,has initiated a full three-year undergraduate pro-gramme in Ethnobotany. This is possibly the firstsuch programme in the world. Unfortunately, theprogramme at Makerere is only open to privatestudents, the level of fees being such as to likelydeter many potential students from applying. TheDepartment of Botany at Makerere is also con-sidering starting an MSc programme inEthnobotany. The Faculty of Forestry and NatureConservation at Makerere includes a course inEthnobotany in its BSc (Forestry) programmeand it is likely that Ethnobotany will also beincluded in two MSc programmes being devel-oped, one in Agroforestry and the other in RuralResources and Development (a joint programmewith the Faculty of Agriculture). The Department

of Botany, Kenyatta University, plans to start anMSc programme in Ethnobotany in the nearfuture, while the Department of Botany, NairobiUniversity, is considering starting an undergrad-uate course in the subject. Both of these depart-ments in Kenya currently teach elements ofEthnobotany in other programmes, as is also thecase with the Department of Botany of theUniversity of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania and theDepartment of Crop Science and the Faculty ofForestry at Sokoine University of Agriculture inthe same country. There is no full course inEthnobotany in Tanzania.

Ethnobotany has been introduced widelyinto undergraduate and postgraduate curricula inBotany in universities and colleges in India, butso far we know of no specific programme lead-ing to the award of a degree or diploma specifi-cally in the subject. Recently, the University ofTribhuvan in Nepal has created an electivecourse in Ethnobotany, and many students in thecountry have opted to do research for their dis-sertations on the subject (Joshi, 2002). In the caseof Pakistan, there were no courses inEthnobotany in 1996, but, by 2002, ethnobotanycourses had been introduced at AJK University,

Balochistan University, Fatima Jinnah Women’sUniversity (Rawalpindi), Islamia College(Peshawar), Malakand University, NWFPAgricultural University (‘Applied Ethnobotany’and ‘Advances in Ethnobotany’) and at theUniversity of Peshawar. There are no ethno-botanical courses within programmes of forestryin Pakistan, although components of the subjectare covered as parts of ‘Plant Taxonomy’ andmodules on forest utilisation (Khurshid &Mahboob, 2002).

In Thailand, the first programme at PhDlevel incorporating Ethnobotany as a major ele-ment was established at Chiang Mai Universityin 1999 (Trisonthi & Trisonthi, 2002). It is enti-tled ‘Biodiversity and Ethnobiology’.

Ethnobotany, as a taught subject for gradu-ates, was first established in China in 1987, in theDepartment of Ethnobotany of the KunmingInstitute of Botany, Chinese Academy ofSciences. About 25 students have studied or arecurrently studying for MSc or PhD degrees.More recently, a number of other institutionshave started to teach the subject, including theSouthwest Forestry College (where a course inEthnobotany became incorporated into the Social


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Table 3. Representation of Ethnobotany in federal universities in Brazil (Stern daFonseca, 2002).

Region of Brazil Number of No. of federal universities Departments in Components in Courses in whichfederal with courses which courses other courses Ethnobotany

universities in in Ethnobotany forms a componentEthnobotany are taught

North 6 0 2 AgricultureBiology

North-east 10 4 Botany 5 Aquatic ScienceHealth Biology

Pharmacology PharmacyEcosystem Sustainability

Central-west 4 0 2 BiologyConservation of Biological

DiversityHealth and Environmental

Science

South-east 13 3 Botany (x2) AgricultureHorticulture 6 Biology

Botany (Ecology)Pharmacy

South 6 1 Botany 2 BiologyBotany

Pharmacy

Total 39 8 17



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Table 4. Courses in Ethnobotany and related subjects in universities in Malaysia (Saleh, 2000).

University Faculty, school, Title of course Student enrolmentdepartment or programme

Universiti Kebangsaan School of Environmental Ethnobotany Elective course for non-science studentsMalaysia, Bangi and Natural Resources Sciences plants, people and life

Universiti Malaya, Institute of Biological Science Ethnobotany Compulsory for Biomedical Technology studentsKuala Lumpur Taxonomy and medicinal plants Compulsory for Biomedical Technology students

Formulation and herbal Compulsory for Biomedical Technology studentsmedicine preparationAlternative medicine Compulsory for Biomedical Technology students

Universiti Sains School of Pharmaceutical Science Traditional medicine and pharmacognosy Elective courseMalaysia, Penang

Universiti Putra Faculty of Forestry Non-wood forest productsMalaysia, Serdang Agroforestry

Universiti Malaysia Sarawak, Plant Resources Ethnobotany Compulsory for second year studentsKota Samarahan Science and Technology Natural product chemistry

Resource Chemistry Programme

Forestry Programme in 1992), the NationalUniversity of Pharmacy, Inner MongoliaNormal University (where the teaching ofEthnobotany to graduates in the Mongolianlanguage commenced in 1998) and many med-ical colleges and universities. Each universityor college initially designed its own course, butthere is now movement towards adoption of acommon curriculum following a workshopheld under the auspices of the present projectin August 2001 (Pei Shengji, 2002b).

Ethnobotany is not a major taught subjectin universities in Malaysia, but is increasing inimportance (Table 4) (Saleh, 2000).Ethnobotany is not offered as a specific subjectin the major forestry schools in Malaysia(Saleh, 2000).

How Ethnobotany can be strengthenedEthnobotany urgently needs development as ataught subject and professional discipline.Lists of perceived weaknesses can make daunt-ing reading (Box 1). It has been suggested thatall of these are due to its youthfulness(McClatchey et al., 1999). Part of the problemis not so much to due to weaknesses inEthnobotany per ipse, but rather to the frequentfailure of ecologists, geneticists and other spe-cialists to acknowledge the contributions thatEthnobotany has made to their subjects.

The perception that Ethnobotany is not a‘hard core science’ is a reflection, in part, of

methodological weaknesses in conservationmore widely. Much conservation, as practisedon the ground, is based on personal experienceor intuition, rather than with its directions andactivities being firmly supported by evidence.There is often little monitoring of success, orevaluation of effectiveness. Results are rarelywidely disseminated. There is a need to findmore effective ways of operating (Pullin &Knight, 2001; Stevens & Milne, 1997). A com-parison has been made with medicine, a disci-pline similar to conservation in that action isoften required urgently in the absence of pre-cise information (Pullin & Knight, 2001). Thepractice of medicine is said to have undergonean ‘effectiveness revolution’ in some countriesin recent years through improvements in thecriteria upon which strategies in public health,or for the treatment of individual patients, arebased. The People and Plants Initiative is cur-rently exploring ways to establish a networkcharged with identifying and disseminatingmore effective practices in AppliedEthnobotany.

Specific ways of improving standards,suggested by ourselves or others, include:• Exchanges of case-studies, analyses and

ideas between ethnobotanists.The results of a questionnaire survey with

300 respondents sent out on behalf of theAfrican Ethnobotanical Network gave thethree principal reasons for improved network-ing as: (1) provide information on research; (2)exchange ethnobotanical methods; and (3)

enable contacts with colleagues (Höft & Höft,1997).• Support and develop an ecosystem-based

approach to conservation and sustainabledevelopment, as a basic orientation for thedevelopment of Applied Ethnobotany (seebelow and Figure 1).

• Promote standardisation in the levels ofrigour expected of courses and programmesin Applied Ethnobotany, within countriesand internationally (Kessy, 2002). Achievement of a measure of standardisation

will give potential employers better ideas of whatto expect of graduates and should enhance themobility of graduates in the job market.• Raise awareness of the value of Applied

Ethnobotany within universities and educa-tional ministries, and among potential stu-dents and employers.Awareness-raising among potential students

and employers needs to proceed simultaneously.There is considerable concern among students inEthnobotany in East Africa about their prospectsof employment (Kessy, 2002). • Promote greater rigour in research in

Ethnobotany, including through the formalstating and testing of hypotheses on peo-ple/plant relations (Cunningham, 1997).

• Strengthen an existing trend towardsgreater quantification (Cunningham, 1997;Martinez, 1994).

A survey of ethnobotanists active in Africarevealed that only 15% appeared to use statisticsin their teaching (Höft & Höft, 1997).• Increase ‘hardcore scientific elements’

such as Phytochemistry (Kessy, 2002).This might increase the acceptability of

Ethnobotany as a ‘real science’ in some universi-ties, making it easier for courses and pro-grammes to be approved (Kessy, 2002).

The People and Plants Initiative is promotingApplied Ethnobotany as a distinct form ofEthnobotany because we believe thatEthnobotany has a major role to play in conser-vation and sustainable development. Our concernis especially with developing countries, whereplants growing locally are so important in ruraleconomies and cultures, where there are oftenconcentrations of biodiversity, and where the fewresources available for higher education need tobe carefully targeted. We are not against ‘pureresearch’, as such, or work on more esotericaspects of Ethnobotany, but warn of the dangerof universities becoming ‘ivory towers’ and mere‘talking shops’ of little relevance to the lives ofpeople outside their gates.

In advocating Applied Ethnobotany and anecosystem-based approach to conservation andsustainable development, we point out that peo-ple/plant relations are so central to human liveli-hoods that courses or programmes inEthnobotany could potentially cover a vast rangeof topics. Unless there is focus, almost anythingcould be taught - hence, we suspect, the lowopinion in which the subject is held in somequarters. The paradigm question has been allud-ed to by Victor Toledo, asking whetherEthnobotany is an isolated discipline, closedwithin itself, or rather part of a new interdiscipli-nary trend loosely tied to the problems of pro-duction and politics (Toledo, 1995). He writes:“This trend makes mere academic contributions(ie, knowledge for knowledge itself) or basic sci-ence cease to be the main objective(s) ofresearch; instead they become intermediate prod-ucts along the way to goals of applied character.”Toledo sees a connection with the appearance ofa new type of ethnobotanist in Mexico, one thatis less specialised, less politically naïve and moreconscious of his or her social role: “Two factorshave played a critical role in this metamorphosis:the participation of these new ethnobotanists inmultidisciplinary research groups, and theirrecognition that the Indian groups with whichthey work are the most exploited and marginalsector of Mexican society.”

Figure 1 is a model of an ecosystem-basedapproach to conservation and sustainable devel-opment. The centre of attention is the localecosystem of people and nature, the local level


14

Box 1. Some perceived weaknesses ofEthnobotany.

1. In general (mainly after McClatchey et al. 1999):• A ‘soft’ subject, not a ‘hardcore science’.• Shallowness or poor orientation of courses.• Lack of respect for the discipline; not appreciated by other professional people or gov-

ernment officials.• Lack of research funding.• Lack of good mentors.• Lack of jobs.• Poorly developed methodologies.• Lack of national critical masses of ethnobotanists.• Few networks, including working relationships, in developing countries.

2. In Latin America, in particular (GELA, 2002):• Lack of support for research on society/environment relationships, which are not seen

as important.• Little motivation for inter-disciplinary approaches in academia or professional fields.• Difficulties of determining priorities.• No consensus on methods.• Few in-depth courses.• Lack of formation of human resources.• Low local academic levels of some contributing disciplines.• Inadequate dissemination of results.



15

NOW THE FUTURE

Global Ecosystem

Regional Ecosystem

National Ecosystem

LocalEcosystem(people and

nature)

Exchanges of energy, materials and information

Shorter-term aimSustainable use of natural resources, withrestoration (if necessary) and with a fair distribu-tion of the benefits and costs.

Longer-term aimMaintain and restore (if necessary and possible)the fundamental biological wealth of the planet,with a fair distribution of the benefits and costs.

being selected because it is here that people areactive and at which practical on-the-groundmanagement is achieved. The potential implica-tions of local actions on wider ecosystems aredemonstrated, as well as the effects of externalinfluences on the local. Since biological diversi-ty has a geographical dimension, and since sus-tainable development must be based on respons-es appropriate to local environments, it is clearthat both conservation and sustainable use aredependent on the existence of an appropriatelymatching cultural diversity.

Embarking on ethnobotanical research canbe daunting because of the complexity ofecosystems and the vast number of ethnobotani-cal questions that could be asked. Janice Alcornhas suggested that one of the best ways of enter-ing the ‘ethnobotanical matrix’ is to focus onplants used by local people, asking: “What goodis this plant?” (Alcorn, 1995). After learningabout which plants are resources, the researchercan begin to ask more complex questions. Figure2 is a diagram showing how some such questionsconnect with some of the many disciplines thatcan contribute to Applied Ethnobotany.

Figure 1. Model of an ecosystem-based approach to conservation and sustainable development,incorporating an ethical dimension.

Dr Joseph Obua inspecting a fuelwood-efficient stove during a village visitafter the workshop on curriculum development in Pakistan, May 2002.

Who looks after it ?

Does it harmother species ?

Is there enoughof it ?

Where does itgrow ?

How does itlive ?

What areits parts ?

What is itcalled ?

Does it protector heal ?

Is it eaten ?

What can bemade from it ?

Is it sold ? Is it good foranimals ?

Is it revered ?

What is itsstory ?

Who benefitsfrom it ?

How is itlooked after ?

RESOURCEMANAGEMENT

FOOD ANDNUTRITION

HEALTH

MEDICINE

RELIGION

HISTORY

POLITICS

MYTHOLOGY

INDUSTRY ANDTECHNOLOGY

WEEDSCIENCE

GEOGRAPHY

ECOLOGY

BOTANY

LINGUISTICSAND

TAXONOMY

ZOOLOGY ANDVETERINARY

MEDICINE

ECONOMICSAND

BUSINESS STUDIES

CONSERVATION

What good is this plant ?

Figure 2. Some key questions and disciplines relevant to Applied Ethnobotany. A simple question provides a practicalway to enter the ‘ethnobotanical matrix’. Developed from an idea of Janice Alcorn (Alcorn, 1995).


16

Participants at the International Work-shop on curriculum development inApplied Ethnobotany, Nathiagali,Pakistan, 3-4 May 2002.



17

Professions to which AppliedEthnobotany can contributeThe real-life interactions of people with plantsoften do not conform neatly to the ways that aca-demic disciplines and related professional fieldsare organised. The reality of rural socio-ecologyin developing countries is that agricultural sys-tems are not strictly dissociated from forestrysystems, nor are concerns about health divorcedfrom wider social and environmental affairs. Aprofessional understanding of the constraintsgoverning access and use of plant resourcesrequires a knowledge of Sociology,Anthropology and Economics as much as Botanyand Ecology. People living in rural communitiesin developing countries may obtain food, shelter,medicine, fuel, fodder and other resources fromplants that are ‘wild’ as well as from those thatare cultivated, straddling the domains of theforester and the agriculturalist. There is often lessdistinction between food and medicine than isnormal in the West. Individual wellbeing is feltto be closely connected to the social and spiritu-al worlds, requiring appreciation by researchersof local worldviews and religious beliefs, as wellas of more material factors. The training of eth-nobotanists must obviously extend across theboundaries of disciplines, as traditionallydefined.

Fields of knowledge in academia have tend-ed to become increasingly specialised over recentyears. This is a reflection, in part, of the hugequantities of information on a vast diversity ofspecific topics that exist today and a growingspecialisation of occupations, especially withinindustrial societies. Disciplines and related pro-fessions concerned substantially with plants haveshared in the information explosion, sometimeswith dramatic consequences. On the one hand,scientific knowledge about plants has con-tributed to the introduction of high-yielding vari-eties of crops and thus to the explosion in the sizeof the human population. However, on the otherhand, benefits from science have accrued dispro-portionately to people living in richer, industri-alised and largely urban countries, or to more

privileged people in the developing world(Toledo, 1995). Scientists have paid compara-tively little attention to the problems of conser-vation and development faced by the majority ofhumankind, especially the many poor peoplewho live in developing countries.

The search for answers to many of the prob-lems of conservation and sustainable develop-ment associated with rural people in developingcountries requires a more holistic and participa-tory approach to research than has conventional-ly been the case. Research approaches need tocorrespond more closely to the multi-dimension-al realities of people’s lives. Fundamentalrequirements are acknowledgement of theknowledge and wisdom of local people and theirclose engagement in the identification of prob-lems and potential solutions. AppliedEthnobotany, an interdisciplinary subject, is wellplaced to surmount the divisions imposed by thenarrowness of many modern academic fields andprofessions concerned with human livelihoodsand the environment. We encourage those peoplewho wish to develop courses in AppliedEthnobotany to study the origins and determinethe biases of botanically-related academic disci-plines and professions in their countries (Table5). There is little doubt that these disciplines andprofessions in developing countries have beenstrongly influenced in their histories by culturaland economic forces emanating substantiallyfrom elsewhere. Centres of economic strengthand scientific endeavour, notably in Europe andNorth America, have contributed disproportion-ately to the shaping of modern academia and theprofessions all over the world.

The histories of Botany, Forestry,Agriculture and Medicine are briefly reviewedbelow to show something of how these subjectshave evolved. The intention is to provide a roughglobal picture to help those interested in devel-oping teaching in Applied Ethnobotany. Aspiringteachers are encouraged to carry out investiga-tions of the histories of these and other plant-related subjects in their own countries. Theyshould analyse their appropriateness, as current-ly taught and practised, to meet the challenges ofconservation and sustainable development.

Relevance of Applied Ethnobotany toBotany, Forestry, Agriculture and

Medicine


18

Botany: past and futureScientific Botany, as it emerged in Europe duringthe Renaissance, was closely tied to medicineand pharmacy (Heywood, 1991). Written recordsof the uses of plants, especially as medicines,date much further back in China, AncientGreece, India and, comparatively recently, themedieval Arab world (Dash, 1995; Eldin &Dunford, 1999; Hernández Bermejo & GarcíaSánchez, 1998). The Condition of the Flora ofthe Southern Region written by Ji-Han in the 3rdcentury AD covers South China and part of Indo-China, with accounts of about 80 species ofplants providing edible fruits, nuts and otherproducts. The first botanic gardens in the westerntradition were physic gardens attached to schoolsof medicine. They were created for the use of stu-dents and for the production of medicines.Examples include the 16th century botanic gar-dens of Pisa, Padova and Florence in Italy. Evenin the 18th and early 19th centuries, most botan-ical instruction in universities in the USA was tomedical students (Rudolph, 1996). The teachingof Botany in China, as a formal subject, began inthe early part of the 20th century and only duringthe last 50 or so years in much of Africa.

The Age of Discovery and the spread of theEuropean empires were accompanied by a newinterest in collecting and cataloguing all types ofplants (Ng, 2000). Knowledge of the naturalworld was seen in a general philosophical way asa key ingredient in the acceleration of human‘progress’ (James, 1998). More immediately,there was intense interest in finding plants ofeconomic worth for national or personal enrich-ment. Many botanical gardens and arboreta in thetropics, such as Pamplemousses on Mauritius(founded 1736) and Peradeniya in Sri Lanka(1821), originated as testing grounds for crops oras holding grounds for plants in transit. Majorbotanical gardens in the colonial homelands,such as the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (found-ed privately in 1759, becoming a state propertyin 1840), formed the hubs of international net-works of collection and testing.

Many specialist branches of Botany haveemerged over the last 200 years, includingAnatomy, Cytology, Ecology, Genetics,Molecular Biology and Physiology. Ecology, thescience concerned with the study of living beings‘at home’, emerged as a distinct discipline in thelate 19th century, founded on older traditions ofnatural history. The need to take account of themajor roles of people in shaping the structure,floristic composition and dynamics of vegetationin Europe became rapidly apparent, but theequivalent massive influence of people on tropi-cal vegetation, including tropical forest, has beenrecognised only more recently. Ecologists work-ing in the tropics have tended to concentrate theirresearch on types of vegetation thought to be

more natural. Ethnobotany has been instrumentalin showing that agricultural and ‘wilder’ types ofvegetation are often thoroughly interlinkedthrough economic and cultural ties (Prance,1995).

A major trend in Biology, including Botany,over the last decades has been a significantexpansion in some countries in the teaching ofMicrobiology, Molecular Biology, Genetics, andrelated subjects. The loser has been ‘BasicBotany’, more or less synonymous with ‘wholeplant Botany’ (as it has been called). BasicBotany, covering fields such as Anatomy,Ecology, Morphology, Systematics andTaxonomy, has been in serious decline in theUSA (Botanical Society of America, 1995).Systematic Botany has virtually disappeared as ataught subject in British Universities and manystudents are no longer taught to identify plants(Smith, 2002a). The same is reported from theNetherlands and Spain (Groen & Valdes, 2002).One consequence is that Departments of Botanyhave often been merged with Departments ofZoology into Departments of Biology, withinwhich ‘whole plant Botany’ has tended to receiveeven less attention than ‘whole animal Zoology’(Botanical Society of America, 1995; Rudolph,1996). The result is graduates in Botany orBiology who have little ability to work profes-sionally with ‘real plants’. “The production ofbotanists who can’t tell a composite from anorchid or leaf anatomy from stem anatomy isunconscionable. And common. … Regardless ofspeciality, botanists should have a broad back-ground in all major phases of botany” (BotanicalSociety of America, 1995).

It is reported from the UK that the decline in‘whole plant Botany’ at universities is furtherreflected in schools (Hershey, 1993; Lock, 1994;Reiss, 1994; Smith, 2002b; Uno & Bybee, 1994).Also in the UK, there has been a reduction in thepopularity of Biology, both in schools and uni-versities (Lock, 1994; Lock, 1996). A conse-quence is that the requirements for entry todepartments of Biology in universities have beenlowered. Lock believes that the decline in the UKis not related to job prospects, of which fewpupils are said to have any idea. He suspects thatit is rather more to do with the image and natureof the subject. ‘A level’ Biology (taught at seniorsecondary level) has apparently come to be seenas boring. He believes that GCSE syllabuses(taught at junior secondary level) no longer placestress on those things that make living thingsintrinsically interesting - their forms, anatomy,variety, location, behaviour and ecology.Biology has become too similar to Chemistry orto exercises in processing data. Two commentsmade by experienced educators at a meeting ofthe Linnean Society in April 2002 help to explainwhy many students are losing interest in field

19

Table 5. Analytical framework to assist in the design of coursesand programmes in Applied Ethnobotany. Consultationwith academics and professionals engaged in the vari-ous fields will be useful for completing the table. Wesuggest that the acquisition of information to completethe table can usefully constitute a class exercise for moreadvanced students of Applied Ethnobotany.

Profession History of Potential relevance Implicationsthe discipline to conservation for the teachingin the country and development of Applied

Ethnobotany

BotanyForestry AgricultureHorticultureMedicinePharmacologyConservation(Others)

Botany: “I’ve watched generations of pupilsbeing completely turned off Biology by thenational curriculum”; “Botany is not ‘cool’ - ittakes too many years to master”.

