11 What is biodiversity worth to developing countries?

T. Ravishankar^[18]

ABSTRACT

The livelihoods of millions of farmers, fishermen and tribal communities in the developing countries are closely knit with the biodiversity components within their proximity. The human race has been dependent on plants for their survival, material and emotional needs since its evolution. Biodiversity has provided many valuable genes in the development of crop plants that are extensively cultivated today. Medicinal properties of plants have been recognized and exploited for thousands of years. New chemicals are continuously being discovered and extracted from plants for combating many human ailments. The very existence of cultural diversity is directly dependent on biological diversity; erosion of either of these would greatly affect humankind. The traditional way of living, followed by tribal communities using biodegradable components, when replaced by the ideas of policy-makers without consulting or taking tribal communities into confidence, has resulted in disinterest of the younger generation. This had, in many instances, led to the disappearing of much traditional knowledge vital to tribal livelihoods. NTFP resources, traditionally a source of income to the rural and tribal communities in developing countries are fast dwindling because of the increased dependency by local communities and over-harvesting by commercial agencies. There is also a threat of overexploitation of seed material of a few species of NTFPs, which may lead to the eventual extinction of such species. To gain acceptance and enhance effectiveness, policy guidelines on micro-level management addressing the above issues should be developed in consultation with local communities and should be included in the work plans of respective forest divisions.

BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY AND CULTURAL DIVERSITY

In the context of worthiness, biodiversity encompasses a range from terrestrial wild and domesticated plant genetic resources to fresh water and marine living resources. The livelihoods of millions of farmers, fishermen and tribal communities in the developing countries are closely knit with the biodiversity components available within their proximity. Rational management that meets the requirements of conservation of biodiversity and the livelihoods of people in the fringe areas of biodiversity rich forested areas is the need of the hour.

Technically plant biodiversity is grouped under the wild and domesticated class. Wild biodiversity includes edible and medicinal plants and plants used in culture, religion and material culture, land races and traditional varieties and wild relatives of cultivated crops. Domesticated diversity includes the cultivated crop diversity (Figure 1).

Figure 1. Biodiversity values

Biological diversity is measured in terms of genetic diversity (within the species), species diversity (diversity at species level) and ecosystem diversity. The human race has been dependent on plants for survival, material and emotional needs since its evolution. All over the world people have developed intimate relationships with the surrounding vegetation. Such a close interaction prevails among various tribal communities throughout the world even today. The interaction has enabled a unique system of knowledge on the utilization and conservation of plant genetic resources to evolve.

Cultural diversity in terms of ethnic groups gives knowledge on the worthiness of plant resources. The knowledge of ethnic groups on the cultural, spiritual, social and economic values of plants is of immense value to humankind. Biodiversity has provided many valuable genes in the development of crop plants that are extensively cultivated today. It can equip humankind with several new chemicals for combating many human ailments in future. We have examples that the ethnic knowledge has contributed to the betterment of human life. A drug has been developed and marketed for retention of memory from the semi-aquatic herb Bacopa monnieri and Centella asiatica that have been traditionally used in India for enhancing memory power. Similarly several new drugs have been developed from the plants used by the Amazon tribes (Schultes 1991). All these examples clearly give a message that cultural diversity is the prime source of the utilitarian aspects of plant biodiversity.

The very existence of cultural diversity is directly dependent on biological diversity. This traditional ecological knowledge of ethnic groups is not confined to mere sustenance only since the tribal communities depend upon biological resources for their spiritual, religious and cultural needs too. The tribal communities understand all these as life-sustaining resources. Therefore they not only utilize them but also conserve them. Erosion of either of these diversities would greatly affect humankind. Hence both the biological and cultural diversities should be considered as a unit for a meaningful conservation.

