THE IMPORTANCE OF ETHNOBOTANY IN ENVIRONMENTAL CONSERVATION

Abstract

One of the most important aspects of environmental conservation is etnobotanical conservation. People in primitive societies, from earliest times of human existence, have had to depend on their ambient vegetation for survival. For many millennia, they have by curiosity and experimentation become extraordinarily knowledgeable about the properties and uses of their plants. It can be vitally important to all of mankind today, including those living in advanced agro-industrial nations who have usually become isolated from the world's floras. This intimate acquaintance with plants has been orally passed down from father to son. It is rapidly being lost with the unyielding acculturation and "westernization" of primitives societies or even the extinction of many aboriginal peoples. With increased road-building, dam construction, commercial activity, growing missionary penetration, wars, tourism and other aspects of modem existence this precious knowledge is fast disappearing, often in a single generation. This is particularly evident in the natives use of medicinal plants: when modem medicines, effective and easy to use, become available, complete acceptance of western remedies occurs. Intimate familiarity with the biological diversity of plants -a valuable adjunct of botanical wealth among many indigenous peoples and of great value to science- is doomed to extinction. There are perhaps half a million species of plants in the world. Many regions, especially in rain forest areas, are incredibly rich: the Amazon, for example, has an estimated 80,000 species. Knowledge of the properties of these plants is disappearing faster even than many of the trees which are being sacrificed often before they can be named or scientifically studied. The time has come to salvage what is left of this knowledge before it is forever entombed with the culture that gave it brith. His Royal Highness, Prince Philip, has expressed it succinctly: "The tropical forests and their traditional inhabitants are under very severe pressure from human encroachment, and it is sadly inevitable that many of these valuable plant species and the tribes which understand their use, are rapidly disappearing forever". Ethnobotanical conservation must be placed near the top of conservational priorities. Every effort to increase its activity, to train more ethnobotanists capable of saving as much of this heritage as possible, to supply financial support of field studies must be the guiding goals of conservation efforts in the next two or three decades. It will soon be too late.