The teaching of Botany, whether at school oruniversity, does not have to be boring or seemirrelevant. Gabriell Paye has developed anapproach to teaching Botany in high schools inBoston, USA, starting from a reference that stu-dents can relate to - useful plants in their owncultures (Paye, 2000). Activities include ethno-botanical interviews (learning about plants fromfamily, friends and neighbours), learning how tocollect and identify plants, and studies of plantsas sources of food and medicine, including sim-ple tests of the ingredients and physiologicalactivities of bought products. She reports that,when she taught Botany using a traditional text-book approach, the interest and informationretention levels among students were muchlower. “In contrast, by entering the world of sci-ence through a personal experience of ethno-botany, students gain a real sense of how impor-tant plants are in their lives. I find that when theyare fuelled by this enthusiasm, they are morewilling to then delve into other aspects ofbotany.”

We have seen no analysis of trends in theteaching of Botany in developing countries, but,from our experience, there has sometimes notbeen the drastic decline in ‘whole plant Botany’evident in the developed world. Basic Botany isstill a major component of programmes inBotany in China, Nepal, Pakistan and Uganda.However, there has been a recent decline in thenumber of students taking science at A-level inUganda, probably reflecting a perception amongstudents of a lack of opportunities for employ-

ment and the absence of science teaching in vir-tually all private schools (the number of whichhas grown greatly during recent years)(Mucunguzi, 2002). The reduction in Biology inschools in Uganda means that it has becomeharder to find eligible candidates for pro-grammes in Botany or Ethnobotany.

The relative resilience of Basic Botany, in atleast some developing countries, certainly hasadvantages for Applied Ethnobotany. However,developing countries have their own, often

severe, educational constraints. Not least of theseare shortages of finance and, sometimes, of high-ly trained staff. National policies in poor coun-tries often favour an emphasis on mass educa-tion, especially as delivered through primaryschools, squeezing resources for universitieseven further than would otherwise be the case.There are no government grants available forpostgraduate training in Uganda. There has beena recent major expansion of private schools inmany developing countries catering for the inad-equacy of state-supported systems. Many ofthese do not teach science, mainly because of theexpense involved in setting up and running labo-ratories. There is a serious problem of graduateunemployment in many developing countries

“... by entering the world of sciencethrough a personal experience ofethnobotany, students gain a real

sense of how important plants arein their lives.”



20

and better students tend to opt for subjects suchas Medicine, in which there is a perceived greaterchance of employment. Botany is often the loser.

Given the central importance of plants todevelopment and conservation in developingcountries, it is evident that there should be aplace for Botany as a major taught subject.However, many Botany programmes need tochange to make them more relevant. In the words

of Dr Patrick Mucunguzi of the BotanyDepartment, Makerere University, Uganda:“Botany needs to be taken to the community”.Although Microbiology and related fields arefashionable in well-resourced countries, it is dif-ficult for researchers in developing countries tomake major contributions in these fields.Equipment is often obsolete or not functioning,and sometimes supplies of water and electricityin laboratories are intermittent. However,Applied Ethnobotany is relatively cheap, andthere are many opportunities for practical work.The task today is to develop AppliedEthnobotany to a more advanced state and to per-

suade officials in universities and governmentsthat the subject is worthwhile. This is bestachieved through examples of its successfulapplication.

Forestry: past and futureModern Forestry originated in Germany wherethe first forestry school was established in 1789.This tradition of forest management developedand spread around the world. Becoming knownas Scientific Forestry, it became the predominantinfluence in forestry education and practice inmany countries for 200 years (Nelson, 1999;Tsouvalis, 2000). The primary aim of ScientificForestry is to maximise the yield of money froma forest, especially through the production oftimber (Burley, 2001). ‘Scientific foresters’ aretrained to select species or provenances of timbertrees of economic worth and to manage them sys-tematically. They learn how trees should beplanted or encouraged to regenerate, how theirgrowth can be promoted, and their optimal timesof felling.

Scientific Forestry was introduced into Indiain 1864 with the appointment of the firstInspector General of Forests, from Germany(Ray, 1994) and thereafter spread to other colo-nial territories. It was introduced into Uganda in1929 following an advisory visit by a forestryofficial from India (Hamilton, 1984). In Britain,forestry received little systematic attention from

the government until after the First World War,an event instrumental in raising awareness of theneed for a home-grown ‘strategic reserve’ of tim-ber. The Forestry Commission was founded in1919 and has since become a major landowner.Conifers, such as sitka spruce Picea sitchensis,were favoured for planting, given their highpotential rates of growth and their ecologicalsuitability for planting on the poorer quality ofland which tended to become available.Although British forestry policy in the tropicswas normally centrally concerned with timber,this was not entirely to the exclusion of otherconsiderations. Forest Reserves were established


Rootbark of Strychnos spinosa.

Wood (tangential) of Tabernaemontanapachysiphon (not used for timber).



21

in upland areas to protect water catchments andthe needs of villagers were recognised by allow-ing them to collect ‘minor forest products’, fortheir own use, free-of-charge or with payment ofsmall fees.

The roles of forests and foresters have beenradically re-thought in many countries during thelast 20 years (Brown, 2001; Burley, 2001; Obua,2002b; Ray, 1994; Tsouvalis, 2000). Forestshave increasingly come to be seen as servingmultiple functions. There have been upsurges ofinterest in social, community and participatoryforestry, in non-timber forest products (NTFPs)and, generally, in trying to find ways to engageall stakeholders, especially local communities, inforest management (Aumeeruddy-Thomas et al.,1999; Burley, 2001). The history of graduate-level forestry education in Uganda provides anexample (Obua, 2002a). A Forestry programmewas started at Makerere University in 1970, ini-tially taking students from the whole of EastAfrica. The curriculum concentrated onScientific Forestry for the next 20 years and itwas only in 1990 that a ‘people element’ startedto be seriously introduced. In Pakistan, theimportance of medicinal plants has becomerecognised by the Pakistan Forest Institute, withthe Biological Sciences Research Divisionbecoming engaged in a variety of research andpromotional activities, including surveys of useand trade, and cultivation trials.

Several factors have been responsible forthese developments. In some cases, there can bea questioning of the authority of ForestDepartments, especially when they have come toexercise control over very extensive territories(Nelson, 1999). Ninety-three per cent of the for-est area of India is under government control(Ray, 1994). The political legitimacy of ForestDepartments can be diminished when forestersare suspected of benefiting personally from theirpositions of power, a major issue in some coun-tries. Another cause of change has been a grow-ing realisation that governments cannot controlthe often serious problems of forest loss anddegradation which are occurring in their coun-tries without the support of local people. There isalso a better general understanding of the valuesof forests, apart from as sources of timber, andnon-utilitarian values have become better appre-ciated by officials.

The older generation of foresters frequentlylabelled products from forests, other than timber,as ‘minor forest products’, a term which has con-tributed to a failure to recognise their signifi-cance to local people, or the impact of their col-lection on the forests. Even timber harvested bynon-mechanical means could be ignored. Anexample is provided by the history of forestry onthe East Usambaras, Tanzania, where there wasa major outcry in the 1980s about the impact of

mechanical logging, which was certainly highlydestructive (Hamilton & Bensted Smith, 1989).What did not become clear until surveys werewell advanced was that the volume of woodbeing harvested annually by mechanical means(about 10,000 m3 a-1) was equalled by that beingharvested by pit-sawing (about 10,000 m3 a-1)and much less than that being harvested for polesand fuelwood (about 80,000 m3 a-1) (FINNIDA,1988). The Usambara study did not providequantitative information of non-wood products,though these are certainly important to local peo-ple (Kessy, 1998). Research in the region ofUxpanapa, Mexico, revealed that 82% of prod-ucts obtained from the rainforest were non-woodrather than wood (Toledo, 1995).

There has, therefore, been a call for thetraining of foresters to be expanded beyond thetraditional emphases on forest protection andproduction of industrial timber (Sharma, 1994).A major purpose of a GEF/FAO/UNDP biodi-versity project, active in East Africa since theearly 1990s, has been to encourage greateraccount to be taken of community uses of plantresources in the education of foresters (Aloo &Rodgers, 1995; FAO, 1996; Hall, 1994; Rodgers,1995). Few working foresters, it has been said,have the skills needed for the tasks now in hand(Burley, 2001). A survey in the USA found thatemployers of forestry graduates have found itnecessary to retrain them to understand and prac-tice a style of forestry that is broader and moreintegrative than in the past (Sample et al., 1999).Among the new social skills required are theabilities to build teams and communicate effec-tively, and to negotiate with stakeholders in theidentification and solving of disputes (Box 2)(Harmon, McKinney & Burchfield, 1999;

Sample et al., 1999). With reference to EastAfrica, the following major thematic areas andcomponents are regarded as key areas in whichforestry students should be educated to be able towork more effectively with communities (Aloo& Rodgers, 1995; Hall, 1994).• Socio-economic issues: formal and infor-

mal village institutions; non-governmentalorganisations; stakeholder analysis; indige-nous knowledge and beliefs; methodolo-gies for acquisition of socio-economicdata, including through questionnaires.

• Non-timber forest products andEthnobotany: categories of non-timber for-

In Pakistan, the importance ofmedicinal plants has become recognised by the Pakistan Forest Institute

est products; traditional systems ofresource management and harvesting; fieldassessment of products used and who uses

them; estimates of theimpact of collectionon plant populations;market surveys; gain-

ing a landscape perspec-tive of change; method-

ologies for acquisition ofdata including time-lines,

inventories and other tech-niques.

• Collaborative forest man-agement: guidelines for facilitat-

ing joint forest management; deter-mination of the extent of forests and

recognition of sub-units; methodolo-gies, including forest walks for determin-

ing forest uses, users, managers and con-flicts; the ranking of uses and of damage toplants relating to particular uses; the deter-mination of who should be the managersand of management rules; preparation ofplans for collaborative forest managementand procedures for approval.

In addition to these new requirements, grad-uates in forestry should have a good grounding intraditional forestry science (Burley, 2001). Howthen can these multiple demands be accommo-dated within courses (Brown, 2001)? Rigorousforestry courses are expensive, with demands forspecialised staff and laboratory, as well as fieldtrips (Tombaugh, 1998). A response of someeducators has been to increase the length ofundergraduate courses in Forestry from three tofour years, as in Uganda (Obua, 2002a). Anotherresponse, at least in the USA, has been anincrease in the number of less specialised pro-grammes in natural resources and environmentalscience (Tombaugh, 1998). These are cheaperthan traditional forestry courses, but are said toproduce graduates who may have degrees inForestry, but lack the practical basic knowledgeand skills to manage forests on the ground.

Forestry, like Biology, is proving increasing-ly unattractive to students in some industrialisedcountries (Burley, 2001). There is a perceptionthat Forestry is more physical than intellectual,and more of a male than a female occupation: “InBritain and many other countries there is a com-mon perception that forestry comprises nastymen with nasty chain saws cutting nasty straightlines of nasty exotic species.” (Burley, 2001). Anequivalent decline is not reported from at leastsome developing countries, such as Pakistan andUganda, where degrees in Forestry are still seenas relatively likely to lead to jobs in the contextof generally high graduate unemployment(Mucunguzi, 2002; Obua, 2002a). The growth of

social and environmental forestry in Uganda hasattracted an increasing proportion of female stu-dents, many having previously been put off, it issaid, by an image of forestry as “difficult manu-al work in thick forest” (Obua, 2002a).

Forestry today needs to demonstrate itsappeal to values that have wide resonance insociety. It should generate intellectual excite-ment and attract bright people. The incorporationof Applied Ethnobotany into Forestry curriculaand its use as a tool by professional foresters willhelp move the discipline in the right direction.Work with communities to evolve improvedmethods of managing trees and other plants hasmany potential benefits for conservation and sus-tainable development.

Agriculture: past and futureAgriculture provides the great bulk of food sup-porting people on Earth. Despite a very high per-centage of terrestrial primary production beingdevoted to this cause, 700-800 million peoplestill lack adequate access to food. It is not hard topredict that demands for food will rise sharply,not least because the size of the human popula-tion itself is predicted to grow, from its present 6billion to 8.3 billion in 2025. There is consider-able disagreement about how best to meet thischallenge, a problem compounded by the likeli-hood of considerable environmental uncertainty,for example due to climatic change (Pretty,1998). The area under cultivation could expandby 20-40% by 2020 (Pretty, 1998).

There have been dramatic changes in agri-culture in many parts of the world over recentcenturies and decades. Some of these followed

Triticum monococcum

22 PEOPLE AND PLANTS WORKING PAPER 10, JULY 2002AN ECONOMIC EVALUATION OF MEDICINAL TREE CULTIVATIONA.B. CUNNINGHAM, E. AYUK, S. FRANZEL, B. DUGUMA & C. ASANGA

Eragrostis tef Box 2. Technical competencesrequired of forestrygraduates in the USA.They are in rank order,based on responsesfrom 257 potentialemployers (Sample etal., 1999).

1. Ethics.

2. Written communication.

3. Oral communication.

4. Silvicultural systems.

5. Managerial leadership.

6. Collaborative problem-solving.

7. Forest ecology.

8. Resource management planning.

9. Forest inventory and biometry.

10. Tree and other plant species identification.

23

the opening up of the world by European explo-ration and colonisation from about 1500, forexample, with maize and the potato being intro-duced into the Old World, and wheat and sugar-cane into the Americas. Science has become amajor force for change over the last 150 years,during which time advances in chemistry andbiology, including genetics and plant physiology,have led to significant developments in soil sci-ence, crop-breeding and pest-control. The last 50years, in particular, have seen a major intensifi-cation of agriculture in some regions, involvingthe introduction of high yielding varieties ofcrops, much use of agricultural machinery andmajor increases in inputs of water, chemical fer-tilisers, pesticides and fossil energy. Such agri-culture is referred to as ‘intensive’, though ironi-cally it is often called ‘conventional’ by agricul-turalists. (There is a parallel here to the abroga-tion of the term ‘conventional’ by WesternMedicine, relegating other, more ancient andoften more widely used, systems of medicine tothe semantically less worthy category of ‘alterna-tive’).

The practice of agriculture involves continu-ing learning by farmers (Figure 3). Individualresearch and suggestions from friends and neigh-bours must have always been normal parts offarming life. The first records of provision ofmore formal agricultural advice are associatedwith pre-industrial states, such as those ofMesopotamia (dating to c.1800 BC), AncientEgypt, Ancient Greece, the Roman Empire andImperial China (from 600 BC) (Jones &Garforth, 2002). The major motivation appears

to have been the desire by the state or of power-ful factions within it to enhance their interests, aparallel with the way that agricultural researchand education have developed in more moderntimes. Powerful forces driving agriculturalresearch and education over the last 150 yearshave included the desires to attain higher yieldsor financial profits from crops, these forcesthemselves being based on the aims of providinghigh or reliable incomes to farmers (e.g. in theEuropean Union), food security (again in the EU)or hard currency through the sale of exports(many tropical countries, some of which haveeconomies heavily reliant on one or a few ‘exportcrops’).

Agricultural education can be designed fordifferent ‘levels’ in agricultural systems. In prac-tice, as it has evolved over the last 150 years, a‘conventional’ model of agricultural develop-ment has emerged which sees science as thesource of innovation, technology as the applica-tion of science, and development as a result ofthe transfer of new technologies to the farmer(Röling & Wagemakers, 1998a). If there is aproblem, then science will find the answer. Threelevels of agricultural education have emergedfrom this thinking, namely those designedrespectively for the training of agricultural scien-tists, extension workers, and farmers. ‘Extensioneducation’, as a general educational concept,dates back to around 1850, when the universitiesof Oxford and Cambridge in England began toconsider how they could serve the educationalneeds, near to their homes, of the rapidly grow-ing populations in industrial urban areas (Jones

PEOPLE AND PLANTS WORKING PAPER 11, JANUARY 2003THE PURPOSES AND TEACHING OF APPLIED ETHNOBOTANY

A. HAMILTON, PEI SHENGJI, J. KESSY, A.A. KHAN, S. LAGOS-WITTE & Z.K. SHINWARI

Rice fields covered with plastic sheets, China.


24

& Garforth, 2002). From this beginning, exten-sion services have become a common feature ofmore wealthy societies, being developed not onlyfor agriculture but for many other aspects of life,such as the environment, care of old people, fam-ily planning and so on (Röling, 1988). ‘Extensionscience’, at least as an academic field, has tend-ed since the 1970s to move away from a conven-tional model of ‘how do we get them to do wantwe want’ towards a participatory approach. Inthe case of farming, this means that farmers aresupposed to be more involved in defining thetypes of research undertaken and the contents ofinformation packages provided to them (Röling,1988).

One of the foundations of modern develop-ments in agricultural research and education wasthe establishment by 1800 of agricultural soci-eties throughout much of Europe. Members ofthese societies, known as ‘improvers’, were gen-erally aristocrats, their agents, or ‘men of sci-ence’. They were motivated by the desire toimprove their wealth or to apply science to agri-culture (Jones & Garforth, 2002). Agriculturalscience evolved rapidly during the 19th century,with notable contributions by Justus von Liebigat Giessen in Germany and through the initiationin 1843 of agricultural experiments atRothamsted in England (Jones & Garforth,2002). The Royal Agricultural Society ofEngland was founded in 1838 with the aim ofpromulgating the results of scientific research(motto: Practice with Science). The agriculturalcolleges which then became established in

Europe served a small minority of younglandowners and farmers. The first agriculturalcollege in the English-speaking world was theRoyal Agricultural College, opening in Englandin 1845, many of its later students leaving withtheir diplomas to fill posts in the ColonialAgricultural Administrations (Royal AgriculturalCollege, ). The example of the RoyalAgricultural College was followed by the found-ing of similar institutions in Canada (GuelphUniversity, Ontario), New Zealand (LincolnUniversity, Christchurch), the USA (CornellUniversity), and Japan (Tokyo University).

Some of the earliest modern agriculturalextension services to reach to ‘lower’ levelswithin agricultural communities were started inIreland (from 1847), Württemberg in Germany(from about 1855), Denmark (1870) and GreatBritain (1890) (Jones, 1994; Jones & Garforth,2002). The first wholly state-funded agriculturalextension service was established in France in1879. Two significant developments in the USAwere the passage of the Morrill Act (1862), alsoknown as the Land Grant College Act, and theformation of Farmers’ Institutes. The latter,which were societies in which farmers organisedmeetings for their own edification, became pop-ular after 1860. The Morrill Act established insti-tutions in each state to educate people in practi-cal professions, including agriculture. By 1900, asystem of agricultural extension work hadbecome well-established across much of NorthAmerica (Jones & Garforth, 2002). Two agricul-tural colleges were opened in the mid-1870s in

Government policy(e.g. encouraging foodsecurity, production ofexport crops, a greener

environment, etc.)

Agriculturalbusiness(with their

research arms)

A FARM

Agriculturalscientists

(academic orpublicly funded)

Agricutural andrelated activities

Government agricuturalextension officer

Companyagents

Other farmsand farmers

Farmer’s decsionson agricutural andrelated acitivites

A FARMER’S KNOWLEDGEBased on upbringing, formal edu-

cation, personal observations,advice from other farmers andother people, reflection, etc.

Exchanges of information, seeds,

etc.

Figure 3. Simplified schemata of a farmer’s knowledge and its influences.



25

Japan, at first staffed by Western teachers; by1900, agricultural research and extension workwere well under way. A law was passed in Japanin 1910 requiring farmers to adopt the technicalguidance and recommendations of extensionworkers, an extreme case of the ‘compulsionschool’ of extension (Jones & Garforth, 2002).The first British colony to appoint a Director ofAgriculture was Zanzibar (1896). The ImperialDepartment of Agriculture for the West Indieswas created in 1898 and, from 1906, everyprovince in India was required to appoint aDirector of Agriculture to organise agriculturalresearch and demonstration farms (Jones &Garforth, 2002). Very little scientific research oreducation was carried out in Africa before 1914(Jones & Garforth, 2002).

Farmers vary in their openness to agricultur-al advice or new technologies. Some farmers whoare more ‘progressive’ tend to be those with moreeducation, exposure to the mass media and accessto resources (Röling, 1988). The greatest success-es with agricultural extension services have beenwhere conditions have been most favourable forindustrial agriculture - as has proved to be thecase over much of Western Europe and NorthAmerica, with their high levels of financialresources and often good quality soils, and in irri-gated areas of Asia (Castillo, 1998). The GreenRevolution, a term used for the major changes inAsia resulting from intensification of agriculture,helped turn India from being an importer of foodto self-sufficiency. The earlier years of extensionservices could be particularly productive, becausethen there could be special opportunities to applynew technologies starting from traditional bases.Greece is an example, with the first 15 years ofextension services after their introduction in 1950being especially fruitful (Koutsouris &Papadopouos, 1998).

Until recent decades, agricultural researchand extension have generally been regarded as

public goods and these services have been pro-vided by governments or charitable societiesfree-of-charge or for nominal payments. Otherkinds of organisation have since become increas-ingly engaged, notably agriculture-related com-mercial companies, agricultural commodity mar-keting boards (concerned to assure the supplyand quality of their products), agricultural devel-opment projects, and non-governmental organi-sations (Jones & Garforth, 2002). The privatesector has taken an increasing role in the breed-ing of new varieties of crops, the development ofagricultural chemicals, and in making of theseavailable to farmers. The private sector todayaccounts for 80% of the global market in thebreeding and distribution of seeds, though thepublic sector remains predominant in some coun-tries such as India and Japan (ten Kate & Laird,1999). Globally, the private sector has becomeincreasingly dominated by a few multinational

companies during the last decade. Governmentextension services have often been reduced, orpayments required for their services (particularlyin the North, as in the Netherlands) (Jones &Garforth, 2002; van Weperen, Proost & Röling,1998).

Large parts of the world have benefited little,or not at all, from modern developments in agri-cultural research, education and extension. Theseare especially those rain-fed agricultural areaswhich lie in countries with few financialresources, including almost the whole of Africa,large parts of Asia and Latin America, and sub-

Sustainable agriculture is based onrecognising and building on

locally-available resources and natural processes

Wheat fields in Ukambani, Kenya.


26

stantial parts of Europe. Indeed, some of theseplaces have suffered from deteriorating environ-ments, as periods of fallow in systems of shiftingagriculture have been reduced, more land hasbeen cleared of forest, soil erosion has increased,and soil fertility declined (Castillo, 1998).