Sacred groves: Sacred groves are set-aside forests preserved with reverence in some developing countries in the tropical region. In India it is believed that the local deity resides in the patch of forest protecting the village and the traditional communities living nearby. Hence a spiritual reason is attached to conserving the patch of forest. This helps in water conservation and maintenance of microlevel water-table, which caters to the water requirement of the villagers. The local community preserves the forest with traditional rules, which restrict people from entering the forest without the permission of the priest and collection of biomass from the sacred forest. Women are restricted from entering during the menstrual cycle. The old trees are preserved with greater reverence. This system has helped in conserving keystone species.

UNIQUE ASPECTS OF UTILIZATION OF PLANTS BY TRIBAL COMMUNITIES

In southern India certain interesting characteristics accompany the tribal utilization of plants. Often many plants are used for a single purpose although other parts of the plants may have potential utility values. For example, the following plants are used almost exclusively for their edible fruits and seeds: Bridelia retusa, Canthium dicoccum, Ficus racemosa, Madhuca longifolia var. latifolia, Palaqium ellipticum, Phyllanthus emblica, Polyalthia cerasoides, Premna tomentosa, Scleichera oleosa, Terminalia bellerica and Xylia xylocarpa. These plants are not used even for construction or making agricultural implements and similar uses.

TRADITIONAL KNOWLEDGE OF TRIBES ON MEDICINAL PLANTS

Medicinal properties of plants have been recognized and exploited by tribal communities as a tradition for thousands of years. Members of the community possess knowledge on some common medicinal plants in their locality. However, the elderly members possess a greater deal of knowledge on medicinal plants as well as on medicines for curing certain life threatening diseases. Tribal people use plants solely or in combination. The same plants may be used for different disorders: for example, Centella asiatica used for gynecological problems and for jaundice, Dodonaea viscosa used for headache, stomach pain and piles, and Wrightia tinctoria for treating mumps and as lactagogue.

TRADITIONAL AGRICULTURAL PRACTICES OF TRIBAL COMMUNITIES

In the agricultural scenario, the knowledge of tribal people in traditional agriculture is invaluable. Their farming practices give a real meaning to the word “sustainability”. Tribal communities, namely Irulas and Malayalis living in Tamil Nadu in India, have been cultivating the traditional cultivars and enhancing their genetic value by selecting healthy individual plants from the crop during every season. Their subsistence life style, local diet habits and dependence on rain-fed irrigation have influenced them to cultivate and conserve the grains for consumption and as seed material for the coming season. By selection and conservation of these seeds from one season to the next season, they are able to sustain themselves and continue to be self-reliant. The tribal communities prefer to grow the traditional cultivars, as these are ecologically suitable and economically viable. They are also drought and pest tolerant and disease resistant.

The tribal communities practise a unique method of farming, namely mixed cropping system (MCS). The MCS enables them to cultivate cereals, leafy vegetables, pulses and oil crops together in a limited area depending on monsoon rain. The practice is such that the seeds of common millet, finger millet, grain and leaf amaranth, pulses and castor are mixed together and broadcasted. Primarily the common millet is harvested followed by finger millet. Edible leaves of amaranth and seeds and pods of pulses are used for daily consumption. Edible grains of amaranth are harvested and stored for future use. Castor seeds are harvested and used for both domestic consumption and to be sold in the market.

The MCS primarily helps in utilizing the seasonal rainfall but also in keeping the soil unexposed thereby preventing topsoil erosion. Secondly, the combination of crops with legumes uses nitrogen fixation, thus maintaining the soil fertility. This helps the farmers to derive maximum benefits from their small landholdings. Hence this concept of MCS can be adopted and introduced in places where rain-fed agriculture or wherever monocropping is in vogue.

Community cooperation and participation prevailing in the Malayali tribal community has helped in conserving the seed material of minor millets. The practice is such that every family in the community has to contribute an amount of grain to the community granary maintained and managed by the chieftain of the hamlet. During important occasions like marriages, social events and festivals, and also in cases of need for daily consumption, the grain can be borrowed and paid back. This system has enabled the tribals to conserve the seed material even if the produce in that season is less or if the grain stored for domestic consumption is exhausted.