Despite its successes, intensive agriculture isnot without its problems. Some of these aresocial. They include a massive erosion of localrural cultures, including knowledge of plants andtheir uses. Many millions of rural people havebeen displaced from their previous places ofabode through the consolidation of land-holdingsand the introduction of mechanisation. Oftenmoving to rural areas which are marginal foragriculture or to city slums, many of these peopleor their descendants now live precarious exis-tences on the edges of survival. Environmentally,there are many problems with intensive agricul-ture, such as worries concerning its massive useof water, energy and chemicals, and its sideeffects of loss of soil fertility and structure, soilerosion, damage to human health, and pollution.Since 1970, the worldwide rate of application ofnitrogen fertilisers has increased by seven timesand contributions from humans are now the sameas all natural inputs to the nitrogen cycle. Half totwo-thirds of nitrogen fertilisers now enter non-agricultural ecosystems with serious conse-quences for terrestrial, freshwater and marineecology (Tilman, 1998). The full financial costsof industrial agriculture are currently little met byfarmers or consumers, but rather passed on toothers, including future generations.Accordingly, farmers and the public are littleaware of the deleterious consequences of theirfarming practices or patterns of consumption.High-input farming is often favoured throughfinancial incentives, as in North America and theEuropean Union. Apart from causing local envi-ronmental degradation, this is an obstacle to agri-cultural development in developing countries,where progressive farmers are faced with hightariffs for their exports and may even be undercutin their home markets through the dumping of‘food aid’.

The concept of ‘sustainable agriculture’ istoday gaining ground. This refers to new approach-es to agricultural research, education and exten-sion. Sustainable agriculture is based on recognis-ing and building on locally-available resources andnatural processes, including encouraging nutrientrecycling and biodiversity, and limiting the use ofexternal inputs of agrochemicals and non-renew-able energy (Röling & Wagemakers, 1998b). Abasic principle is full participation of farmers andrural people in all processes of problem analysisand technology development, adaption and exten-sion (Pretty, 1998).

Ethnobotany can certainly make importantcontributions to the development of more sus-

tainable agriculture. This is most obviously so inthe case of low input agriculture, where the ‘con-ventional’ approach of ‘telling farmers what todo’ has not been very successful, and where thereis general recognition of the desirability of apply-ing participatory methodologies for the identifi-cation and solution of problems (Jones &Garforth, 2002). Systems of low input farminghave to be intimately adapted to the local envi-ronment; local knowledge is a crucial ingredientin formulating potentially successful pathways ofchange. The case for Ethnobotany in the devel-opment of intensive agriculture is perhaps lessobvious, given that industrial farming has result-ed in a major reduction in plant diversity (largeareas of uniform, virtually weed-free, crops) andthat most industrial farmers know relatively littleabout their local plant worlds, at least in compar-ison with their more traditional colleagues.Industrial farms are biologically much simplerthan traditional farms. Even so, there are consid-erable advantages to involving industrial farmersfundamentally with research. It has been found inthe Netherlands that many farmers currently fol-lowing industrial practices are coming to recog-nise the value of more sustainable agriculture(van Weperen et al., 1998). They wish to learnmore about the details of the natural world asthey seek to enhance and benefit from the bio-logical diversity on their farms.

In summary, knowledge of Ethnobotany canbe useful to agricultural scientists and extensionworkers for them to better:• Learn about the perceptions, values and

knowledge of farmers about their crops andother plants.

• Be able to co-experiment with farmers onnew practices, including crop breeding.

• Facilitate exchanges of informationbetween farmers.

Medicine: past and futureThis account draws extensively on The GreatestBenefit: a Medical History of Humanity fromAntiquity to the Present by Roy Porter (Porter,1997) and Green Pharmacy: a History of HerbalMedicine by Barbara Griggs (Griggs, 1981).

Measures taken to retain good health or treatailments are partly personal matters. Family tra-dition is an important influence. Women com-monly take much of the responsibility for thewell being of children and other members of theirhouseholds. Societies also contain specialistsheld to have special medical knowledge.

A tripartite classification of traditional med-ical systems is recognised in China: (1)Traditional Medical Systems, with documentedknowledge, pharmacopoeias for doctors, andinstitutions for training doctors; (2) TraditionalMedical Knowledge, which is orally transmittedand widely used in China at household level and



27

by ethnic minorities; and (3) ShamanisticMedicine, practised by some ethnic minoritiesand in remote Han Chinese villages, involving amixture of spiritual and herbal practices andwhich can only by applied by specialist practi-tioners (shamans). More formal medical systems(including Traditional Medical Systems, asdefined above) are associated with literate soci-eties. One or more of these systems may beendorsed by the state and other forms of medi-cine discouraged or even prohibited. Their prac-titioners must demonstrate familiarity with thetexts and may be required to pass examinations.Formal medical systems include:• Traditional Chinese Medicine, one of its

earliest texts being Sheng-Nong’s Herbal,recording plants used possibly as far backas 3000 BC though written later (PeiShengji, 2001).

• Kampo, Traditional Japanese Medicine.• Tibetan Medicine, associated with Bon and

Buddhism (Lama, Ghimire &Aumeeruddy-Thomas, 2001).

• Mongolian Medicine, associated withBuddhism and with similarities to TibetanMedicine.

• Dai Medicine, associated with TheravadaBuddhism and practiced in South YunnanProvince, China.

• Ayurveda, normally associated withHinduism, but with Buddhism in Sri Lanka.The earliest mention of the medicinal useof plants in Hindu culture is in the Rigveda,written before 1600 BC.

• Siddha, associated with Tamil-speakingareas of India.

• Unani, the Islamic system of medicinecommon in the Indian sub-continent.Unani, like Western Herbal Medicine, isrooted partly in the medicine of AncientGreece.

• Uigur Medicine, practised in NorthwestChina, and associated with Islam.

• Western Herbal Medicine, practised inEurope, North America and elsewhere. It ispoorly standardised compared to someother medical traditions, with much varia-tion between countries and individual prac-titioners.

• Homeopathy, developed by SamuelHahnemann (1755-1833). It differs from theabove systems in that it uses minute quanti-ties of botanical and other ingredients in itsmedicines - substances that are often poiso-nous when taken in larger quantities.

• Western Medicine, the principal officially-recognised system in most countries.Western Medicine is sometimes referred toas Orthodox, Conventional or AllopathicMedicine, in contrast to terms used for theother traditions, such as Traditional,

Herbal, Complementary, or Alternative.Plants provide the predominant ingredients

of medicines in most medical traditions. Thetotal number of species used worldwide may be35,000-70,000 (Farnsworth & Soejarto, 1991)out of a total of more than 250,000. It has beenestimated that 10,000-11,250 types of plants areused in China (He & Gu, 1997; Pei Shengji,2002a; Xiao & Yong, 1998), 7500 in India(Shiva, 1996), 2237 in Mexico (Toledo, 1995)and 2500 traditionally by North AmericanIndians (Moerman, 1998). The great majority ofspecies of medicinal plants are used only in folk(orally-transmitted) medicine, the more formalmedical systems utilising relatively few: 500-600commonly in Traditional Chinese Medicine (PeiShengji, 2001), 1106 in Tibetan Medicine (PeiShengji, 2001), 1250-1400 in Ayurveda (Dev,1999), 342 in Unani and 328 in Siddha (Shiva,1996). There are considerable overlaps in theplants used by some of the formal systems, aswould be expected from their histories and geog-raphy. Thus, there is considerable sharingbetween Western Herbal Medicine and Unani,and between Unani, Ayurveda and TibetanMedicine. In the 8th century AD, TrisongDetsen, King of Tibet, called a conference ofmedical experts from China, Dolpa, India, Nepal,Persia, Tibet and other parts to discuss the evolu-tion of improved medicine, drawing on varioustraditions. This resulted in the development ofTibetan Medicine, based on the pre-BuddhistBon tradition of Tibet and incorporating ele-ments from elsewhere, including from the medi-cine of Ancient Greece.

Medicine deals with matters close to the coreof the human persona, and attitudes towardshealth and healing are strongly influenced bywider worldviews. Pragmatic actions to maintainhealth or combat disease are underlain by deeperappreciations of the causes of good or ill, andhow personal fortune may be influenced.Worldviews associated with small-scale societieslink the individual closely to society, nature andthe spirits. Illness is a social not just a personalconcern. Divination can be used to ascertain theroot-cause of ailments. The formal medical sys-tems include their own theories of health andhealing. Many of these theories emphasise thevalue of maintaining balance between the physi-cal, mental and emotional aspects of living.Greek Medicine and Unani make referencespecifically to four psycho-physiological condi-tions (or humours) to be kept in balance, trans-lated as blood, bile, phlegm and choler.Ayurveda and Tibetan Medicine refer to three,for example wind, bile and phlegm in the case ofTibetan Medicine (Lama et al., 2001).Prescriptions for conditions presented by patientsin formal systems of Asian medicine may includerecommendations for adjustments in mental atti-


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tudes, behaviour or diet, in addition to recom-mended medicines (no clear distinction betweenfood and medicine is recognised in these tradi-tions).

Reductionist science has been a strong influ-ence over the development of Western Medicine.Although the value of an holistic approach isacknowledged, treatments tend to be disease-rather than patient-centred, and less tailored tothe particular needs of the individual than withother medical traditions (Fabrega, 1990; Grol,1983). Diagnosis of ailments tends to concentrateon searching for internal physical or chemicalmalfunctions or invasions by harmful organisms.Treatments are designed to repair the internalmachinery or control the invaders. The ‘basicsciences’ contributing to medical treatments aremore Biochemistry and Physiology thanSociology or Religion.

Western Medicine owes much to the AncientGreeks. A fundamental principle, ascribed toHippocrates (BC c. 460-377), is that health anddisease can potentially be understood throughreasoning about nature without the need to referto the supernatural. Theophrastus (BC c. 371-c.287) prepared treatises on plants describing some500 species and varieties, while Dioscorides (ADc. 40-c. 90) provided detailed botanical descrip-tions, with the aim of helping doctors select thecorrect herbs. Galen (AD 131-200) built on andsystematised existing knowledge, and his prolif-ic writings dominated formal medicine in Europefor 1500 years. The centre of learned medicine inEurope and its vicinity later passed to the Islamicworld, where it flourished from c. 800-1300.Medieval Islam contributed fundamentally topreserving and synthesising Greek medicine,Galen being particularly revered. Notable Arabscholars included Hunayn al-Ibadi (809-873),who translated many major Greek works intoArabic, and Ibn Said, known to the West asAvicenna (980-1037), whose encyclopaedicKitab al-Qanun became the authoritative text in

both Islam and Latin Christendom. The Arabstranslated not only from the Greek but also fromthe Persian, Sanscrit and Syriac, and their phar-macopoeia came to include botanical medicinesfrom the East, such as senna, unknown to theGreeks. The Islamic tradition of medicine con-tinues in use today, predominantly amongMuslims in the Indian sub-continent, where it isknown as Unani (from Ionian, referring toAncient Greece). Its practitioners are calledhakims.

Greek Medicine, benefiting from the effortsof Islamic scholars, entered Western Europefrom the 11th century through translation intoLatin from the Arabic or Greek. A key role in thistranslation was played by Constantine theAfrican (d. 1087) based at Salerno in south-west-ern Italy, then the leading medical centre inEurope. The Renaissance brought an admirationof the Classics and retranslation from around1500 AD of the works of Galen and others so thattheir wisdom could be available in its ‘originalpure form’. Concern that the right plants werebeing used in medical preparations led to theestablishment of the first Chair in Botany, atPadua in 1533, and the first botanic gardens, atPisa and Padua (1544-5). Meanwhile, the botan-ical pharmacopoeia was further expanded withadditions from the Americas and the Far East.America yielded coca, guaiac, sassafras andtobacco, and India aloe, ginger and sandalwood.

Western Medicine has increasingly concen-trated on using chemicals to treat ailments, andits directions have become greatly influenced bythe research and promotion of pharmaceuticalcompanies, some of which have achieved enor-mous political and economic power. The 19thcentury witnessed systematic advances in theunderstanding of drugs (Pharmacology) and,from the 1860s, the roles of microorganisms incausing infectious disease. Pharmacognosy, anew branch of science, emerged, being specifi-cally concerned with the isolation of ‘active prin-ciples’ from plants. Among the early isolateswere morphine (1803), strychnine, quinine andcaffeine (1818-1821), codeine (1832) andcocaine (1860). Aspirin was first synthesised in1899, inspired historically by investigations intothe healing properties of the bark of the willowSalix. However, Western Medicine had little tooffer against bacterial infections until the discov-ery of sulpha drugs in the 1930s and antibiotics(extracted from fungi) in the 1940s. Today manypharmaceutical drugs contain compoundsderived directly from plants, modified from com-pounds found in plants or inspired in their devel-opment by plant chemicals. Fifty-seven percentof prescriptions filed in the USA during a 9-month period in 1993 contained at least onemajor active compound “now or once derived orpatterned after compounds derived from biologi-



29

cal diversity” (ten Kate & Laird, 1999). Again inthe USA, 25% of all prescriptions dispensedfrom community pharmacies between 1959 and1980 contained plant extracts or active principlesprepared from higher plants (Farnsworth et al.,1985). They include reserpine (lowers bloodpressure), extracted from serpent-root Rauvolfiaserpentina, ephedrin (a decongestant), from theshrub Ephedra, digitalin (used for heart disease)from foxglove Digitalis, and vinblastine and vin-cristine (for treating childhood leukaemia andHodgkin’s disease), from the rosy periwinkleCatharanthus roseus.

The spread of Western Medicine was aided inits supremacy by association with the politicaland economic power of the West. WesternMedicine became part of the ‘civilising colonialmission’. Ayurvedic medicine was suppressed instate-funded medical colleges in India after 1835and local medical traditions, with their ‘witchdoc-tors’, denounced in Africa. Even in China, neverunder full colonial rule, Western Medicine cameto be seen as progressive. The KuomintangGovernment decided that Traditional ChineseMedicine was unscientific and passed a law in1929 making its practice illegal (Griggs, 1981).The increasing nationalisation of medicine duringthe 19th and especially the 20th centuries hasgiven even further impetus to Western Medicine.Until recently, but only in some countries, nation-al healthcare systems have devoted all, or nearlyall, their resources to the promotion and deliveryof Western Medicine, ignoring other traditions.

Many people lack adequate access to med-ical systems associated with the more formalmedical traditions, at least in their ‘purest’ and‘most advanced’ states. A large section of thepopulation in the USA receives inadequate med-ical services, while everywhere in the developedworld there is constant debate about how to copewith remorselessly rising demands for higherexpenditure on healthcare. Although govern-ments in most developing countries spend all ornearly all their health budgets on WesternMedicine, its actual provision can be lamentable.There are, commonly, shortages of doctors, par-ticularly in rural areas, hospitals sometimes bare-ly function, and patients are frequently expectedto purchase their own drugs, themselves oftensub-standard or adulterated. Over half the popu-lation of Haiti has never seen a doctor (Hilaire,2002). Partly in consequence, it is estimated that70-80% of people worldwide rely chiefly onherbal medicine to meet their primary healthcareneeds (Farnsworth & Soejarto, 1991; PeiShengji, 2001). Even in Europe, up to at least the18th century, only the rich could afford to seeformally trained medical practitioners (Griggs,1981). This, together with a growing distrust inthe complicated theories and preparations of for-mal medicine, lay behind a strong interest in

‘simples’, that is medicines made from singleingredients, often native plants. There was afashion in herbals (guides to uses of medicinalplants), such as Gart de Gezundheit (1485) byPeter Schoeffer, Herbal or General Historie ofPlants (1597) by John Gerrard and The EnglishPhysician (1653) by Nicholas Culpeper. In fact,even these herbals were available to relativelyfew people in these still largely illiterate soci-eties. Poorer people in Europe followed local tra-ditions, now largely lost, and visited villageherbalists. There was a strong empirical elementin these treatments (Hatfield, 1999) in contrast tothe often dubious theories of the medical estab-lishment, influenced by astrology, the Doctrineof Signatures, and Galen.

The effectiveness of medical systems,including specific treatments, is a major area ofconcern, including for governments with theirresponsibilities for nation-al healthcare. The publicneeds to be protected fromrecommendations stem-ming from poor qualityresearch or the designs ofcharlatans. Testing theefficacy of herbal medi-cines can be complex. Invitro tests may fail toreveal active constituentsbecause these may onlyform during internal diges-tion. Herbs active as mix-tures may be ineffective oreven toxic if taken alone.Herbalists often questionthe therapeutic value ofsubstituting herbal prepa-rations with single chemi-cals. Statistical proof ofefficacy may be difficult to determine if medi-cines are tailor-made for individual needs, as iscommon in non-Western traditions, rather thanbeing taken as standardised aliquots, the normalpractice with Western drugs.

Psychology can play a major role in healing,the effectiveness of a prescription being not pure-ly a question for physiologists. Reasons given fortreatments are embedded within wider world-views embracing more fundamental concepts ofthe sources of good and ill. Such reasoning canbe alien to those from other cultures. What iswrong with a charm or, for that matter, the white-coated physician and ‘magical’ tests and appara-tus of Western Medicine if patients believe intheir effectiveness and this aids recovery? Is itnecessarily unhelpful for people to believe thatseeds with combinations of red, white and blackcolours have healing or protective properties, asis common in Africa (Cunningham, 1996a;Cunningham, 1997)? The problem for those con-


30

cerned with improving public health is to strike asensible balance between respect for people’sbeliefs and customs, and recommendingimprovements based on theory and experimentalresults.

Medicine can be strongly influenced by reli-gion, ideology or nationalism. The quasi-reli-gious status accorded to some written traditionsof medicine can prevent rigorous questioningand impede advance. Galen’s system dominatedmedicine in Europe for 1500 years and, for all itsworth, largely paralysed further medical devel-opment. Nationalistic sentiment favoured recog-nition of Ayurveda as an official medical systemin Sri Lanka following political independencefrom Britain. Almost everywhere the power of‘science’ is acknowledged, but today there arediffering understandings of the meaning of theterm. Some supporters of non-Western medicineclaim that their systems are scientific, being val-idated by centuries of experimentation. In seek-ing ways forward, it is important that scientistsmaintain open minds, that they try to understandthe biases of their own scientific traditions, andthat they keep in mind the cultures and socio-economic circumstances of those whom theywish to benefit.

There are many uncertainties in predictinghow medicine will develop, but it may be sup-posed that:• Western Medicine will continue to develop

rapidly, in view of its close relationshipwith the rapidly developing sciences ofBiochemistry, Microbiology and Genetics,the special support which it receives fromgovernments, and its association with eco-nomically and politically powerful pharma-ceutical companies. Western Medicine willbecome further fragmented, with more spe-cialities. Research will continue to concen-trate, as it has in the past, on the maladiesof people in the developed world.

• Western Medicine, especially in its moreadvanced (and increasingly very expen-sive) states, will remain unavailable tolarge numbers of people, particularly indeveloping countries. There will be barriersof expense, culture, poor quality of drugsand an inadequate number of doctors, espe-cially in rural areas. It is estimated thatworldwide only 15% of pharmaceuticaldrugs are consumed in developing coun-tries (Toledo, 1995).

• The majority of people in developing coun-tries (growing in absolute numbers) willcontinue to rely on non-Western medicinefor much of their primary healthcare. At thesame time, there will be continuingdeclines in traditional knowledge aboutmedical plants and in traditional medicalsystems, for example in Asia (Farnsworth

& Soejarto, 1991; Lama et al., 2001; PeiShengji, 2001).

• The use of ‘alternative medicine’, basedlargely on plants, will grow in industri-alised countries due, in part, to dissatisfac-tion with Western Medicine. The marketfor herbal medicine and related products(food supplements, etc.) has been growingextremely fast, at around 10-20% annuallyin Europe and North America in recentyears (ten Kate & Laird, 1999).

• There will be increasing governmental sup-port for non-Western medicine in developingcountries, for economic and cultural reasons.Some governments are beginning to pay

more attention to non-Western systems of medi-cine. Traditional Medical Systems (that isChinese Traditional Medicine, TibetanMedicine, Mongolian Medicine, Tai Medicineand Uguar Medicine) have become recognisedofficially in China after the establishment of thePeople’s Republic (1949). The Chinese govern-ment also recognises the usefulness ofTraditional Medical Knowledge (folk medicineas practised in homes and villages) but discour-ages Shamanistic Medicine. There are, today, 36universities teaching traditional medicine inChina (Pei Shengji, 2002b). In 1967, a societywas formed in Japan to support Kampo,Traditional Japanese Medicine. It now has10,000 members and 200 preparations have beencleared for prescription by the National Instituteof Health as well as by insurance companies. In1970, the Indian Parliament passed the IndianCentral Council Act, establishing a CentralCouncil for Ayurveda. This was followed by theaccreditation of courses at colleges and universi-ties. An initiative by WWF at Dolpo, Nepal, toencourage sustainability in the harvesting ofmedicinal plants, linked to the strengthening ofTibetan medicine (Lama et al., 2001), is beingwatched with interest elsewhere in the country.There are research centres in all three EastAfrican countries charged with the study of tra-ditional medicine, including its potential to con-tribute to national systems of healthcare. Theyare the Centre for Complementary Medicine andBiotechnology in Kenya, the NationalChemotherapeutics Laboratory in Uganda, andthe Institute of Traditional Medicine, MuhimbiliMedical Centre, Tanzania (Kessy, 2002). Themedical establishment in the UK, as embodied inthe British Medical Association, has traditionallyopposed ‘alternative medicine’, but in 1988 theRoyal Society of Medicine recommendedbridge-building with other traditions. In Mexico,there have been efforts to educate doctors abouttraditional medicine, register traditional medicalpractitioners, and provide herbal remedies forsale to communities (Aguilar, 2002). TheTRAMIL network in the Caribbean and Central



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With kind permission reproduced from: Tibetan Medical Paintings: Illustrations to the Blue Beryl Treatise of Sangye Gyamtso.Edited by Yuri Parionovitch, Gyurme Dorje and Fernand Meyer. Serindia Publications, London 1992.

America is undertaking research aimed atauthenticating and recommending herbal medi-cine to treat common ailments.

Individual doctors and some governmentshave adopted, or are considering for adoption,

integrated (syncretic) medicine, drawing onWestern and other traditions. In fact, even inWestern Europe, there are long established vari-ations in the degree to which herbal treatmentsare used in conventional medicine. For example,


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they are much more part of normal practice inGermany than in the UK. The impetus towardsintegrated medicine can stem from desires forgreater medical effectiveness, financial limita-tions, or the wish to affirm local cultures.Resistance to co-operation can stem from any ofthe traditions, but most often from the Western.The involvement of governments is importantbecause this can lead to a more systematicapproach. Actually, it is common practice aroundthe world for some Western-trained doctors torecommend herbal or other ‘alternative’ treat-ments and for some practitioners of other tradi-tions to prescribe Western drugs. An excellentexample of integrated medicine has been set byChina, where, from the days of Chairman MaoTse-tung, a goal has been set of developing anational medical system drawing on the best ofWestern Medicine and indigenous medical tradi-tions. The approach has been empirical and prag-matic, and today integrated knowledge hasbecome fully implemented throughout the coun-try (Pei Shengji, 2001). Experience of introduc-ing herbal medicine into an orthodox setting inthe UK has been described by Sue Eldin andAndrew Dunford (Eldin & Dunford, 1999). Theirapproach to integration involves regular discus-sions between the general practitioners, practicenurses and a herbalist. They report that theherbalist deals with an increasing number of‘heartsink patients’ (representing about 50% ofconsultations). These patients have problems that

are not easy to define or treat through WesternMedicine.

Applied Ethnobotanists, working on theirown or with sympathetic Western-trained doctorsor other specialists, have many potential roles toplay in the development of improved systems ofhealthcare and related issues of conservation andsustainable development. They include contribu-tions towards (Cunningham, 1997; Elisabetsky &Costa Campos, 1994; Lagos-Witte, 1994; PeiShengji, 2001; Robineau, 1996):• Documentation and understanding of non-

Western systems of health and healing.• Training physicians to work with tradition-

al medical practitioners.• Identification of treatments, based on local

medical traditions, to recommend for wideradoption. Such work helps reduce con-sumption of pharmaceutical drugs, whichcan be very expensive in developing coun-tries. It can also lead to the substitution ofimported medicinal plants or pharmaceuti-cal drugs with locally-based medications.

• Development of healthcare systems andpractices which draw on both Western andother types of medicine.

• Research into active principles in plants,including for the benefits of nationalhealthcare and economies. This can lead tothe discovery of new drugs. If discoveriesare based on local medical knowledge, thenresearch should be undertaken according torecognised ethical standards, with a fairand appropriate distribution of the benefitsof research and commercialisation to rele-vant parties (Laird, 2002).

• The recording of toxic traditional medi-cines so that traditional healers might bepersuaded to substitute safer plants orreduce the quantities administered.

• Increased national autonomy regarding theplanning and management of health policies.

• Understanding changes in economies, soci-eties and cultures relating to the manage-ment and use of medicinal plants.

• Identification of species of plants in need ofconservation. Particular attention needs tobe given to plants in trade, for which thedanger of over-harvest is greatest.

• The establishment of schemes to conserve,sustainably harvest, or cultivate medicinalplants.



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Courses and programmesin Applied Ethnobotany:matters to consider

The challenges of interdisciplinarityEthnobotany is multidisciplinary in that knowl-edge and skills pertaining to many disciplines areneeded by ethnobotanists. It is interdisciplinary,especially as an applied subject, in that synthesisbetween the disciplines is essential to ensure suc-cessful identification and resolution of real-lifeproblems of conservation and sustainable devel-opment (Jacobson & Robinson, 1990).

Interdisciplinarity presents considerablechallenges for staff and students. If several mem-bers of staff, with varying backgrounds, areresponsible for delivering the bulk of the teach-ing of a course or programme in AppliedEthnobotany, each concentrating on his or ownarea of speciality, then all of them must makeevery effort to select those aspects of their sub-jects which are most relevant to AppliedEthnobotany and take every opportunity toexplain connections. It is not enough to leavesynthesis to the students. If this happens, thenmany students will fail to make the necessaryconnections and they will not become usefulapplied ethnobotanists.

A course or programme in AppliedEthnobotany should provide an education whichwill assist its graduates to identify and findanswers to problems in the real world. Suchproblems rarely fall neatly into the discrete disci-plines into which modern academia is divided(Jacobson & Robinson, 1990). Applied ethnob-otanists should have an understanding of rela-tionships between the botanical, ecological,social, economic and political dimensions ofmanaging plant resources and conserving botan-ical diversity.

A successful course in Applied Ethnobotanywill often involve staff drawn from differentdepartments or faculties. They must learn how tocommunicate with one another (Jacobson &Robinson, 1990). Those involved should not bediscouraged by initial problems. Experience inthe initial development of an interdisciplinaryapproach shows that this can be unstable andunproductive for several years due in large mea-sure to differences in philosophical outlookbetween disciplines, including in underlying par-adigms (Jacobson & Robinson, 1990). There are

barriers of terminology. Modern fields of knowl-edge are often so specialised and ridden with jar-gon that they are almost impenetrable to others.They tend to emphasize specialisation rather thanlateral thinking (Jacobson & Robinson, 1990).

The range of materials which could usefullybe covered in courses in Applied Ethnobotany isimmense, especially considering the many con-tributory disciplines. The problem has been para-phrased as ‘breadth versus depth’. The danger isthat graduates may end up knowing a little abouta lot and be masters of nothing (Brown, 2001).While there are strategies to help deal with this,an element of ‘what to leave out’ is probablyunavoidable (Kanowski, 2001). There is, there-fore, a need to identify the core competencesrequired of an Applied Ethnobotanist.

The educational challenges encountered inApplied Ethnobotany are actually reflected inmany professional fields (such as Forestry andMedicine) concerned with finding practicalanswers to human problems (Kanowski, 2001;Sample et al., 1999; Tombaugh, 1998).Programmes in Forestry have been expanded intheir coverage of topics in recent years to accom-modate new subject matter now seen as essential(Ginger, Wang & Tritton, 1999). The worldtoday is subject to rapid ecological, economicand cultural change. All professionals have to beadaptable and learn how to cope with a constant-ly shifting agenda, including finding ways tocope with the modern explosion of ideas andinformation. There is often less security in jobsand more individuality in career-trajectories thanin the past. Learning today must be seen, evenmore than before, as a matter for continuing pur-suit throughout life. Staff teaching courses inApplied Ethnobotany are just as much faced withthese challenges as are their students. As withForestry, much learning will be self-learning,and courses and programmes should be struc-tured to encourage this (Burley, 2001). Majoraims of courses and programmes in AppliedEthnobotany, as with Biology (Liras, 1994),should be to teach students how to think, how toidentify problems, how to explore them and howto acquire information or assistance from spe-cialists, as necessary for the tasks in hand. Aswith Forestry (Kanowski, 2001), there are majorroles for in-service professional courses and pro-fessional networks.

A more problem-orientated approach tolearning than is conventional has been advocatedfor interdisciplinary subjects (Brown, 2001;Kanowski, 2001; Liras, 1994). The idea is todevelop professional competency throughacquiring the ability to recognise problems andapply solutions in real social contexts in whichthere can be considerable uncertainty, instabilityand conflict. It is a recognition that every prob-lem in professional practice is unique andrequires an open-minded and fresh approach,rather than merely applying standard techniquesin a mechanical way. While some lectures maystill be given, for example covering basic theoryand concepts (Liras, 1994), most learning in aproblem-orientated programme is self-directedor tutor-facilitated in small groups. The empha-sis is on action and interpretation rather than ontheory and memory. Students build the ability tolearn through exercises in solving problemsunder the guidance of experienced practitioners.While certainly there should be elements ofproblem-orientated self-learning in interdiscipli-nary subjects, there can be considerable con-straints to embracing this approach whole-heart-edly (Kanowski, 2001). They include the needfor exceptional degrees of competency and com-mitment from staff, who must devote more timeand effort to support individual students than isconventionally the case. Costs also increase,especially if there is much individual fieldwork.The commitment of several departments to thisapproach may be needed, which may be difficultto achieve. The extra effort required of studentscan be a major challenge if they are faced witheconomic difficulties, which is often the case.Furthermore, students may find it hard to copewith a full-blooded problem-orientated approachif they are used to learning by rote, all too com-mon in education in some countries.

Brown, referring to the ideas of Ramsdenand Schön (Ramsden, 1992; Schön, 1987), haswritten of theories of learning which can under-pin approaches to the education of professionals(Brown, 2001): “Ramsden (1992) defined learn-ing as applying and modifying one’s own ideas.It is, he maintained, not the passive receipt ofauthoritative knowledge. Learning in a profes-sional context may require a slightly broader def-inition because much of what is learned may notbe consciously ‘known’. When asked how toidentify a particular species of tropical tree fewexperts will be able to produce a list of definingcharacters. Most will simply recognise a treefrom its ‘Gestalt’. This is an example of whatSchön (1987) has termed ‘knowing-in-action’,one of the essential components of skilful pro-fessional practice. Knowing-in-action is revealedin the spontaneous skilful execution of a com-plex task, but it can rarely be made explicit. Itdoes not therefore constitute the conscious appli-


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cation of ideas or theories. This view of the waythat professionals may work undermines the tra-ditional epistemology of professional education.It suggests that professionals rarely ‘solve’ prob-lems, but may simply recognise them and applyappropriate solutions. However, most problemsin professional practice are not routine but areunusual, often unique. Standard actions produceunexpected results that the professional has torespond to. Schön (1987) claimed that the essen-tial counterpart to ‘knowing-in-action’ is thecapacity of the skilful practitioner to respondintelligently to the unexpected. Their actions aremodified on the basis of reflection, leading to arevision of the personal ideas that underpinnedthe ‘knowing-in-action’. A constant cycle ofspontaneous action followed by reflection andmodification of personal conceptions of theproblem constitutes what Schön saw as profes-sional artistry. There are obvious parallelsbetween this view and Ramsden’s (1992)description of learning as the application andmodification of personal ideas.”

Many of the challenges of interdisciplinarityfaced in Applied Ethnobotany are paralleled inConservation Biology, a related field.Conservation Biology is concerned specificallywith biological conservation. The point of depar-ture when devising courses or programmes inConservation Biology therefore differs somewhatfrom that of Applied Ethnobotany. There is like-ly to be more emphasis on topics, such as loss ofspecies and genetic diversity, and loss and frag-mentation of habitats. There will likely be moreattention given to ‘traditional’ conservation mea-sures, such as protected areas, ex situ conserva-tion, and re-introductions of species. Given thatthe starting point lies in the biological world, thelogic of the approach of conservation biologiststends to begin by stressing the need for biologicalinventories and the preparation of ‘Red Lists’ ofendangered species. Taxonomy is seen as a basicdiscipline and, accordingly, the shortage of tax-onomists is particularly bemoaned (BotanicalSociety of America, 1995). In contrast, AppliedEthnobotany is embedded in an ecosystem-basedapproach to conservation and sustainable devel-opment, with an emphasis on the management ofplant resources (Figure 1). Natural and humansystems are seen as thoroughly intertwined. Thus,the perceptions, values, uses and methods ofmanagement of plants by all those people whoare stakeholders in a particular ecosystembecome fundamental considerations.

Being mostly motivated by an interest inplants and animals, there is a tendency for con-servation biologists to focus on aspects of prob-



35

Skills seen as desirable include the abilities tocommunicate with the public, assess the interestsof stakeholders, communicate across disciplines,and work in interdisciplinary teams (Jacobson &McDuff, 1998). It is recommended that curriculain Conservation Biology should cover such mat-ters as written and oral communication, explana-tions of the science and values of biodiversity tothe lay public, group decision-making, interper-sonal skills, group planning, leadership, andadvocacy (Cannon et al., 1996).

Types of courses and programmesAs mentioned earlier, a course is taken to be arelatively short unit of study and a programme asubject of graduation. There is no internationalconsistency in the structure of tertiary-level edu-cation or in the nomenclature used for degrees.We use the term ‘undergraduate programme’ forone leading to the degree of BSc or equivalent.Such a programme will typically be of three-year’s duration and include only limited periodsof individual research. The postgraduate pro-grammes with which we are concerned here arethose in which there is an element of group learn-ing, i.e. they are not solely based on individualresearch. They will typically lead to the award ofan MSc or PhD (or MPhil in some countries).MSc programmes are commonly two years inlength, composed half of group learning and halfof individual research, though one-year pro-grammes are also found.

Assuming that the value of AppliedEthnobotany is realised, an initial question iswhether it is sufficient for its teaching merely tobe incorporated into courses or programmes inother subjects or whether it should be taught as asubject in its own right. It is common to teachelements of Ethnobotany within other courses,such as ‘Taxonomy’ in Botany programmes,

‘Community Forestry’, ‘Non-Timber ForestProducts’, ‘Agroforestry’ or ‘Natural ResourceManagement’ in Forestry programmes, or‘Pharmacology’ in Schools of Medicine. Suchteaching is useful, but is it enough? We stronglyadvocate dedicated courses and programmes inApplied Ethnobotany, which we conceive as aunitary, if interdisciplinary, subject. The overallrationale of Applied Ethnobotany is unlikely tobe appreciated by students if its subject matter isonly encountered scattered throughout othercourses. A dedicated course or programme inApplied Ethnobotany will help students to thinkacross the boundaries of traditional disciplines,greatly enhancing their abilities to address real-life problems.

A principal conclusion drawn from our con-sultations is that a general programme in AppliedEthnobotany should be open, in principle, to stu-dents from a wide range of backgrounds. Thisshould be a major consideration in the design ofprogrammes and the setting of prerequisites forentry. Applied Ethnobotany can be a very usefulspecialisation for postgraduate students, not onlybotanists, but graduates in a variety of other dis-ciplines, including Agriculture, Anthropology,Forestry, Medicine, Pharmacology, Sociology,as well as others. On the other hand, we acceptthat there can be value in tailoring undergraduatecourses in Applied Ethnobotany to the require-ments of particular programmes, such asAgriculture, Forestry and Medicine. There willbe substantial common elements in such courses,whatever the discipline, and, if two or moredepartments in the same university are contem-plating the introduction of courses in AppliedEthnobotany, then greater efficiency may beachieved through providing common taughtcomponents.

There are many possible types of coursesand programmes in Applied Ethnobotany. Thethree considered most generally useful are(Figure 4):

lems that interest them (that is the biological) andignore other aspects (Meffe, Carroll & Pulliam,1997). They often play little attention to thesocial, cultural and economic forces which mustbe understood and addressed if most problems ofbiological conservation are to be successfullytackled. This is ironic, given that many proxi-mate problems in conservation, including man-agement of more natural areas and ‘wildlife’,relate to the activities of local people, especiallythose who are financially poor (Saberwal &Kothari, 1996). There is a great need for ‘humandimensions’ to be included in courses in

Conservation Biology, many of which are defi-cient in this respect (Jacobson & McDuff, 1998).Twenty-two per cent of 136 conservation organ-isations in the USA, responding to a survey, stat-ed that human interaction skills are more impor-tant than scientific knowledge and skills for theiremployees (Jacobson & McDuff, 1998). A simi-lar survey of public and private organizationsthat employ, or might employ, conservation biol-ogists revealed that human interaction skills wereheld to be equally or more important to the workof conservation biologists than scientific knowl-edge and skills (Cannon, Dietz & Dietz, 1996).

• Programmes of one to three years duration.The most widely recommended according to oursurvey is a two-year MSc programme consistingof a year of group learning and a year of individ-ual research. • Courses in undergraduate programmes,

commonly with about 60 hours of teachingincluding 20-30 lectures and a limitedamount of fieldwork.

• Short professional courses of five days tothree months duration, preferably leadingto the award of a certificate or diploma.These could be run, for instance, for mem-

bers of government departments and NGOs whowish to upgrade their knowledge. Professionalcourses should have well defined purposes andshould normally be entirely or substantiallyfield-based.

There can be scepticism about the value ofundergraduate programmes in Ethnobotany, asexpressed, for example, by staff at two universi-

ties in Kenya (Kessy, 2002). The principal argu-ment is that the students will ‘specialise’ tooearly, reducing their opportunities for employ-ment. To our knowledge, there are actually onlytwo undergraduate programmes in Ethnobotanyworldwide, these being mounted by theDepartment of Botany, Makerere University andMbarara University of Science and Technology,both in Uganda (Kessy, 2002; Mucunguzi,2002). The thinking which led to the develop-ment of the programme at Makerere should be amatter of reflection for academics working inbotany departments elsewhere in developingcountries. The historical context at Makerere isthat graduates in Botany have typically becometeachers of Biology or been employed byresearch institutes. However, in 1991, the entireeducation of aspiring teachers of Biologybecame transferred to the School of Education.The Department of Botany was no longerinvolved, and the opportunities of jobs for its


36

Undergraduate programme inAnthropology, Botany, Forestry,Medicine, etc. (i.e. disciplines inwhich a knowledge of Applied

Ethnobotany is useful)

No specific requirementsfor entry to course

MSc programme in Applied Ethnobotany (typically oneyear group learning; one year individual research)

MSc graduatesshould be able

to work professionally

as applied ethnobotanists

(some to doctoralresearch)

Professional occupations(Anthropology, Botany,Forestry, Medicine, etc.)

Short professional cours-es in specific topics ofApplied Ethnobotany

Entry to MSc programmeor to professions by other

routes

Graduates should have someunderstanding of people/plantrelationships and of method-

ologies in AppliedEthnobotany

Course in AppliedEthnobotany (perhaps with

shared elements ifthe subject is taught

in more than oneprogramme

Figure 4. Common settings of courses and pro-grammes in Applied Ethnobotany.

graduates accordingly reduced. Furthermore, inthe mid-1990s, the Department of Botany under-took a survey of its graduates and found thatmost of those who had recently becomeemployed were working either in research cen-tres or in natural resource management. A com-mon experience reported by the latter group wasthat most of the problems they encountered werecommunity-related and yet, they complained,they had received no training for such work.Some members of staff of the department thendecided to review, fundamentally, the purpose ofan education in Botany within their national con-text. It was this that led to the development of theundergraduate programme in Ethnobotany, asubject conceived as being ‘Botany for thePeople’. Traditional Botany is still being taughtin parallel by the department.

Students completing postgraduate pro-grammes in Applied Ethnobotany should beequipped to start work as professional ethnob-otanists, though some may proceed to doctorallevel. Apart from its value to the students them-selves, and hopefully to those communitieswhich participate in their research, an added ben-efit of doctoral research is the provision of case-studies which can be used in teaching.

A survey in East Africa has demonstratedthat, at present, there is little connection betweenthe pursuit of research at doctoral level inEthnobotany and acceptance by the universitiesmore generally of the value of Ethnobotany as ataught subject (Kessy, 2002). Choices of topicsfor doctoral research in East Africa overwhelm-ingly reflect the interests of individual membersof staff. The key institutional factor regarding theacceptability of a research topic is its perceivedpotential to produce results considered to be‘major contributions to science’.

The purposes of courses and programmes

Each course or programme in AppliedEthnobotany needs defined purposes. These willbe decided through internal processes withindepartments and universities. These discussionswill be better informed if reviews exist of the sta-tus and potential applications of Ethnobotanywithin the country or region. Developers ofcourses and programmes are advised to consultmembers of relevant government departments,industries, research institutes and non-govern-mental organisations, discussions which couldlead to the added benefits that they will becomeinvolved in teaching and of raising the chances ofemployment for the graduates.

Participants at our Latin-American work-shop made the following suggestions about thepurposes of certain types of courses and pro-grammes (GELA, 2002):

• Undergraduate courses should be introduc-tory in nature, having purposes such aseducating students to understand relation-ships between people and plants, buildingthe capacity to think across disciplines andencouraging students to undertake localethnobotanical studies.

• Postgraduate programmes should produceprofessionals capable of carrying out prac-tical activities. Master’s courses shouldalso be designed to lay a foundation fordoctoral research, even though most gradu-ates will not normally proceed to this level.

• Short professional courses should havespecific objectives designed to enhance thecapacities of participants in well-definedways.

Institutional contexts

DEPARTMENTS OF COURSES AND PROGRAMMES

Courses and programmes in AppliedEthnobotany will typically be attached to partic-ular departments and faculties, even thoughmembers of other departments and faculties maybe involved in their teaching. Courses can bemounted by a variety of departments. Currentlyin Brazil, courses in Ethnobotany are taughtwithin departments of Botany, Health,Horticulture and Pharmacology (Table 3) (Sternda Fonseca, 2002). As mentioned elsewhere, asingle course might serve several departments,though with special components designed for theneeds of particular categories of student.

If there is no department of Ethnobotany orrelated subject such as Economic Botany,Ethnoecology or Conservation Biology, then werecommend that programmes be mounted bydepartments of Botany or Biology. This is anacknowledgement of the botanical detailrequired in programmes (more so than in under-graduate courses) and the availability of scientif-ic facilities such as herbaria.

CO-OPERATION BETWEEN DEPARTMENTS AND FACULTIES

Courses and, even more so, programmes,will benefit if members of different departmentsand faculties are involved in the teaching. Co-operation is not always easy to achieve.Universities vary in the degrees to which theyrecognise the value of interdisciplinary subjectssuch as Ethnobotany (Kessy, 2002). The funda-mental educational philosophy of a university islikely to be reflected in the basic structures regu-lating teaching and the degree of flexibility pos-sible between departments. When the desirabili-ty of co-operation between departments or facul-ties is unrecognised institutionally, then theremay be added difficulties in timetabling.



37

The ways that students and courses are fund-ed can affect the abilities of departments and fac-ulties to co-operate (Kessy, 2002). In the case ofMakerere University, Uganda, fees paid by stu-dents vary in amount by faculty, but are paid cen-trally, causing complications if there is a demandthat they be distributed between faculties accord-ing to their contributions to interdisciplinaryteaching (Mucunguzi, 2002). The problem is fur-ther compounded because some students atMakerere receive government grants, while oth-ers are entirely self-supporting. The latter groupincludes all students registered for the pro-gramme in Ethnobotany in the Department ofBotany. Questions have arisen as to how theDepartment will pay for the time of lecturers ofother departments and the rates at which theyshould be paid.

The level of fees can be a deterrent for pri-vate students. There is a trend towards anincreasing number of self-financed students inmany countries, a reflection of a global expan-sion in tertiary-level education and the incapaci-ty or unwillingness of governments to bear theentire costs. The level of the fee payable by stu-dents to enrol in the programme in Ethnobotanyat Makerere is a large sum in the local context. Itmay be noted that even then, the total of feesreceived does not meet all the costs of the pro-gramme, which has been subsidised from thecore funds of the Department of Botany andsome voluntary teaching by members of otherdepartments.