SELECTION OF BETTER GENETIC MATERIAL OF CROPS

By virtue of their age-old indigenous knowledge on the viability of the seeds, which are used for sowing in the following season, healthy cobs or seeds are selected and stored every season thereby enhancing the genetic potential of the crop. For example, healthy cobs are left in the field so as to allow them to dry to the maximum to make sure that no moisture is left in the seeds. The selection of large and healthy seeds and also the selection based on the colour of the seeds (e.g. in the case of castor seeds) have also helped them select more viable seeds.

Storing: Seed material for sowing and the grains for consumption are preserved in traditional granaries made up of bamboo coated with red soil and thatched with local grass and also in earthen pots. This indigenous practice has saved many varieties of cereals, millets and legumes in Tamil Nadu in south India. Knowingly or unknowingly this practice has enabled them to maintain, preserve and conserve the seed material. The reason being, owing to free flow of air in and out of these indigenous granaries, the seeds could maintain their viability. Leaves of a few botanicals, particularly neem and Vitex, are used as insect and pest repellents. Seeds of legumes are preserved along with their pods thereby preventing fungal or bacterial infection.

Owing to the above practices, the genetic strains could be conserved by these people for a long time, which are of great value to the poverty-ridden developing countries. In order to prevent any genetic erosion, the traditional cultivars need to be conserved through protection as they form the basic raw materials for further crop improvement using the genetic variability present in the traditional cultivars, as these are resistant to various biotic and abiotic stresses.

TRADITIONAL KNOWLEDGE SYSTEMS AND THE CONSERVATION OF PLANT GENETIC RESOURCES

Policy decisions affecting the ecological balance of biodiversity should be taken through prior consultation of people inhabiting the areas. This is essential because the survival of any species depends on the survival of its associated species and the ecological niche. The traditional way of living followed by tribal communities using biodegradable components, when replaced by the ideas of policy-makers without consulting or taking tribals into confidence, has resulted in disinterest in the younger generation. For example in southern India, an ethnic group called Malaimalasar inhabits a tribal hamlet by the name “Koomatty”. The traditional houses are being replaced by reinforced concrete structures, which are alien to the tribals. This results in the loss of knowledge of the tribes in house-building using plant species. As the knowledge is lost, the tribal attitude towards conserving the plants used for house building decreases. On the other hand, another tribal community called Kadars uses the reed plant, Ochlandra travancorica, in house construction, weaving mats, making baskets and blow guns, which is continued as part of their culture and helps in conserving the plant population.

Likewise the Konda Reddy tribe in Andhra Pradesh in southern India has been cultivating 20 varieties of traditional cultivars in slash-and-burn agriculture (Table 1).

Table 1. Traditional varieties of crops cultivated by the Konda Reddy tribe (slash-and-burn agriculture)*

* Source: Field study during 1996-1997, T. Ravishankar.

NON-TIMBER FOREST PRODUCTS (NTFPs)

The NTFP resources are a source of income to the rural and tribal communities in developing countries and play a vital role in the microeconomics. These NTFPs are dwindling day by day because of the increased dependency by local communities and over-harvesting by commercial agencies. There is also a threat of overexploitation of seed material of a few species of NTFPs, which results in non-recruitment of these species and may lead to extinction of such species in the long run, causing ecological and economic stresses.

On the other hand, the increased poverty of tribal and rural communities is creating an unprecedented pressure on the NTFPs. Hence the future management of plant biodiversity in the biodiversity rich developing countries in South Asia will need to address the issues of poverty mitigation and at improving rural socioeconomic conditions with sustainable development and better management of NTFP resources.

NEED FOR POLICY INTERVENTIONS

These circumstances emphasize a greater need for policy interventions for microlevel management of NTFPs in developing countries. In order to develop policies for sustainable management of NTFPs there is a need for data on the following:

• ecological and economic evaluation of NTFP resources of the state, nation and region;
• pressure on NTFPs based on the dependency by different tribes or communities in a given area;
• quantifying the resource availability vis-à-vis dependency on the local communities;
• status of NTFPs in a given area, e.g. common or rare or endangered.