INSTITUTIONAL AND PEER ACCEPTABILITY

Those wishing to start courses or programmesin Applied Ethnobotany must frequently convincetheir colleagues of the value of the subject. Many

academics have not heard of Ethnobotany andknow nothing of its potential usefulness. It is sug-gested here that proponents of AppliedEthnobotany emphasise its value for conservationand sustainable development. They should pointout just how important plants are in local cultures,and the economic necessity of maintaining thebase of plant resources. They should emphasisethat plants are essential elements in all aspects ofpublic health, including nutrition and the curing orprevention of ailments. They should be able todemonstrate that Applied Ethnobotany can con-tribute to the study of native plants and the con-servation of traditional botanical knowledge. Theyshould be able to provide examples of howApplied Ethnobotany can contribute to the reliefof poverty and to social justice. Well-documentedcase-studies should be ready to hand.

In some cases, universities within countriesshare common syllabuses. For example, the samecurriculum is followed by all four agriculturaluniversities and six agricultural colleges inPakistan. In such cases, the introduction of a newcourse must normally be agreed at a higher levelthan that of a single institution. This particularimpediment has been surmounted by Dr KhanBahadar Marwat of NWFP AgriculturalUniversity in Pakistan in the case of Ethnobotany,through his achievement in establishing, for hisuniversity alone, a Department of Weed Science(Marwat, 2002). Two elective courses inEthnobotany, at elementary and more advancedlevels, have been included in the programme.

Some members of staff may not appreciatethe merits of working with colleagues from otherdepartments (Jacobson & Robinson, 1990). Theymay not think beyond their particular subjects oreven their own specialities within them. Theymay be intellectually enmeshed in particular par-


38

adigms - sometimes unconsciously - and thismay limit their perceptions about the nature ofscientific or other modern academic knowledgeand the types of education or research that are‘authentic’. They are likely to be only vaguelyaware of approaches and methods used in othersubjects. In our experience, ‘traditionalbotanists’ often have little awareness of theimportance of culture, land ownership and rightsof access to natural resources for determininghow ‘wild’ plants are used and managed. Theyknow little about connections between agricul-tural and ‘wild’ ecosystems, and many do notappreciate the significance of human actions formoulding ‘natural’ vegetation. Sociologists andeconomists often fail to realise the roles of bio-logical and ecological variables in determiningrelationships between people and plants, includ-ing the restraints that they impose over howplants can be used and managed. Conventionaleconomists can adhere to the erroneous theorythat natural resources are infinite or are perfectlysubstitutable with man-made capital (Hamilton,2001). We have encountered resistance within aninstitute of environmental management inUganda to the collection of socio-economic datafor a study of the resilience of palms to harvest,seeing such work as insufficiently ‘scientific’.Use of a questionnaire to ascertain the use of fire-wood collected from a national park in Tanzaniawas initially rejected by a department of Zoologybecause questionnaires were regarded as notbeing part of the toolkit of a zoologist.

Enrolment requirementsIn principle, programmes in AppliedEthnobotany should be open to students from awide range of backgrounds (GELA, 2002),though clearly requirements for enrolmentshould differ between undergraduate and post-graduate levels. A programme in AppliedEthnobotany is best regarded as a specialisationwithin Botany, though of an interdisciplinarynature. Non-botanists should be allowed to enrol,but they should have a genuine interest in plants,because otherwise they will probably find itimpossible to reach professional competency.

It is a common experience that students ofEthnobotany are somewhat older than the aver-age (McClatchey et al., 1999). A decision tostudy Ethnobotany, as a major subject, is a delib-erate choice, rather than merely just one furtherstep up an educational ladder in the same subject.Students are often attracted to Ethnobotany by itsinter-disciplinarity, and concerns for the environ-ment and the welfare of poor rural people(Toledo, 1995). Advantages of a broad admis-sions policy to a programme are that students aremore likely to be well motivated and that every-one will benefit from the contributions of stu-dents hailing from a diversity of backgrounds.

The recommendation of an open-mindedapproach to admission to a programme shouldnot be mistaken as a call to be ‘soft’. A lack ofrigour in admissions policy could lead to currentor potential students questioning the strengths ofcourses (McClatchey et al., 1999) and alsodoubts on the part of potential employers. Eachdepartment must establish its own entry require-ments, which may be institutionally constrainedas, for example, in Brazil, Cuba and Mexico, inwhich it is normal for students to take writtenexaminations for entry to postgraduate pro-grammes. Other requirements which have beensuggested for entry to postgraduate programmesinclude attainment of specified standards inundergraduate degrees, work experience andexpressions of interest (GELA, 2002). The lattercould be demonstrated through interview, or thesubmission of ideas for the individual researchwhich the student will be required to undertake.

A flexible approach to admission to an elec-tive course in Ethnobotany has been adopted byFatima Jinnah Women’s University, Rawalpindi,Pakistan (Rahim, 2002). This course, entitled‘Ethnobotany and its Application toConservation in Environmental Science’, wasintroduced in 1999 and is open to students frommany disciplines, including Economics. There isno requirement for a background in Botany. Incontrast, entry to the undergraduate programmein Ethnobotany run by the Department ofBotany, Makerere University, Uganda, stipulatespasses in two science ‘A-levels’ (advanced sec-ondary school qualifications), one of which mustbe in Biology, Chemistry or Agriculture. Greaterflexibility is exercised in the case of mature-agedapplicants. Experience has suggested that therequirements for normal entrants are over-pre-scriptive, and they are likely to be revised(Mucunguzi, 2002).

Student assessment and course evaluationMany methods can be used to assess the perfor-mance of students. Participants at our Latin-American workshop thought that forms of assess-ment do not differ, in principle, from those usedfor many other subjects (GELA, 2002). For cours-es at undergraduate level, there is likely to be anemphasis on written forms of assessment, such asessays, practicals (including fieldwork), and finalpapers. Students taking programmes should beassessed for their practical skills and personalaptitudes as well as their knowledge. Certificatesof Attendance or Adequate Performance are desir-able for professional courses to give pride inachievement and to provide evidence of attain-ment relating to opportunities at work.

Courses and programmes should be evaluat-ed periodically to achieve incremental improve-



39

ments and for accountability (Jacobson &Robinson, 1990). Evaluators should consult theteaching faculty, students, the administrativestaff of universities, and members of relevantexternal organizations. Once a programme iswell established, there should be occasional sur-veys of the employability of graduates and theireffectiveness in their occupations.

StaffingThe nature of staffing for courses and pro-grammes in Applied Ethnobotany will dependupon the availability of interested individuals,the extent of their knowledge, their competencyas teachers and the structural arrangements ofuniversities, for instance relating to the ease ofco-operation between departments and faculties.

It is likely that, for the present, the majorityof staff involved will not have been trained pri-marily as applied ethnobotanists, but rather willhave studied traditional subjects such asAnthropology, Botany, Ecology, Economics,Forestry, Medicine, Pharmacology andSociology. Few will have been trained outsidetheir own discipline (Jacobson & Robinson,1990). If a course or programme is taught bystaff, each with a background in a traditional dis-cipline, then it is vital that they do not just teachtheir ‘own’ subjects in isolation, leaving integra-tion to the students. Lecturers should make everyeffort to think across disciplines and encouragethe same in students through provision of mod-els, analyses and case-studies. Making the effortto learn beyond a relatively narrow discipline inwhich one has been trained and feels competentis a challenge (Ng, 2000), easier to handle if col-leagues encourage one another to broaden theirhorizons. There will commonly be a need forstaff development. One approach to developingexpertise among staff is for a department toencourage doctoral research in AppliedEthnobotany, with the hope that the students,once graduated, will join the faculty(Mucunguzi, 2002).

A view was expressed at our Latin-Americanworkshop that the core of the teaching in coursesor programmes in Applied Ethnobotany cansometimes be covered by two or three membersof staff, these having expertise in Botany,Ecology and Sociology/Anthropology (the firsttwo of these sometimes being covered by thesame lecturer) (GELA, 2002). Staff contributingto the undergraduate programme in Ethnobotanyat Makerere University in Uganda includebotanists, chemists, economists, lawyers, phar-macists and sociologists (Kessy, 2002). Co-oper-ation between experts in different institutions, oreven from different countries within a region,can be desirable to mount high quality courses,an idea being advocated by GELA. The MScprogramme in Ethnobotany at the University of

Kent at Canterbury draws upon the human andmaterial resources of the Department ofAnthropology, the Durrell Institute of Ecology,and the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew - the lattersituated at some distance, in London. If the con-cept of a core teaching staff is adopted, then itwill often be desirable to engage experts in cer-tain other specialised subjects, for example per-haps Ethics, Geographical Information Systems(GIS) and Statistical Methods.

The teaching of courses at undergraduatelevel is demanding, even though less detailedknowledge is needed compared with the post-graduate level, and the length of the teachingperiod is relatively brief. Courses will often betaught by one or a few lecturers. The challenge isto cover the broad range of the subject in a trulyinterdisciplinary way. The temptation should beavoided in departments of Botany to leave theentire teaching of a course in AppliedEthnobotany to a taxonomist, unless the personconcerned has the necessary interdisciplinaryknowledge and expertise in teaching. Courses inEthnobotany are frequently taught by taxono-mists, as in Malaysia (Saleh, 2000).

Visiting lecturers can contribute greatly tocourses or programmes in Applied Ethnobotany,bringing in fresh perspectives and special exper-tise. The use of such lecturers is infrequent.Miguel Alexiades and William Bailey of NewYork Botanical Garden have served as visitinglecturers on courses in Ethnobotany in Brazil.Javier Caballero of the Botanical Garden of theUniversidad Nacional Autónoma de México(UNAM) has taught Quantitative Methods inEthnobotany around the world, including onbehalf of the People and Plants Initiative. SoniaLagos-Witte of the TRAMIL programme hasserved in Brazil, Colombia, Honduras, Indonesiaand Nicaragua.

Ultimately, the initiation and success ofcourses or programmes in Ethnobotany will gen-erally rely on the enthusiasm and energy of oneor a few people who recognise the value of thesubject and are committed to making its teachinga success. Their presence is critical for encourag-ing other members of staff and for promotingwider contacts. The key role of such ‘energisers’is no different here than for the stimulation ofintellectual activity generally. Surveying the his-tory of Botany in the USA, the Botanical Societyof America concluded that “Most botanistsattribute their original interest in plants to anoth-er botanist or teacher able to convey the beautyand intellectual excitement of plant studies”(Botanical Society of America, 1995).

Analysing the development of Ethnobotanyin departments of Botany and Forestry in EastAfrica, John Kessy has drawn attention to twocontrasting schools of thought and approaches toteaching (Kessy, 2002). This is a contrast widely


40

mirrored elsewhere, including in the USA(Anderson, 1995). One school of thought is com-posed of teachers who are conservative in natureand content with traditional approaches, seeingEthnobotany as essentially the same asEconomic Botany, considered to be the study ofthe uses of plants. The other school - the ‘daringschool of thinkers’ - has accepted thatEthnobotany can play a major role in conserva-tion and sustainable development, and has triedto start innovative courses or programmes.Members of this school believe that Botany andForestry have much to contribute to the future oftheir countries, but that they need to be over-hauled to respond satisfactorily to modern chal-lenges.

Material resourcesMaterials needed, or useful, for a course or pro-gramme include:• Rooms for lectures, seminars and tutorials,

with equipment such as blackboards, pro-jectors, etc.

• Slides, videos, etc.• Laboratories with microscopes, chemicals,

etc.• Computers and accessories, including

word-processing and database programmesand access to the internet.

• An herbarium and equipment for collectingplants.

• An ethnobotanical collection.• A map collection and cartographic facilities.• Field equipment, especially for recording

information (e.g. notebook, pencil), thedemarcation of plots and marking of plants,the measurement of position (e.g. altimeter,compass, inclinometer, geographical posi-tioning system (GPS), etc.), size (tape mea-sures, callipers, etc.), height (e.g. incli-nometer) and weight (balances of differentcapacities).

• Money. The lack of adequate finance is acrucial issue in developing countries(Kessy, 2002). Money is needed inter aliato pay staff, purchase equipment and con-sumables, obtain literature and supportneedy students. Funding can be even moreof a critical issue with short professionalcourses than with undergraduate courses orpostgraduate programmes because theremay be no provision in regular budgets(Kessy, 2002).Access to literature is crucial for both staff

and students. Lists of required reading and back-ground literature should be given to students.Students should be required to search out litera-

ture on unfamiliar subjects for themselvesbecause the ability to do so will be invaluable tothem later in life, including if they become pro-fessional applied ethnobotanists. There is a needfor ‘readers’ (collections of relevant papers) forparticipants in short professional courses.

There may be potential gaps in the literaturewhich local experts in Applied Ethnobotanyshould consider writing. If interesting researchhas been undertaken, but is unavailable in a suit-able form, then, with the permission of theresearchers (if required or ethically desirable),lecturers can perform a useful service through itsproper documentation for students. Reviews ofthe status of Ethnobotany in countries andregions are extremely useful for giving orienta-tion in Applied Ethnobotany, including in rela-tion to its teaching. Similarly, national or region-al directories of Ethnobotany are valuable refer-ence materials. The People and Plants Initiativehas prepared reviews of the status ofEthnobotany for Africa and Malaysia(Cunningham, 1997; Dounias et al., 2000; Höft& Höft, 1997; Saleh, 2000). There is also a needfor basic texts, honed to the needs of particularcountries and courses (Kessy, 2002).

There is a severe shortage of literature inmost developing countries, for instance in Africa(Höft & Höft, 1997; Kessy, 2002). The Peopleand Plants Initiative has tried to help throughproducing and widely distributing publicationsand videos dealing with various aspects ofApplied Ethnobotany (Appendix 2). We havefound that some lecturers teaching Ethnobotanyare relying heavily on these materials (Kessy,1998; Marwat, 2002). For staff and students withaccess to the internet, we suggest a visit to thePeople and Plants website (see Appendix 2)which contains a link to the website of the RoyalBotanic Gardens, Kew, where there is a listing ofmany other websites containing bibliographieson Economic Botany and Ethnobotany.

Electronic information is today assuminggreater importance, although many ethnob-otanists in many developing countries, includingin Africa (Höft & Höft, 1997), lack access to theinternet. The age of the computer and the devel-opment of the internet have only further widenedthe gaps in technology and information betweenindustrialised and developing countries.Computers are often in very short supply in uni-versities in developing countries and the cost ofaccess to the internet can be prohibitive. (Thedollar costs of internet access can be much high-er in the developing world than in industrialisedcountries.) Course organisers should endeavourto find ways of increasing the accessibility ofcomputers and the internet to staff and students.



41

Applied ethnobotanists should have:• Adequate knowledge (bodies of relevant

factual information).• Skills (the ability to do things).• Attitudes and forms of behaviour appropri-

ate to the profession.

Many methods can be used in the teaching ofApplied Ethnobotany, including lectures, semi-nars, tutorials, field and laboratory studies(demonstrative, or involving individual or groupwork), required reading, literature studies, andindividual research. The choice of method maybe constrained by institutional limitations, theabilities of staff or the availability of finance,equipment or access to transportation.Participants in our Latin-American workshoppointed out that different educational methodsare appropriate to different aspects of courses,suggesting, for instance, that the fundamentals oftheory in Botany, Ecology and Anthropology arebest delivered in lectures, but that interactiveseminars might be more useful for the teachingof Ethics.

KnowledgeSuggestions for topics to cover in courses andprogrammes in Applied Ethnobotany are givenin the next sections (see also Box 4 andAppendix 3). The designers of courses and pro-grammes will need to decide the level of detail tobe covered in particular topics, always bearing inmind the need to maintain interdisciplinarity andthe potential limitations of students possiblydrawn from a diversity of academic back-grounds. Elective courses may be offered withinprogrammes to students with particular interests.

Courses, mounted strictly for aspiringforesters, agriculturalists or other such spe-cialised groups of students, will certainly havesome common content, but should have a bias insome sections towards aspects of AppliedEthnobotany of particular relevance to their dis-cipline.

Lecturers should identify aspects of contrib-utory subjects, such as Anthropology, Botany,Economics and so on, which are particularly rel-evant to Applied Ethnobotany, rather than justteaching them in the ‘standard’ way. It is report-ed from East Africa that many students, even in

regular Botany programmes, shy away fromsome subjects (e.g. Plant Taxonomy andSystematics), because they are taught too theo-retically and with too much use of specialisedlanguage (Kessy, 2002). A more practical orien-tation, even in traditional programmes - let alonefor students of Applied Ethnobotany - is thoughtlikely to be more attractive to many students(Kessy, 2002).

It is strongly recommended that the teachingof the Social Sciences be tailored specifically tomeet the needs of applied ethnobotanists.Concepts, such as theories of human behaviour,need to be applied to real-life issues of naturalresource management (Gigliotti & Dietz, 1992;Jacobson & McDuff, 1998). Connectionsbetween socio-economic and ecological systemsmust remain at the centre of attention. This issimilar to the challenge of teaching social issuesin courses in Conservation Biology, in whichcase, it has been recommended, there should be afocus on the political, economic and cultural ori-gins and patterns of human use of naturalresources (Saberwal & Kothari, 1996).

As with Conservation Biology, studentsneed to be versed in policy issues (Saberwal &Kothari, 1996). They should know about thewider political, legislative and economic dimen-sions which influence local relationshipsbetween people and plants. They should beaware of strategies used around the world forconservation and the promotion of more sustain-able use of plant resources, and be able to analysetheir suitability within their own national con-texts. There should be studies of how traditionallocal institutions governing conservation and theuse of natural resources have sometimes beenreplaced by the institutions of the state, and aboutthe possibilities of reviving or establishing localinstitutions to complement initiatives of the state(Saberwal & Kothari, 1996).

Many mature-age students of AppliedEthnobotany are deficient in the basic sciences,such as Biology, Chemistry, Anthropology andSociology (McClatchey et al., 1999). It will alsobe the case that most students, entering postgrad-uate programmes directly after graduation, willlack familiarity with some of the basic topics ofApplied Ethnobotany. Most students, previouslyspecialising in Social Science, will know little ofBotany, and those coming from the Sciences lit-


42

Core competencies and their acquisition

tle of Social Science. It is suggested that stafforganise special tutorials, seminars and lists ofrequired reading to help students with deficien-cies to catch up. In our experience, many stu-dents lacking a background in Botany can findEthnobotany rather daunting, because so muchdetailed knowledge seems to be required. This iswhy an interest in plants is deemed essential forall students.

It might be thought that students who havealready covered certain topics in their previouseducation might be permitted to skip more basicclasses in these subjects. In most cases thiswould be a mistake (GELA, 2002).Unfortunately, subjects such as Taxonomy inprogrammes in Botany are often taught inade-quately (GELA, 2002). Furthermore, AppliedEthnobotany requires a more practical orienta-tion and a more interdisciplinary approach than isnormal in traditional courses.

Organisers of courses will have to decide thelevel of detail in which Chemistry and other,largely laboratory-based, subjects are covered. Itshould be noted that Applied Ethnobotanyshould be focused on field issues and that manystudents taking programmes in AppliedEthnobotany may have little interest in, or apti-tude for, Chemistry or laboratory research. Onthe other hand, there are merits of learning aboutmethods of laboratory analysis relevant toApplied Ethnobotany and it is said that a goodcoverage of Chemistry will make the subjectmore acceptable in some universities, appearingmore genuinely ‘scientific’ (Kessy, 2002). Apossible approach is to mount optional courses inlaboratory-based techniques and associated theo-ry relevant to Applied Ethnobotany.

Ethical issues have gained prominence inEthnobotany in recent years and need to be stud-ied in courses and programmes. There are manysub-topics, including regarding the purposes andbeneficiaries of research, the forms of relation-ships between ethnobotanists, members of localcommunities and other collaborators, and howrights to land or access to plant resources can bejustified. Victor Toledo has written that manyscientists assume that their work is somehow‘superior’ to common pursuits. He mentions thatraising questions about the ultimate aim ofEthnobotany can lead to radical ideological ques-tions relating to the universal character or politi-cal neutrality of science (Toledo, 1995). Is itright, he asks, for ethnobotanists to approachpeople as “mere objects of research” (just as theymight do plants), establishing a “partial andasymmetric relationship” - a result of “anencounter between a dominant and a dominatedculture”? He notes the strong interest today in thediscovery of new commercial products based onplants or knowledge of the uses of plants held bylocal people. He mentions that this tendency is

encouraged by the ever-growing dominance ofcapitalism and the readiness of companies andother inventors to patent new products. How canbenefits derived from new discoveries be sharedjustly and equitably with local people or for con-servation, and what forms should such benefitstake?

The ability to work effectively in the fieldrequires many competencies on the part ofapplied ethnobotanists. They must have back-ground knowledge relevant to the case in hand,the ability to work effectively with other people,knowledge of useful approaches and methods,and appropriate attitudes and behaviour. Some ofthis can be learnt, some is intuitive, and muchdepends on experience and a continuing willing-ness, and ability, to learn and reflect. There areprotocols for working with communities(Alexiades, 1996; Cunningham, 2001; Martin,1995) and theories about ways to involve peopleand deal with environmental disputes (Box 3)(Harmon et al., 1999; Kaplan, 1998).

It has been recommended that students ofEthnobotany should be required to take languagetraining even in the case of more elementarycourses (McClatchey et al., 1999). However, thiswould seem to be a context-specific matter,given the problems caused by variations in lin-guistic background between students and inselection of languages to learn in multilingualcountries.

Practical skillsThe ability to do things is fundamental for workin Applied Ethnobotany. Some of the most vitalskills are also the most difficult to teach andlearn. These fall into two interconnected sets -the ability to work effectively with other people,including in interdisciplinary teams, and the abil-ity to recognise priorities and contribute to theirsolving.

Skills in communication are essential forapplied ethnobotanists, just as they are for othersinvolved in the management of natural resources(Harmon et al., 1999; Sample et al., 1999;Touval & Dietz, 1994). Good ethnobotanicalwork often depends on collaboration betweendifferent specialists; the education of the ethnob-otanist should therefore be concerned with learn-ing how to form and work in teams (Davis, 1995;Prance, 1995). Applied ethnobotanists need to beable to maintain effective communication withlocal people throughout the entire process ofresearch, from the initial identification of issues,through the gathering of information and analy-sis of results, and to the identification of recom-mendations for follow-up action.

The ability to recognise priorities and con-tribute systematically to their solution is partly amatter of leadership, and the ability to mobilisefellow researchers and communities. Qualities



43

required include the abilities to obtain adequatebackground knowledge of a site and its widercontext, to observe and obtain information andopinions from local people, to select logicalsequences of activities to tackle the issues identi-fied, and to form teams of people with appropri-ate skills (Davis, 1995).

The ability to identify and solve practicalproblems, working collaboratively with otherpeople, is an art for which some students willinevitability come better equipped than others. Incommon with the education of foresters (Sampleet al., 1999) and other environmental managers,this is a matter of life-long learning. The incor-poration into curricula of case-studies, role-play-ing exercises and participation in real-world situ-ations can help develop these skills (Harmon etal., 1999; Sample et al., 1999). Specific educa-tional tools that have been suggested includeresearch projects that integrate social and ecolog-ical issues, workshops and seminars involvinginteractions with members of outside agencies,the involvement of professionals from outsidegroups in student graduate committees, and stu-dent internships with agencies and organisations(Jacobson & McDuff, 1998). The subjects ofproblem-solving and communication should notbe relegated to elective courses, as is sometimesthe case in schools concerned with naturalresource use (Harmon et al., 1999).

There are several skills associated with theacquisition and production of written materialswhich ethnobotanists should acquire. Theyinclude the abilities to use libraries, journals andthe internet, to make inquiries of databases, writescientifically, and to produce informative dia-grams and maps.

Fieldwork should form an essential compo-nent of courses and programmes in Applied

Ethnobotany (McClatchey et al., 1999), just as itshould in Botany, Biology and ConservationBiology (Cutter, 1993; Saberwal & Kothari,1996). Fieldwork was seen as a ‘crucial’ compo-nent of undergraduate programmes in theBiological Sciences by 79% of university depart-ments which responded to a survey in the UK(Cutter, 1993). Unfortunately, the serious short-ages of finance and transport in many developingcountries limit the amount of fieldwork that maybe possible (Kessy, 2002). Opportunities forfieldwork will anyway be greater with postgrad-uate programmes than undergraduate courses.Postgraduate programmes should include a peri-od of group fieldwork of one to three weeksduration, perhaps based at a research station, andan extensive period, typically of about a year,devoted to supervised individual field research(GELA, 2002).

Specific suggestions for field visits duringgeneral undergraduate courses in Ethnobotanyinclude (Kessy, 2002; Lagos-Witte, 2002): visitsto various types of ecosystems to gain some famil-iarity with their plants, ecology and human rela-tions; ethnobotanical walks with local people; sur-veys of plant products in homes; visits to marketsand plant-based industries; interviews with tradi-tional doctors; visits to (and perhaps the creationof) ethnobotanical gardens; and visits to herbaria.

Specific research methodologies should betaught through instruction in class and throughpractical experiences. Descriptions of method-ologies specific to particular topics should befully integrated into relevant lectures, seminarsand field exercises. Emphasis should be placedthroughout on how to collect and analyse data ofgood quality.

A very large number of methodologies canpotentially be used in Applied Ethnobotany - a


44

Box 3. Suggested concepts and skills to be covered in a course on ‘Publicinvolvement and dispute resolution’ (Harmon et al., 1999).

(See Kaplan for a detailed description of an undergraduate course on ‘Environmental Negotiation’, including a

bibliography of hands-on, role-playing exercises: Kaplan, 1998).

• The causes of environmental conflict. • Strategies for assessing and analysing complex, multiparty environmental disputes; how to judge the ‘ripeness’ of disputes

and the willingness of affected interests to resolve disputes through alternative processes.• The range of processes available to resolve public disputes or develop public policy, and the value of a comprehensive deci-

sion-making system.• Strategies for public involvement in decision-making.• Strategies for selecting an appropriate public involvement or dispute resolution process.• Principles of collaborative problem-solving and the step-by-step process for building consensus.• Practical strategies for communication, negotiation, facilitation and mediation.• Techniques for resolving disputes over scientific and technical information.• Strategies for deciding when third-party assistance is needed and how to obtain it.• Strategies for implementing and monitoring agreements.• Guidelines for designing systems for resolving chronic, recurring environmental disputes.

reflection of its interdisciplinary nature. Many ofthem are described or mentioned in materialsproduced under the People and Plants Initiative(Appendix 2; see also Appendix 3 for detailsabout where they might fit into programmes).Some methodologies in Applied Ethnobotany aremore specifically ethnobotanical, while othersare borrowed or adapted from contributory disci-plines. In the case of ‘standard’ techniques asso-ciated with contributory disciplines, lecturers andstudents need to acquire the ability to reflect onwhether the methods should be used in their‘standard’ forms or whether it is better to adaptthem, especially in relation to the contributionsthat local knowledge can make to deciding what,where and how to record. The results of suchreflection, transformed into practice, will oftenbe an improvement in the usefulness of the dataand a saving in time. Even decisions on the cate-gories of information to note on plant specimenscollected as vouchers, possibly regarded as arather simple and standard matter, will benefitimmensely from knowledge of the ways thatlocal people perceive the parts and values ofplants, and of their knowledge of geography andecology (Martin, 1995). The sampling of vegeta-tion or plants to determine their distributions andother features requires selection of the locationsand sizes of sample plots, and of features torecord within them. Selection of all of these vari-ables can benefit from local knowledge, forexample through inquiry about local perceptionsof vegetation types and their origin, the distribu-tion of vegetation types or plants of interest, andthe features of particular types of plants regardedas being of significance (Cunningham, 1996b).In contrast to ‘standard’ methodologies in ecolo-gy, the applied ethnobotanist will often want torecord plants that have been harvested, perhapsnow represented only by dead or sproutingstumps (Cunningham, 2001).

In the case of programmes, it is strongly rec-ommended that these should include a coursededicated to scientific methodology, includingthe setting and testing of hypotheses and associ-ated statistical methods (GELA, 2002). Thepotential advantages of quantification includerepeatability, representivity and generation ofnew hypotheses (Caballero, 2002). Apart fromimproved quality of data, a further advantage ofquantification is that the results of research canbe more convincing to some potential beneficia-ries, especially more educated people, whether incommunities, government departments or otheragencies. The biggest challenge in quantificationis said to be in making sense of ethnobotanicalknowledge (Ellen, 2002).

Quantitative techniques should be appliedsensitively. Statisticians ignorant of field realitiescan propose sampling strategies for research inApplied Ethnobotany which may seem

admirable from the mathematical viewpoint, butare impractical under field conditions or takeinadequate account of local knowledge. Appliedethnobotanists are faced with the task of findingpractical answers to real-world problems. Theymust be able to cope with complexity and mustallocate time to various research tasks with theaim of establishing a convincing overall picture.The use of quantitative techniques in AppliedEthnobotany will therefore not always beabsolutely perfect from the perspective of the sta-tistical purist, yet they may be adequate forapplied purposes. The applied ethnobotanistneeds to retain an holistic perspective, bestachieved through setting aside periods for reflec-tion and discussion in between periods of moreintensive collection of information or data.Certainly, those teaching ‘Quantitative Methodsin Applied Ethnobotany’ or involved in theexamination of students should have had experi-ence of Ethnobotany applied to real problems.

There is a danger that the production of fig-ures somehow ‘proves’ that the information isreliable. Sarah Laird (pers. comm.) has comparedthe relative reliability of quantitative and qualita-tive methods of gathering information duringresearch into the values of plants to local peoplein Cameroon. She writes that “many resultsobtained using quantitative, particularly rapidtechniques, are valuable as indicators of commu-nity relationships with plants, but often fail toreveal important categories of use and more com-plex perceptions and relationships to nature.Basic problems - such as the ability for olderindividuals to identify species from herbariumspecimens, which lack the characteristics usedlocally for identification such as smell, architec-ture and colour, or limits to the researcher’sknowledge of local classification and use - areoften buried within, and warp, so-called ‘quanti-tative’ data sets. Although greater quantificationcan help in efforts to improve standards inEthnobotany, without a strong qualitative groundin local culture and use, quantitative methods candistort as much as reveal local relationships.”Applied Ethnobotanists must also be aware that,unless care is taken, quantification may createbarriers to communication with local partners,mystified by unfamiliar terms and academicapproaches to problem-solving.

Attitudes and behaviourApplied ethnobotanists should approach theirwork with an understanding of their abilities andlimitations - confident yet humble. They shouldrealise that many local people will have muchmore knowledge of most aspects of local plantworlds and societies than researchers could everdiscover. At the same time, they need to be cog-nisant of the contributions that they themselves



45

can (and should be able to) bring to dialogueswith local people. These are likely to includewider perspectives of issues of conservation andsustainable development, knowledge of relevantnational and international policies and nationalregulations, access to published scientific infor-mation and outside specialists, and knowledge ofmethodologies used in the natural and social sci-ences.

Many of the assumptions brought by appliedethnobotanists when they start work at a new siteor on a new problem will likely prove to be falseor misleading. Previous assessments of the distri-bution and conservation status of species ofplants, based on available scientific knowledge,may well prove inaccurate in the light of localknowledge (Martin et al., 2002). Preconceived

views of priorities in conservation and sustain-able development may well differ radically fromthose of local people.

Above all, researchers need to respect localcultures, even if there are facets of them withwhich they do not agree, or find uncomfortable.This can be just as much of a challenge fornational researchers, some of whom will havecultural backgrounds different from those oftheir local collaborators, as it can be forresearchers from other countries (Toledo, 1995).Applied ethnobotanists do not need to sacrificetheir own beliefs and motivations (without whichthey would hardly have embarked on challengingjourneys), but rather should share them withlocal people as the foundation for honest dis-course.

PEOPLE AND PLANTS WORKING PAPER 11, JANUARY 2003THE PURPOSES AND TEACHING OF APPLIED ETHNOBOTANYA. HAMILTON, PEI SHENGJI, J. KESSY, A.A. KHAN, S. LAGOS-WITTE & Z.K. SHINWARI

46

Dra Maira Delfina Fernández (Cuba) and Dr Javier Caballero(Mexico) during the workshop on curriculum developmentorganised on 21-23 February 2002 in the Dominican Republic.

Suggested topics of undergraduate and postgrad-uate courses and programmes in AppliedEthnobotany are shown in Box 4. These follow-ing points should be noted:• Build your own curriculum. The list of sug-

gested topics given here is provided tostimulate thought. The suggestions shouldnot be regarded as proscriptive. The topicsgiven should not be regarded as a list oflectures (various teaching methods shouldbe used). Equal time should not be allocat-ed to each topic (they deserve varyinglengths of treatment).

• Variations. The footnotes in Box 4 givesuggestions specific to different types ofcourses and programmes.

• Possible subjects to cover within each sug-gested topic are mentioned in Appendix 3. Our suggestions are based on evidence stem-

ming from two exercises:1. Recommendations made in several work-

shops held specifically for this project, andalso at a congress and a symposium, andthrough a survey (see first section of thisdocument). We also consulted an earlierstudy on curriculum development inApplied Ethnobotany in Central America(Lagos-Witte et al., 1995) and a review ofEthnobotany in Malaysia (Saleh, 2000).We have also studied the results of an ear-lier international survey of courses inEconomic Botany and Ethnobotany(McClatchey et al., 1999). The latter wasbased on responses from 160 undergradu-ate or graduate students and 187 membersof faculty. The authors of this earlieranalysis believe, as we do, that it is justifi-able to suggest ‘proposed elements’ of acurriculum, a conclusion which theyreached from their own survey, earlierresearch by Bartoo (1964), and their teach-ing experience. A summary of recommen-dations made in several of these sources isgiven in Appendix 4, with some simplifi-cations and reclassifications to facilitatecomparisons.

2. Compilation of topics mentioned in thebooks and working papers of the Peopleand Plants Initiative, concentrating onmethodologies (Appendix 3). Thisapproach has the advantage of a biastowards more practical applications of

Ethnobotany. Additionally, descriptions ofmethods and case-studies can be looked upeasily by those with the materials or, forsome resources, access to the internet. Itshould be noted that the books and workingpapers produced so far by the People andPlants Initiative do not adequately cover allaspects of Applied Ethnobotany, forinstance there is inadequate coverage ofMedical Ethnobotany, food, nutrition, andissues of tenure and control over plantresources.Our consultations have revealed a fair degree

of common ground concerning the topics whichshould be covered in postgraduate programmesin Applied Ethnobotany. The consensus is notabsolute, as would be expected with such ayoung subject, geographical variation in issues ofconservation and sustainable development, andvarying academic and professional cultures. Themost significant differences between the varioussources concern: 1. the extent to which ‘background’ subjects

(such as basic Botany, Ecology and SocialScience) are included as distinct compo-nents; and

2. the degree to which social and biologicalcomponents are fully integrated within par-ticular topics (or covered largely separately). The proposals stemming from our Chinese

workshop show the highest degree of integrationbetween the natural and social sciences, com-pared with those stemming from the other con-sultations mentioned above.

Topics in undergraduate programmes willnot be very different from those in postgraduateprogrammes (McClatchey et al., 1999), but therewill likely be less emphasis on quantitative meth-ods and less time for fieldwork. McClatchey andcolleagues (1999) consider that the broad cover-age of topics in general undergraduate courses inEthnobotany will not be greatly different fromthose covered in general undergraduate pro-grammes, though topics will be covered in muchless detail. We concur.

Undergraduate courses, restricted to studentsreading particular subjects (e.g. Agriculture,Forestry or Medicine), are a different case. Therewill be some common ground, whatever the sub-ject, but it is appropriate for parts of the coursesto be biased toward topics of particular rele-vance, as suggested in Box 4.



47

Suggested topics of undergraduate andpostgraduate courses and programmes

in Applied Ethnobotany


48

Box 4. Suggested topics of undergraduate and postgraduate courses and programmes in Applied Ethnobotany.

These are suggestions: course developers should build their own curricula.Refer to the footnotes, which contain suggestions about variations for different types of courses and programmes.Refer to Appendix 3, which contains lists of possible subjects to include under each topic.

Introduction to Applied EthnobotanyOverview of Applied EthnobotanyNational/regional EthnobotanyIntroduction to field approaches and methods

Basic background knowledgeBotanyEcologySocial Science

Plant resources and cognitionPerceptions, knowledge and values of plantsPlant resources and plant products

Contributions to conservation and sustainable livelihoodsConservation and sustainable developmentContributions of Ethnobotany to sustainable forest management1

Contributions of Ethnobotany to sustainable agriculture1

Contributions of Ethnobotany to food and nutritionContributions of Ethnobotany to healthcare

Policy and ethicsPolicy and Applied EthnobotanyEthics in Applied Ethnobotany

Information handling and scientific methodologyAccess to sources of information and preparation of written materialsScientific methodology and quantitative techniques in Applied Ethnobotany2

Plant-based products: composition, validation and innovation3

Validation and discovery of plant-based medicines4

Composition of human and livestock food5

Properties of wood, fibres and other plant materials6

Footnotes

1. Topics similar to these two can be included as relevant to particular cases. They could cover, as examples, the Contributionsof Ethnobotany to the sustainable management of pastures, wetlands, coastal zones or urban environments.

2. Especially for more advanced students, e.g. those taking postgraduate programmes.3. Topics in this category could be optional for general students of Applied Ethnobotany, but could be compulsory for particular

categories of student, as suggested below (4-6). Other topics could be added for other categories of student, such as thosestudying Horticulture, Urban Planning or Veterinary Medicine.

4. Possibly compulsory in courses for students of Medicine.5. Possibly compulsory in courses for students of Agriculture and Medicine.6. Possibly compulsory in courses for students of Forestry.

Short professional courses are invaluable in aworld of change, in which much new informationis being produced. They are particularly useful indeveloping countries, where professional peoplemay have little chance of acquiring fresh infor-mation through channels common in richer partsof the world, with their abundant and availablepublications and easy access to the internet.Furthermore, many professionals working inrural areas in developing countries become intel-lectually isolated, with few opportunities to dis-cuss issues with their peers. Links made oncourses can be very valuable opportunities toexchange experiences, renew contacts made asstudents, and boost morale.

The lengths of short professional courseswill vary, depending on the purpose. Shortercourses of four to ten days are useful if the pur-pose is to learn about specific topics. An idealtopic is one in which there is an urgent need forpractical results to achieve conservation or devel-opment, with the findings of research undertakenduring the course being of direct practical value.To illustrate this type of course, Abigail Agwilarhas organised short courses in the Maya region ofMexico for doctors who wish to learn about localconcepts of health and ailments, and the roles oftraditional medical practitioners. The People andPlants Initiative has mounted many shortercourses, with topics ranging from methods ofmonitoring the use and impacts of harvestingwild plant resources, the creation of an ethnob-otanical database, to methods for studying tradein wild plants.

Longer short courses of one to three monthsare useful for providing professionals with amore rounded background in Ethnobotany.Topics might include such subjects as the rela-

tionships between people and forests, the sus-tainable management of forest resources, or evenan introductory course on Applied Ethnobotanyin general.

Shorter courses should generally be largelyor entirely field-based, while longer courses,likely to be more constrained by funding, shouldbe at least partly so. Substantial elements ofcourses should consist of ‘learning by doing’,with field exercises on defined topics undertak-en jointly by groups, typically with about 6members. Exercises should be preceded, andfollowed, by discussions, respectively of pur-poses and methodologies, and of analyses andresults.

Readers of key publications, preferably peer-reviewed, should be made available to partici-pants in advance of courses. The addresses ofinternet sites where further information can beobtained at little or no cost should be provided.

The quality of a course will depend greatlyon the quality of its participants, including itsfacilitators. Individual selection of students isdesirable, which may be achieved, for instance,through requiring aspiring participants to preparetwo-page letters of application, enclosing theircurricula vitae. The number of participants inshorter courses should not exceed about 25,though slightly larger numbers may be workableon those that are longer. Two or three facilitatorswill often be adequate on shorter courses. One ofthese should be a specialist on the topic underconsideration with experience at the locationwhere the course is held, while another couldhave a more theoretical background, being ableto provide wider context and be able to indicatehow similar work could be undertaken else-where.



49

Short professional courses

This paper could not have been prepared withoutthe assistance of the many contributors listed inAppendix 1. We extend to all of them our thanks.We also acknowledge our indebtedness to thosewho helped organise the various workshops,including staff of WWF-Pakistan and of theJardín Botánico Nacional Rafael Ma. Moscoso,Dominican Republic. A special word of gratitudeto Dr Patrick Mucunguzi and Dr Joseph Obua ofMakerere University, Uganda, for attending theworkshop in Pakistan. We further express ourappreciation for all those involved in the Reviewof the status of Ethnobotany in Malaysia, whichwas prepared by M. Nazre Saley with technicalassistance from Prof Dr Kamarudin Mat-Sallehand Prof Abd. Latiff Mohamed. Among thosewho assisted were Agnes Lee Agama, DrGeoffrey Davison, Balu Perumal, Reza Azmiand TF Siew. The following provided specificinformation upon request, or commented ondrafts of the manuscript:• Dr Ayaz and Khan Bahadar Marwat in

Pakistan for reviewing a draft of the paper.• Ros Coles for critically reading the whole

manuscript and making many useful sug-gestions.

• Dr Tony Cunningham for assistance withthe sections on the history of agricultural

teaching and short professional courses,and making us aware of the progressiveteaching in Botany by Gabriell Paye inBoston.

• Dr Archana Godbole for information on thehistory of Ethnobotany in India.

• Dr. Robert Höft for several useful criticalcomments, including relating to subjects tocover under the topics listed under ‘Plant-based products: composition, validationand innovation’ in Appendix 3.

• Dr Esezah Kakudidi for information on theteaching of Ethnobotany in Uganda.

• Prof Tim Johns for comments on subjectsto be included in the sections on diet andnutrition.

• Dr Sarah Laird for information on the rela-tive merits of quantitative and qualitativemethods.

• Dr Mark Nesbitt and Florent Bernard of theRoyal Botanic Gardens, Kew, for undertak-ing an internet survey of courses inEthnobotany.

• Peter Ramshaw of WWF-UK for com-menting on the section on agriculture.

• Dr Alan Rodgers for providing informationon the activities of the GEF/FAO/UNDPforest project in East Africa.


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A moment of light relief during a workshop on cur-riculum development in the Dominican Republic,February 2002. Left to right:Dra Olga Lucia Sanabrio Diago (Colombia)Dr Jean Valbrun (Haiti) (at rear)MSc Abigail Aguilar (Mexico)Viviane Stern da Fonseca (Brazil)Dr Miguel Martìnez (Mexico) (at rear)Ing Sésar Rodríguez (Dominican Republic)Lic Daisy Castillo (Dominican Republic) Melina de Castro (Dominican Republic) (child at front)

China. A workshop was organised to discuss Curriculum Development in Ethnobotany in China,organized by Professor Pei Shengji on August 20-21 2001 at the Kunming Institute of Botany,Chinese Academy of Sciences. After presentation of current teaching in Ethnobotany in variousinstitutes, the idea was proposed of developing a 'Chinese Ethnobotany Curriculum'. Responsibilitiesfor developing this were proposed, and a Collaborative Group for the project formed, with ProfessorPei Shengji as Leader. Fifteen chapters are proposed in a planned publication. The participants at theworkshop in Kunming were:

Prof Hu Huabin, Kunming Branch of Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, the ChineseAcademy of Sciences, Kunming

Dr Hu-Yin Hui, College of Life Science, Yangzhou University, Jiangsu Province

Dr Khasbagan, Deputy Director, Inner Mongolia Normal University, Huhhot, Inner MongoliaAutonomous Region

Prof Lu Shugang, Institute of Ecology, Yunnan University, Kunming

Dr Ou Xiao-Kun, Director, Institute of Ecology, Yunnan University, Kunming

Prof Qian Zigang, Chairman, Department of Pharmacy, Yunnan College of Chinese TraditionalMedicine, Kunming

Prof Pei Shengji, Department of Ethnobotany, Kunming Institute of Botany, the Chinese Academy ofSciences, Kunming

Wang Juan, Southwest Forestry College, Kunming

Dr Wang Kanglin, Department of Ethnobotany, Kunming Institute of Botany, the Chinese Academyof Sciences, Kunming

Prof Yang Yongping, Department of Ethnobotany, Kunming Institute of Botany, the ChineseAcademy of Sciences, Kunming

Prof Yang Yuming, Vice-President, Southwest Forestry College, Kunming

Yang Zhiwei, Department of Ethnobotany, Kunming Institute of Botany, the Chinese Academy ofSciences, Kunming

Latin America. The following participated in a workshop on Curriculum Development in AppliedEthnobotany organised by Sonia Lagos Witte and Grupo Etnobotánico Latinoamericano (GELA),together with Alan Hamilton of WWF-UK on 21-23 February 2002 at the Jardín Botánico NacionalRafael Ma. Moscoso, Dominican Republic:

MSc Abigail Aguilar, Herbario Nacional, Instituto Mexicano del Seguro Social, México

Dr Javier Caballero, Jardín Botánico, UNAM, México

Lic Daisy Castillo, Departmento de Botánica, Jardín Botánico Nacional, Dominican Republic

Dra Maira Delfina Fernández, Instituto de Ecología y Sistemática, Havana, Cuba

Lic Ricardo García, Jardín Botánico Nacional, Dominican Republic

Dr Alan Hamilton, WWF-UK

MSc Jean Vilmond Hilaire, Université Notre Dame d'Haïti, Haïti

Dra Sonia Lagos-Witte (General Co-ordinator of GELA), Departmento de Botánica, Jardín BotánicoNacional, Dominican Republic

Lic Maritza Martínez, Laboratorio de Etnobotánica, Departmento de Biología, UNAH, Tegucigalpa,Honduras

Dr Miguel Angel Martínez Alfaro, Laboratorio de Etnobotánica, Instituto de Biología, UNAM,México

Lic Brigido Peguero, Enc. de Taxonomica y Exploraciones, Jardín Botánico Nacional, DominicanRepublic


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Appendix 1. Contributors to this project

Guillermo Rivera Cáliz, Nicaragua (Workshop Moderator)

Ing Sésar Rodríguez, Enc. de Proyectos y Publicaciones, Jardín Botánico Nacional, DominicanRepublic

Dra Olga Lucia Sanabria Diago, Universidad del Cauca, ColombiaViviane Stern da Fonseca, Jardim Botânico do Rio de Janeiro, Brasil

Dr Jean Valbrun, Université Notre Dame d'Haïti, Haïti

Pakistan. The following attended an International Workshop on International CurriculumDevelopment in Applied Ethnobotany organised at Nathiagali on 3-4 May 2002 organised by WWF-Pakistan and WWF-UK. Apart from those attending, a number of written contributions werereceived (indicated with an asterisk below):

Aziz Ahmad, WWF-Pakistan

Habib Ahmad, Government Postgraduate Jehanzeb College, Saidu, Swat

Dr Ejaz Ahmad, WWF-Pakistan

Dr Khalid Farooq Akbar, Government College Sahiwal

Dr Tasleem Akhtar, Pakistan Medical Research Council, Khyber Medical College, Peshawar

Prof Syed Irtifaq Ali, Botany Department, University of Karachi

Dr Muhammad Arshad, Botany Department, University of Arid Agriculture, Rawalpindi

Abdullah Ayaz, WWF-Pakistan

Shaheen Begum WWF-Pakistan

Dr Raza Bhatti, Department of Botany, Shah Abdul Latif University, Khairpur

Syed Fazl-i-Hadi, University of Peshawar

Ali Hassan Habib, WWF-Pakistan

Malik Tariq Habib, Botany Department, University of Azad Jammu and Kashmir, Muzaffarabad

Rauf Hameed, WWF-Pakistan


Dr Gul Hassan, NWFP Agriculture University, Peshawar

* Prof Hu Huabin, Kunming Branch of Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, China

Dr Muhammad Ibrar, Pharmacy Department, University of Peshawar

Muhammad Idrees, Pakistan Museum of Natural History, Islamabad

Muhmmad Ilyas, Mardan Model College, Mardan

Ali Ahmad Jan, WWF- Pakistan

* Prof Sanu Devi Joshi, Central Department of Botany, Tribhuvan University, Nepal

* Dr John Kessy, Sokoine University of Agriculture, Tanzania

Sofia Khalid, Department of Environmental Sciences, Fatima Jinnah Women's University, Rawalpindi

Dr Amin Ullah Khan, Government College, Lahore

Ashiq Ahmad Khan, WWF-Pakistan

Dr Mir Ajab Khan, Department of Biological Sciences, Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad

Dr Muhammad Khurshid, Ministry of Environment

* Dr Sonia Lagos Witte, Jardin Botanico Nacional, Dominican Republic

Zahid Hussain Malik, Botany Department, University of Azad Jammu and Kashmir Muzaffarabad

Dr Khan Bahadur Marwat, Weed Sciences Department, NWFP Agriculture University, Peshawar

Dr Patrick Mucunguzi, Botany Department, Makerere University, Uganda

Mumtaz Hussain Mughul, Department of Botany, University of Azad Jammu and Kashmir,Muzaffarabad

Dr Joseph Obua, Department of Forest Biology and Ecosystems Management, Makerere University,Uganda

* Prof Pei Shengji, Kunming Institute of Botany, China

Dr Muhammad Qaiser, Department of Botany, University of Karachi

Rabia, WWF-Pakistan



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Audil Rashid, Botany Department, F.G. College (Men), Islamabad

Dr S. Shafiq ur Rehman, Department of Environmental Sciences, University of Peshawar

Muhammad Afzal Rizvi, Bait-al-Hikmah Research Institute, Hamdard University, Karachi

Mohammad Shaukat, WWF-Pakistan

Dr Zabta Khan Shinwari, WWF-Pakistan

Sirajuddin, Botany Department, Islamia College, Peshawar

Saima Suleman, WWF-Pakistan

Junji Takahashi, Genetic Research Institute, Pakistan (JICA Expert)

Muhammad Waseem, WWF-Pakistan

Muhammad Yousaf, Botany Department, Postgraduate College, Bannu

Saeeda Yousaf, WWF-Pakistan

Tanweer Zafar, Department of Botany, University of Azad Jammu and Kashmir, Muzaffarabad

Dr Zahoorullah, Pakistan Medical Research Council, Khyber Medical College, Peshawar

East Africa. Dr John Kessy of Sokoine University of Agriculture, Morogoro, Tanzania, undertook asurvey especially for this project to ascertain experiences and views relating to the teaching ofEthnobotany in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania. He concentrated on the teaching of Ethnobotany tostudents of Botany and Forestry, consulting the following people and institutions:

Joseph Chepyegon, Center for Complementary Medicine and Biotechnology, Kenyatta University,Kenya (Traditional Healer)

Dominic Byarugaba, Mbarara University of Science and Technology, Uganda (questionnaire response)

Amai Corn, National Chemotherapeutics Research Laboratory, Kampala, Uganda

Department of Botany, University of Dar es Salaam (various lecturers)

Dr Robert Höft, UNESCO Office, Nairobi, Kenya

Dr Catherine Lukhoba, Botany Department, Nairobi University, Kenya

Patrick Maundu, KENRIK, National Museums of Kenya, Kenya

Prof R. Mibey, Faculty of Science, Nairobi University, Kenya

Moi University, Kenya (questionnaire response)

Dr N.K. Mubiru, National Chemotherapeutics Research Laboratory, Kampala, Uganda

Institute of Traditional Medicine, Muhimbili Medical Center, Dar es Salaam (various members ofstaff)

Dr Justus Mwanje, Faculty of Environmental Sciences, Kenyatta University, Kenya

Prof A. Newton, Botany Department, Kenyatta University, Kenya

Prof Alloys Orago, Center for Complementary Medicine and Biotechnology, Kenyatta University,Kenya

Peter Ombaka, Center for Complementary Medicine and Biotechnology, Kenyatta University, Kenya(Traditional Healer)

Sokoine University of Agriculture, Tanzania (various lecturers)

Prof Stanley Waudo, Faculty of Science, Kenyatta University, Kenya

58 PEOPLE AND PLANTS WORKING PAPER 11, MARCH 2003THE PURPOSES AND TEACHING OF APPLIED ETHNOBOTANYA.C. HAMILTON, PEI SHENGJI, J. KESSY, ASHIQ A. KHAN, S. LAGOS-WITTE & Z.K. SHINWARI

59

Malaysia. A review of the status of Ethnobotany in Malaysia was undertaken by WWF-Malaysia in2000, supported by the People and Plants Initiative (Saleh, 2000). Many people were consulted.Those most closely involved were:

Agnes Lee Agama, WWF-Malaysia (Project Co-ordinator)

Reza Azmi, WWF-Malaysia

Dr Geoffrey Davison, WWF-Malaysia

Prof Dr Kamarudin Mat-Salleh, Universiti Kebangsan Malaysia (Technical Advisor to the project)

Prof Abd. Latiff Mohamed, Universiti Kebangsan Malaysia (Technical Advisor to the project)

Balu Perumal, WWF-Malaysia (Project Supervisor of the project)

M. Nazre Saleh (author)

T.F. Siew

Central America. The following were the authors of a consultation on curriculum development inLatin America undertaken in 1995 in association with the People and Plants Initiative (Lagos-Witteet al., 1995); many other people were consulted:

Jan Dieke, Programa TRAMIL - Centroaméricana/enda caribe

Lic Janeth Guardado Pineda, Programa TRAMIL - Centroamérica y Panamá

Sonia Lagos-Witte, Programa TRAMIL - Centroaméricana/enda caribe and Universidad Autónoma deNicaragua Léon

Lic Maritza Martínez Molina, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Honduras

Roberto Tinoco, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Honduras

Ethiopia. A session on curriculum development in Applied Ethnobotany was organised on 20September 2002 by Professor Pei Shengji and Alan Hamilton at the 8th International Congress of theInternational Society of Ethnobiology, Addis Ababa. Those presenting papers were:

Prof Abhoy Kumar Das, Institute of Forestry, Pokhara, Nepal

Prof Roy Ellen, Department of Anthropology, University of Kent at Canterbury, UK


Prof Hu Huabin, Kunming Branch of Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, China

Prof Sanu Devi Joshi, Central Department of Botany, Tribhuvan University, Nepal

Dr Esezah Kakudidi, Makerere University, Uganda

Dr Khasbagan, Inner Mongolia Normal University, China

Prof Pei Shengji, Kunming Institute of Botany, China

Dr John Kessy, Sokoine University of Agriculture, Tanzania

Dr Chusie Trisonthi, Chiang Mai University, Thailand



Conservation booksOur books cover a range of topics in Ethnobotany, with examples of approaches, methods and case-studies.

Ethnobotany: a methods manual, Gary J. Martin, 1995, in Bahasa, Chinese, English and Spanish

Plant invaders: the threat to natural ecosystems, Quentin C.B. Cronk and Janice L. Fuller, 1995, inEnglish (re-issued 2001) and Spanish

People, plants and protected areas: a guide to in situ management, John Tuxill and Gary P. Nabhan,1998, in English (re-issued 2001), Spanish and Chinese (in prep.)

Botanical databases for conservation and development, Michael Berjak and Jeremy Grimsdell, 1999,in English. (Published by WWF - download from the People and Plants website)

Applied ethnobotany: people, wild plant use & conservation, Anthony B. Cunningham, 2001, inEnglish, Spanish and Chinese (in prep.)

Uncovering the hidden harvest: valuation methods for woodland & forest resources, B. Campbell &M. Luckert (eds) (2001), in English and Spanish (in prep.)

Biodiversity and traditional knowledge: equitable partnerships in practice, Sarah Laird (ed.) (2002),in English and Spanish (in prep.)

Tapping the green market: certification and management of non-timber forest products, Shanley et al.(eds) (2002), in English


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Appendix 2. Publications, videos and website ofthe People and Plants Initiative

Copies can be ordered from:

(English)Earthscan Publications Ltd.120 Pentonville Road London N1 9JN, UKTel. +44 (0)20 727 80433Fax: +44 (0)20 727 8 [email protected]://www.earthscan.co.uk

(Spanish)Editorial NordanCommunidad del SurAvda. Millan 411312900 MontevideoUruguayFax. +598 2 [email protected]

(Chinese)Professor Pei ShengjiDepartment of EthnobotanyKunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academyof SciencesHeilongtan, KunmingYunnan 650204ChinaFax: +86 871 5150227

(Bahasa)Dr Geoffrey DavidsonWWF MalaysiaP.O. Box 14393Kota KinabaluSabah, [email protected]


http://www.earthscan.co.uk



Working PapersThese cover a range of topics, including examples of fieldwork in which People and Plants has beeninvolved. All are in English, with some available also in Spanish (S below) or French (F). Downloadfrom our website.

#1: African medicinal plants - setting priorities at the interface between conservation and primaryhealth care, A.B. Cunningham, 1993 (S)

#2: Sustainability of harvesting Prunus africana bark in Cameroon - a medicinal plant in internation-al trade, A.B. Cunningham and F.T. Mbenkum, 1993

# 3: Local representations and management of agroforests on the periphery of Kerinci Seblat NationalPark, Sumatra, Indonesia, Y. Aumeeruddy, 1994 (F,S)

# 4: People, park and plant use - recommendations for multiple-use zones and development alterna-tives around Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, Uganda, A.B. Cunningham, 1996 (F)

# 5: Conservation through community use of plant resources - establishing collaborative managementat Bwindi Impenetrable and Mgahinga Gorilla National Parks, Uganda, R.G. Wild and J. Mutebi,1996 (F)

# 6: Quantitative ethnobotany - applications of multivariate and statistical analyses in ethnobotany,M. Höft, S.K. Bark and A.M. Lykke, 1999

# 7: Joint management in the making - reflections and experiences, Y.A. Aumeeruddy-Thomas,S.Saigal, N. Kapoor and A.B. Cunningham, 1999

# 8: Ethnobotany of the Loita Maasai: towards community management of the Forest of the Lost Child;experiences from the Loita ethnobotany project, P. Maundu, D.J. Berger, C. ole Saitabau, J.Nasieku, M. Kipelian, S.G. Mathenge, Y. Morimoto, R. Höft, 2001

# 9: Projek Etnobotani Kinabalu: the making of a Dusun ethnoflora (Sabah, Malaysia), G. Martin, A.Lee Agama, J.H. Beaman and J. Nais, 2002

# 10: An economic evaluation of medicinal tree cultivation: Prunus africana in Cameroon, A.B.Cunningham, E Ayuk, S Franzel, B Duguma and C Asanga, July 2002

HandbooksThe People and Plants Handbook is a source of information on applying Ethnobotany to conservationand community development. It is designed for people who work in the field, including park managers,foresters, students, researchers, and members of government and non-governmental organisations.Issues are available in English and Spanish. Download English versions from our website.

# 1: Keeping in touch: journals, networks, newsletters, organizations and professional societies, GaryJ. Martin and Alison L. Hoare (eds), 1996

# 2: Protecting rights: legal and ethical implications of ethnobiology, Gary J. Martin, Alison L. Hoareand Darrell A. Posey (eds), 1996

# 3: Returning results: community and environmental education, Gary J. Martin and Alison L. Hoare(eds), 1997

# 4: Measuring diversity: methods of assessing biological resources and local knowledge. Gary J.Martin, Alison L. Hoare and Agnes Lee Agama (eds), 1997

# 5: Cultivating the forest: the evolution of agroforestry systems. Gary J. Martin, Agnes Lee Agamaand Roger Leakey (eds), 1999

# 6: Managing Resources: community-based conservation. Gary J. Martin, Sasha Barrow, PatriciaShanley and Anthony B. Cunningham (eds), 2001

# 7: Growing diversity: people and plant genetic resources. Gary J. Martin, Sasha Barrow and PabloEyzaguirre (eds), 2001

# 8: The newsletter of People and Plants. Alan Hamilton and Martin Walters (eds ), 2002.



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Discussion PapersThe following may be viewed on our website:

Ethics, biodiversity and new natural product development, Anthony B. Cunningham

Fair deals in the search for new natural products, Sarah Laird

VideosMost People and Plants videos are of about 25 minutes duration and are designed to demonstrate prac-tical methodologies. Copies are available in PAL and NTSC formats.

People, gorillas and forests: ethnobotanical methods and multiple-use management in Uganda, A.B.Cunningham, 27 minutes. Describes steps towards involvement of communities in the manage-ment system of Bwindi Impenetrable National Park.

Saving the wooden rhino: ethnobotanical methods and Kenya's woodcarving industry; A.B.Cunningham, 25 minutes. Describes approaches and methodologies used to place the industry ona more sustainable basis.

Carvers, conservation and consumers, A.B. Cunningham, 11 minutes. Popular production describingthreats to the sustainability of the hardwood carving industry in Kenya and steps taken towardsmitigation.

Medicinal plants in the hidden land of Dolpo: working with Himalayan healers at Shey PhoksundoNational Park, 26 minutes. Camera, script and direction: Yildiz Aumeeruddy-Thomas. Describessteps towards sustainable harvesting systems for medicinal plants and development of relatedhealthcare.

People and Plants in practice, 25 minutes. Scripted and edited by Tony Cunningham; filmed by TonyCunningham, Yildiz Aumeeruddy and Gary Martin. An introduction to the approaches and contributions of the People and Plants Initiative.

Tree Skin: methods for studying people’s use of bark, 26 minutes. Camera, script and direction: TonyCunningham. Editing: Nic Zimmermann & Pippa Hetherington

Copies are available from:

The Natural History Book Service Ltd2-3 Wills RoadTotnesDevon TQ9 5XN, UKFax: +44 (0)1803 865280 [email protected]

People and Plants website

Our website contains much useful information on Ethnobotany, including details of our projects. ManyPeople and Plants publications can be downloaded. There are links to many other websites dealing withEthnobotany and Economic Botany; this is one of the best websites for entry to the literature onEthnobotany and Economic Botany. A newsletter gives regular updates on developments in the Peopleand Plants Initiative.

http://www.rbgkew.org.uk/peopleplants/


62


http://www.nhbs.com

http://www.rbgkew.org.uk/peopleplants

The topics are listed in two columns, roughly cross-matching with one another. The left-hand column has been developed from rec-ommendations at several workshops (see text) and other consultations. The entries in the right-hand column are topics described ormentioned in books or working papers produced by the People and Plants Initiative; they are mainly practical field methods.

Codes to publications (full citations in Appendix 2) (initial page numbers of relevant sections of the publications in brackets): Books:B1 Ethnobotany; B2 Plant invaders; B3 People, plants and protected areas; B4 Botanical databases for conservation and development;B5 Applied ethnobotany; B6 Uncovering the hidden harvest; B7 Biological diversity and traditional knowledge; B8 Tapping thegreen market. Working papers (all available on www.rbgkew.org.uk/peopleplants): W1 African medicinal plants; W2 Sustainabilityof harvesting Prunus africana bark in Cameroon; W3 Local representations and management of agroforests on the periphery ofKerinci Seblat National Park, Sumatra; W4 People, park and plant use; W5 Conservation through community use of plant resources;W6 Quantitative ethnobotany; W7 Joint management in the making; W8 Ethnobotany of the Loita Maasai; W9 Projek EtnobotaniKinabalu.



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Appendix 3. Possible topics to cover in courses andprogrammes in Applied Ethnobotany

Introduction to field approaches and methodsPreparations for fieldwork: B1 (6), B3 (33)Attitudes of researchers: B5 (15)Use of a field notebook and diary: B1 (36; 107)Communication across cultural boundaries: B3 (78)Relationships with local people: B7 (179)Involving stakeholders in research: B6 (205)Working with local people: B1 (96), B3 (33), B6 (217)Selecting local collaborators: B1 (97)Paraprofessional training: B3 (69)Selecting the right field methods: B5 (12, 16)Cross-checking information and data: B5 (19)Analysis and presentation of results: B1 (17)Return of results to communities: B7 (102), W9 (8)Publication of results: B7 (77)

National/regional Ethnobotany. History of peoples,economies and cultures in the country/region. History of useand management of land and plants; sources of evidence(archaeological, historical records, etc.). How people haveinfluenced the vegetation and flora. National/regional historiesof Economic Botany and Ethnobotany as research subjects.Case-studies of applications of Ethnobotany to conservationand sustainable development. Ethnobotanical societies, net-works, publications and research centres.

INTRODUCTION TO APPLIED ETHNOBOTANY

Overview of Applied Ethnobotany. Definition, history andbranches of Ethnobotany. Relationship of Ethnobotany to othersubjects. Applications of Ethnobotany. How people influenceplants and plants influence people. Everyday/folk perceptions,knowledge and values of plants: their relevance to conservationand development. Local ecosystems: ecological, cultural, eco-nomic and political dimensions. The wider contexts of localecosystems (national, regional, global). Competencies expectedof applied ethnobotanists (knowledge, skills, behaviour).Research approaches in Applied Ethnobotany: different levelsof participation; community involvement in definition of issues,and collection and analysis of information and data; use ofresults. Ethical aspects of Applied Ethnobotany. Use of the eth-nobotanical literature.

http://www.rbgkew.org.uk/peopleplants):

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Introduction to field approaches and methods. Attitudes andbehaviour of applied ethnobotanists. Identifying research sitesand initial research questions. Preparation for fieldwork: back-ground reading; consultations with experts and agencies; find-ing resources for research. Composition of ethnobotanicalteams. Introduction to communities. Stakeholder analysis.Participatory appraisals of plant resources: users and uses.Working with local specialists in plant resources. Data analysisand writing up results. Using results: their return to communi-ties; follow-up actions; community education and training.Identification of conflicts and resolution of disputes.

Botany. Introduction to plant forms, morphology, anatomy andphysiology; plant geography. Taxonomy and systematics.Voucher specimens in Ethnobotany: collection; design oflabels; recording information, including ethnobotanical data.Plant identification, including use of keys. Herbarium tech-niques.

Ecology. Scientific and traditional ecological knowledge.Ecosystems: concept of the ecosystem; types of ecosystems;ecosystem components (including people); physical structureand functioning of ecosystems. Scientific and locally recog-nised categories of: vegetation, soils, landscape units.Toponyms. Historical and cultural reading of the landscape.National/local ecosystems: vegetation structure; major plantspecies; dynamics; human influences. Common field methodsin ecology: use of transects and plots (and roles for local knowl-edge for influencing their siting, size and what to record).

EcologyLandscape patterns, including local knowledge: B5 (192), B5(212)Changes in landscapes and land-use: W3 (10, 32)Disturbance: B5 (208)Ethnoecology, including locally recognised types of vegeta-tion and management systems (including along thewild/domesticated spectrum); names for habitats and places:B1 (146), B3 (91), B5 (248), W9 (24)Vegetation sampling: B5 (159

Perceptions, knowledge and values of plants. Plants as sym-bols and in rituals and myths; their places in cosmologies.Types of value placed on plants (non-utilitarian, utilitarian).Concepts of wild, managed, cultivated and domesticated plants.Traditional conservation of vegetation, species and individualplants. Origin, distribution and transmission of knowledge ofplants; exchanges of knowledge between communities. Folknomenclature and classification of plants. Recording local plantnames. Methods for evaluating local knowledge: free-listing;use and importance values; ranking; cultural consensus; 24-hour recall; pile-sorting; triads, 1-hectare plots. Returning localknowledge to communities.

CognitionPerceptions of the environment: W3 (14)Use of folklore: B1 (112)Non-market values in developing countries: B6 (103), W8 (17)Customary conservation practices: B5 (223)Transcribing and analysing local plant names: B1 (202)Folk taxonomy: B1 (215), B5 (44), W9 (24, 37)Surveys and assessment of local plant knowledge; free-listing:B1 (213)1-hectare plots: W9 (29)Erosion of local plant knowledge: W9 (73)Exchanges between communities: B3 (71)Ethnobotanical collections: B1 (59)

Social ScienceModels of human behaviour: B6 (230)Ritual, religion and resource control: B5 (253)Social organisation: W8 (9)Institutions and their relationships: B5 (25), B6 (213)Land tenure and resource rights: B3 (71), B5 (233)

Social Science. Major socio-economic modes. Social change.Social structures, including community institutions. Socialnorms, customs and rules. Customary and modern law. Landtenure and resource rights. Social distribution of benefits andcosts associated with plant use and management. The causes ofenvironmental conflict. Strategies for public involvement indecision-making. Field methods: participatory observation;interviews (including semi-structured); questionnaires.

BotanyCollection and care of voucher specimens: B1 (28), B3 (87),B5 (18, 31)Recording data on plants, including ethnobotanical data: B1(39), B5 (31), W9 (whole paper)Field taxonomy and local knowledge: B5 (32)

BASIC BACKGROUND KNOWLEDGE

PLANT RESOURCES AND COGNITION

3

Participatory methodsLevels of participation: B6 (168), W9 (79)Participatory appraisals: B1 (3), B3 (31, 63), B5 (23), B6(171, 186), W5 (18)Participatory action research: B3 (65)Participatory observation and open-ended conversations: B1(107), B5 (28)Interviews: B1 (110), B3 (36), B5 (26)Role-playing: B6 (176)Questionnaires: B5 (29), B6 (192)Structured surveys: B1 (116)Stakeholder analysis: B5 (259)Surveys of community and household economy: B1 (183)Wealth ranking: B5 (25)Seasonal calendars: B3 (50), B5 (23)


65

Conservation and sustainable development. Biological con-servation (emphasising plants): purposes and history.Sustainable development: definitions and practical approaches.Institutions involved in conservation and management of landand plant resources (household to international levels). Land-use assessment (different geographical scales) for conservationand sustainable use; zoning land for different purposes; corri-dors. Determining and monitoring of conservation status ofplant species, plant varieties and vegetation types (emphasisingroles of local knowledge). Protected areas. Ex situ conserva-tion; re-introductions; restoration. Towards more sustainableresource use: improved in situ management; more efficient useof plant resources; identification and promotion of alternativesto over-harvested plant resources. Developing local industriesbased on plants. Green marketing and certification. Roles ofeducation and awareness-raising.

Contributions of Ethnobotany to sustainable forest management. Forests: types, history, human influences, values. Legal status;perceptions of power, ownership, rights and responsibilitiesrelating to forest land and forest plants. Plant products fromforests, emphasising non-timber products. Determination of theusers and uses of forest plants, including locations of sites ofharvest and the amounts harvested or used: household and mar-ket surveys; field surveys with resource-specialists. Estimationof the impacts of harvesting on plant populations and wider for-est ecosystems. Community institutions relevant to improvedforest management. Collaborative/joint forest management.

Towards improved management of forest resourcesCommunity-based natural resource management B5 (226)Joint/collaborative resource management: W4, W5 and W7(whole papers)Problem analysis in joint resource management: W5 (10)Making agreements: W5 (27)Establishing improved management: B5 (222), B6 (235)Making a management plan: B3 (116)Monitoring: B3 (134, 145), B5 (176), W5 (30), W7 (16)Cultivation as a substitute for wild harvest: B1 (25), W4 (wholepaper), W5 (3)Detailed studies of individual species used as resourcesSelecting priority species for research: B5 (144)Sites and sizes of sample plots: B1 (155)Measuring and evaluating individual plants: B1 (159), B5 (96)Ageing individual plants: B5 (115)Quantities of plant products used: B5 (53)Estimating harvesting impacts: B5 (126)Estimating recovery rates of plants: B5 (53)Supply versus demand: B5 (180), W4 (whole paper)Demographics of plants and their monitoring: B1 (159), B3(159), B5 (173, 184)

Conservation and sustainable useLocal knowledge and botanical inventory: W9 (whole paper)Assessing the conservation status of species: B5 (202), W9(30)Criteria for identifying priorities in plant resource conserva-tion: B3 (103)Characterising threats to plant resources: B3 (110), W8 (25)Invasive species: B2 (whole book), B3 (109)

Enhancing livelihoodsNew products: B1 (234)Arts and crafts promotion: B1 (235)Ecotourism: B1 (238)Ethnobotany and education: B1 (231)

Plant resources and plant products. Contributions of plantsto local livelihoods, and to wider economies (national, region-al, global) - historically, today and potentially in the future.Categories of use of plant resources and of products made fromplants: their association with types of ecosystem, economy andculture. Trade in wild and cultivated plants; market surveys.Plant-based industries. Economic valuation of plant resources.Validation of plant products: foods, medicines, fuelwood,building materials, fodder, etc. Ethnobotanical collections.

Assessments of plant resourcesInventories of ethnobotanical resources: B3 (93), W8 (17)Value of plant resources to rural households: B6 (17)The value of forest products: B1 (173)Estimating plant resource use and determining priorities: B3(75), W5 (16)Ranking and scoring: B1 (123), B3 (57), B5 (25, 48), B6(179), W5 (21), W8 (21)Community mapping: B3 (41), B5 (23, 212), B6 (176)Transect walks: B3 (48), B5 (23)Timelines: B3 (50), B5 (23)Marketing chains and markets: B1 (191), B5 (64), B6 (87)Management of resources: B5 (whole book), W7 (21)

Micro-economicsContingent valuation: B6 (110)Revealed preference methods: B6 (125)Benefits versus costs: B6 (17)

CONTRIBUTIONS TO CONSERVATION AND SUSTAINABLE LIVELIHOODS




66

Contributions to sustainable agricultureDocumenting agricultural plant resources: B3 (181)Surveys of home gardens: B1 (169)Documenting agroforestry systems: W3 (21)Understanding farmers' decisions about landraces: B3 (193)Farmer-based approaches to conserving landraces: B3 (198)Establishing a community seedbank: B3 (204)Participatory plant breeding: B3 (208)

Contributions of Ethnobotany to food and nutrition. Foodsas parts of cultural systems. Sense of identity relating to food.Traditional concepts of health and nutrition. Contributions ofbiocultural diversity to contemporary food systems.Adaptations to urbanisation and other forces of change. Sourcesof essential nutrients. Major food plants of the world. Ediblewild plants. Famine foods. Post-harvest issues of edible plants.Food processing.

Contributions of Ethnobotany to healthcare. Traditions ofmedicine, diet and health maintenance. History of plant-basedmedicine. Concepts of health and ailments; folk classificationof conditions. Documentation of folk medicine. Authenticationof traditional medicine; contributions of phytochemistry, phar-macognosy and physiology. Traditional medicine and nationalhealthcare: regulation; training; integrated medicine.Ethnobotany and new drug development, including legal andethical aspects. Conservation and sustainable use of medicinalplants: conservation status of species; legal aspects; tradechains and pressures on resources; in situ management (includ-ing in situ cultivation); cultivation; potential contributions oftraders, manufacturers and consumers.

Policy and Applied Ethnobotany. International, national andlocal policies relating to: conservation (including protectedareas); sustainable development; forests (including recognisedroles for communities); agriculture; land ownership andresource rights; health (including relating to traditional andintegrated medicine); education (including recognition oflocal/indigenous cultural diversity). Policies, laws and regula-tions relating specifically to plants. Policies relating to intellec-tual property rights and benefit-sharing with respect to newcommercial products from plants.

Ethics in Applied Ethnobotany. Who is Applied Ethnobotanyfor? Ethical basis of relationships between ethnobotanists andknowledge-holders in communities (including respect for secretknowledge). Questions of rights to own or have access to nat-ural resources. Intellectual property rights; the patenting ofindigenous knowledge. Distribution and forms of benefits duefrom commercialisation of new products based on plants orlocal knowledge of plant properties.

PoliciesConvention on Biological Diversity: B7 (9)Protected area policies: B7 (127)Policies for conservation of medicinal plants and for health-care: W1 (29)Prior informed consent and research agreements with localpeople: B7 (179), W9 (12)Biodiversity prospecting, including agreements and benefit-sharing: B7 (241) (see also Discussion Papers)

Contributions to healthcareEthnobotany and healthcare: B1 (238)Roles of traditional medical practitioners: W1 (4)Customary controls on medicinal plants gathering: B4 (4)Commercial trade in medicinal plants: W1 (8), W4 (8)Field-level impact of trade in medicinal plants: W4 (13)Focus of management efforts: W4 (23)Potential for cultivation: W4 (25)

EthicsEthnobotany and ethics: B1 (239)Responsibilities of researchers: B7 (12)Values of participatory approaches in Ethnobotany: W9 (76)Who benefits from plant use or conservation?: B3 (210), W5(38)The ethics of biodiversity research: B7 (whole book)

Contributions of Ethnobotany to sustainable agriculture.Production systems: plant gathering; swidden, permanent andplantation agriculture; unsubsidised and subsidised agriculture.Agroforestry; tree nursery establishment. Origin of agriculture;plant domestication. Participatory research with farmers,including documentation of agricultural plant resources andplant-breeding. Factors influencing decisions taken by farmers.Local plant protection and crop breeding. Conservation of croplandraces. Seed collection and management; community seed-banks.

POLICY AND ETHICS

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Composition, validation and discovery of plant-based med-icines. Secondary plant metabolites: types, physiologicaleffects. Active principles: isolation, chemistry, physiologicaleffects. Phytochemical screening of medicinal plant extracts.Bioassays. Authentication of traditional medicines: clinical andother types of trials. Determination of efficacy, toxicity anddosage. Databases containing information on medicinal plants.Preparation of medicinal plant extracts and formulation ofusable products. Standardisation and quality control of crudedrugs. The psychology of healing. Strategies for new drug dis-covery. Synthetic products of plant compounds. Legal aspectsof new drug registration.

Composition of human and livestock food. Analysis of diets,including food composition: carbohydrates, lipids, proteins, vit-amins and minerals. Functional properties: antioxidants, fibre,glycemic index, digestibility. Poisonous and toxic plants.Deficiencies and diseases. Fodder crops: analyses of pasturequality.

Properties of wood, fibres and other plant materials.Functional morphology: stem, roots, leaves, flowers and fruits.Cellular structure of wood. Conductive system in seed plants.Wood pulp and paper production. Wood fuel. Wood products:density, dendrochronology, grain. Fibres: plants and products.Latex and rubber. Gums and resins. Tannins and dyes. Other'minor forest products'. Economic aspects of production ofwood and non-wood products.

Field and laboratory analysesField screening for biological activity: B1 (77)Phytochemical analysis: B1 (68)Nutritional analysis: B1 (75)

Access to sources of information and preparation of writtenmaterials. Use of libraries, journals and the internet.Preparation and interrogation of databases. Scientific writingfor reports and scientific papers. Preparation of informative dia-grams and maps. Analyses of geographically referenced infor-mation.

Use of databases: B1 (14), B4 (whole book)

Quantitative methodsHypothesis testing: B1 (23)The concept of data: W6 (3)Comparison of several means: W6 (22)Correlation and regression: W9 (28)Classification and ordination: W6 (9)Modelling: B6 (218)Applications of linear models: W6 (30)GIS: W9 (28)

Scientific methodology and quantitative techniques inApplied Ethnobotany.Finding practical solutions in interdisciplinary contexts.Common sense and questioning. Recognising priorities anddeveloping efficient research strategies. Experimental design:hypothesis setting and testing. Cross-checking results. Sampledisposition and sample size; what to determine within eachsample; contributions of local knowledge to selection of thesevariables. Determining the distribution and abundance ofplants, levels of harvesting and impacts of harvesting on plantpopulations; estimating the contributions of ecological, eco-nomic and cultural factors as determinants of these variables.Knowledge (and importance values) of plants held by differenthuman populations; social and cultural determinants of thesepatterns.

INFORMATION HANDLING AND SCIENTIFIC METHODOLOGY

PLANT-BASED PRODUCTS: COMPOSITION, VALIDATION AND INNOVATION



EthnobotanyEthnobotany

McClatchey et al. (1999)Italics = ‘background’ course.

E. studies of specific local cultures.

Systematic botany.Biogeography.Plant anatomy/morphology.

Ethnography.Cultural anthropology.Sociology.

Ecology.Ethnoecology.

Wild & cultivated plant resources.Plants used by different peoples (hunter-gatherers, agriculturalists, pastoralists).Origin & evolution of crops.Cultural significance of clothing, shelter & transportation.Foods as medicines.

Traditional taxonomies; Linguistic E.; Plants in folklore.

Botanical and cultural conservation; Sustainable agriculture.

Traditional medicine; Human physiology.

Phytochemistry.

Ethics; Intellectual property rights; Plants & human rights.

Language training.

Plant collection in a cultural setting.Plant identification.Field research methods (e.g. interviewing plant experts).

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Appendix 4. Recommended topics of programmes in Ethno-

Type of EthnobotanyType of Ethnobotany

Source:Source:

IntroductoryIntroductory

Local EthnobotanyLocal Ethnobotany

BotanyBotany

Social sciencesSocial sciences

EcologyEcology

Plant resourcesPlant resources

Cognitive, linguisticsCognitive, linguistics

Conservation and Conservation and sustainable developmentsustainable development

Medical EthnobotanyMedical Ethnobotany

Evaluation and innovationEvaluation and innovation

Ethics, policiesEthics, policies

Human interaction skillsHuman interaction skills

EducationEducation

LanguagesLanguages

MethodsMethods


E=Ethnobotany

Applied EthnobotanyApplied Ethnobotany

Kessy (2002)

Introduction to E.

Plant taxonomy.

Ecological Anthropology.Medical anthropology.

Ecosystem types, distribution & functioning.Human roles in ecosystems: influence of culture.Human adaptation to forests.Food, health & society.

Plants & plant products important in history or to localeconomies in developing countries.Origin & evolution of crops.

Folk medicine.Relationship between medical practices & belief systems.Psychoactive plants.

Chemistry of medicinal plants.

Intellectual property rights.

Computer science & database management.Methods of collecting & analysing data.


Pei Shengji (2002)

Introduction to E, incl. branches, history, relationships with other subjects.

National (Chinese) E: history and current status.

Plant taxonomy.

Community institutions.Land tenure & resource rights.Social norms & conservation.

Traditional management of plant resources (forests, swidden agriculture,agroforests, home-gardens).Culture & landscape.

Uses of plants for different purposes in various cultures.Cultural influences on plant use.

Folk nomenclature and classification; Plants in folklore; Traditional ecologi-cal knowledge; Values placed on plants.

Conservation, sustainable use & restoration relating to specific ecosystems(e.g. forest): traditional & scientific contributions; Conservation of traditionalmedicine; Roles of E. exchanges, projects with women & income-generatingactivities (e.g. tourism); Relationship between biological & cultural diversity.

Traditional medicine: knowledge-systems, history, cultural interpretation.

Traditional knowledge & new products.

Cultural and religious belief systems and nature conservation.

Ethnoecological knowledge & environmental education.

Field documentation.Plant collection & identification.Participatory methods.Databases & data analysis.StatisticsLaboratory studies.

botany and Applied Ethnobotany according to various authors

69PEOPLE AND PLANTS WORKING PAPER 11, JANUARY 2003THE PURPOSES AND TEACHING OF APPLIED ETHNOBOTANY

A. HAMILTON, PEI SHENGJI, J. KESSY, A.A. KHAN, S. LAGOS-WITTE & Z.K. SHINWARI


70


Lagos-Witte et al. 1995 and Lagos-Witte (2002)

Introduction to E, incl. orientation, history, basic methods, interdisciplinary concepts.

Regional ethnobotany and history of peoples.

Plant taxonomy, systematics and identification; field keys.Phytogeography.

Introductions to anthropology & sociology.Cultural theory.

Basic concepts in ecology.Population and community ecology.Relationships between people and the environment.Agroecology.

Categories of useful plants.Plant resources: appropriation, utilisation, trade; cultural influences.Non-timber forest products.Origin & evolution of crops.

ndigenous taxonomies.Linguistics.

Conservation & sustainable use (forest, agriculture).Plant trade & its sustainability.Contributions to health.Conservation of useful plants.

Medical E.

Relevant policies: conservation, development, health, etc.

Communication.Conflict resolution.

Environmental education.

Field methods in E.Research design.Statistics.Cartography & GIS.

Type of EthnobotanyType of Ethnobotany

Source:Source:

IntroductoryIntroductory

Local EthnobotanyLocal Ethnobotany

BotanyBotany

Social sciencesSocial sciences

EcologyEcology

Plant resourcesPlant resources

Cognitive, linguisticsCognitive, linguistics

Conservation and Conservation and sustainable developmentsustainable development

Medical EthnobotanyMedical Ethnobotany

Evaluation and innovationEvaluation and innovation

Ethics, policiesEthics, policies

Human interaction skillsHuman interaction skills

EducationEducation

LanguagesLanguages

MethodsMethods

Appendix 4. Continued



71


Shinwari et al. (2002)

Introduction to E; history of E; roles in plant conservation; role of E in sustainable developmentand poverty alleviation.

National plant resources.

Collection of voucher specimens; plant identification.

Social and anthropological aspects of plant use.Tenure, religious and gender aspects of plant resource use and conservation.

Ethnoecological knowledge.

Plant resources (status, threats and conservation): timber, fuel, fodder, food, medical, etc.Detailed studies on medicinal plants.Plant resources in history and national economies.Commercialisation of plant products.Plant domestication.

Folk nomenclature and classification of plants.Folk knowledge of plants.

Plant conservation.Traditional management of plant resources.Roles for E. in forestry.Plant propagation and nursery establishment.

Medical E.

Intellectual property rights.

Participatory approaches.

Collection and analysis of biological and anthropological data. Quantitative methods.

Already published in this series:

1. Cunningham, A. B. 1993. African medicinal plants: Setting priorities at the interface between conservationand primary healthcare. (This publication is also available in Spanish.)

2. Cunningham, A. B. and Mbenkum, F. T. 1993. Sustainability of harvesting Prunus africana bark inCameroon: A medicinal plant in international trade.

3. Aumeeruddy, Y. 1994. Local representations and management of agroforests on the periphery of KerinciSeblat National Park, Sumatra, Indonesia. (This publication is also available in French and Spanish.)

4. Cunningham, A. B. 1996. People, park and plant use: Recommendations for multiple-use zones and devel-opment alternatives around Bwindi Impenetable National Park, Uganda. (This publication is also availablein French.)

5. Wild, R. and Mutebi, J. 1996. Conservation through community use of plant resources: Establishing collab-orative management at Bwindi Impenetrable and Mgahinga Gorilla National Parks, Uganda. (This publica-tion is also available in French.)

6. Höft, M., Barik, S. K. and Lykke, A. M. 1999. Quantitative ethnobotany: Applications of multivariate and sta-tistical analyses in ethnobotany.

7. Aumeeruddy-Thomas, Y., Saigal, S., Kapoor, N. and Cunningham, A. B. 1999. Joint management in themaking: Reflections and experiences.

8. Maundu, P., Berger, D., Saitabau, C. ole,. Nasieku, J., Kukutia, M., Kipelian, M., Kone, S., Mathenge, S.,Morimoto, Y. , Höft, R. 2001. Ethnobotany of the Loita Maasai: Towards community management of theForest of the Lost Child. Experiences from the Loita Ethnobotany Project.

9. Martin, G. J., Lee Agama, A., Beaman, J. H. and Nais, J. 2002. Projek Etnobotani Kinabalu. The making ofa Dusun Ethnoflora (Sabah, Malaysia).

10. Cunningham, A.B., Ayuk, E., Franzel, S., Duguma, B. and Asanga, C. 2002. An economic evaluation ofmedicinal tree cultivation: Prunus africana in Cameroon.

The People and Plants Initiative

was started in July 1992 by WWF, UNESCO and theRoyal Botanic Gardens, Kew to promote the sustain-able and equitable use of plant resources throughproviding support to ethnobotanists from developingcountries.

The initiative stems from the recognition that peoplein rural communities often have detailed andprofound knowledge of the properties and ecology oflocally occurring plants, and rely on them for many oftheir foods, medicines, fuel, building materialsand other products. However, muchof this knowledge is being lost with the transformationof local ecosystems and local cultures. Over-harvesting of non cultivated plants is increasinglycommon, caused by loss of habitat, increase in localuse and the growing demands of trade. Long-termconservation of plant resources and the knowledgeassociated with them is needed for the benefit of thelocal people and for their potential use to localcommunities in other places.

The diversity of traditional plant-resourcemanagement practices runs through a spectrum from“cultivation” through to gathering “wild” plants, all ofwhich are included in the People and Plantsapproach.

Ethnobotanists can work together with local people tostudy and record the uses of plant resources, identifycases of over-harvesting of non-cultivated plants, findsustainable harvesting methods and investigatealternatives such as cultivation.

The People and Plants initiative is building supportfor ethnobotanists from developing countries whowork with local people on issues related to theconservation of both plant resources and traditionalecological knowledge. Key participants organizeparticipatory workshops, undertake discussion andadvisory visits to field projects and provide literatureon ethnobotany, traditional ecological knowledge andsustainable plant resource use. It is hoped that anetwork of ethnobotanists working on these issuesin different countries and regions can be developed toexchange information, share experience andcollaborate on field projects.

Please visit our website at:http://www.rbgkew.org.uk/peopleplants

Contact addresses:

WWF International Plants Conservation UnitWWF-UKPanda House, Catteshall Lane,Godalming Surrey GU7 1XRUNITED KINGDOMFax: 44 1483 426409

Division of Ecological SciencesUNESCO7 Place de Fontenoy75352 Paris Cedex 07 SP FRANCEFax: 33 1 45685804

The DirectorRoyal Botanic Gardens, KewRichmond Surrey TW9 3ABUNITED KINGDOMFax: 44 181 3325278

http://www.rbgkew.org.uk/peopleplants

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