Policy guidelines while addressing the above should also address mechanisms for regulated harvesting of NTFPs with provisions to implementation of the same guidelines. Policy guidelines on microlevel management of NTFPs can be developed taking cognizance of the existing mechanisms or institutions like TRIFED, LAMPS and Girijan Cooperative Corporation (GCC) in India, which deal either as value-adding institutions or cooperative mechanism towards influencing the livelihoods of rural and tribal communities. The policy guidelines on microlevel management addressing the above issues can be developed in consultation with local communities and should be included in the work plans of respective forest divisions.

ECONOMIC VALUES OF ECOSYSTEM^[19]

Why economic evaluation?

The link between economics and biodiversity (or natural resources) is vital to understanding their value. In our life, we come across many items which are marketed, and we realize their value based on their price. But most of the natural resources that we use have value but not priced and also not traded in the market like other goods. For example, we know the value of air but there is no price. Hence, unless a price tag is attached to any resource, its value is not realized.

The natural resources need valuation because of few factors like missing market, the alternatives and alternative uses of the natural resources, uncertainty in demand and supply of the natural resources, to formulate policies for conservation of natural resources and finally to arrive at natural resource accounting using any of the cost-benefit analysis (Kadekodi 2001).

The valuation of any natural resource should be from the ecosystem functions. Ecosystem has three distinct characteristics in valuation, namely existence, intrinsic and option values. All species have right to exist and they have a high degree of dependency between them, which brings in some intrinsic value. The intrinsic value needs to be separated from economic value. Above all the functions performed by the biological resources that are not captured under use-values should also be considered. Thus the logical approach will be to assign value to the ecosystem uses/functions as a whole, rather than its individual components that constitute it (Kadekodi 2001).

Economic value of biodiversity

Biodiversity has ecological, intrinsic values besides representing a socio-economic and monetary asset. The values associated with biodiversity have been grouped as below (McNeely et al. 1996):

Indirect use value

• productive use value
• consumptive use value
• indirect use value

a) Productive use value. It is the value assigned to the products that can be harvested for exchange in formal market and is the only value of biological resources that appears in the national income account. Example: Firewood, fodder, timber, fish, medicinal plants

b) Consumptive use value. The value assigned to natural products that are consumed directly, i.e. the goods that do not enter normal channels of trade. Example: A variety of non-timber forest products (NTFP)

c) Intrinsic value. It is the value related primarily with the functions of the ecosystem but sometimes outweighing the consumptive/non-use values.

Example: Maintenance of ecological balance, prevention of soil erosion, etc.

The value can also be grouped as given below (Garrod and Wills 1999):

The perception of benefits of biodiversity differs between rich and poor countries, developing and developed countries. For the local the direct-use value is high; option and existence values are high for developed countries. All these values may not be congruent (Flint 1992). However, there is no uniform currency for valuation and it depends on the location. It is also emphasized here that not all aspects of the environmental goods or services provided by them can be valued. There are a few such aspects which go outside the frontiers of the economic science. Thus economic evaluation should be viewed in this background.

CONCLUSIONS

The plant species used by the tribal communities all over the world which have been time tested by the sacrifice of many tribal lives over the generations could be used for solving many ailments and diseases and problems of population explosion. These herbal drugs have the potential of solving the ever-increasing and ever-erupting problems. These drugs may not only solve the problems but also do not produce any side effect. In certain societies human value is measured in terms of material possession. This is possible when more yields can be harvested from the limited area through practices like mixed cropping system and when sufficient raw material from plant diversity is available. Hence the human value is recognized only when the biodiversity is conserved, maintained and passed onto posterity. It is evident that if the green cover is reduced or degraded, the human value gets nullified like in Ethiopia. Thus the knowledge available with the tribal groups on utilization and conservation of biological diversity would help us derive benefits based on their ecological prudence if the above described conservation methods, followed by tribal communities, are adopted by every one of us involved in biodiversity conservation. This in turn would enable tribal communities to derive more stable income from the natural resources available to them.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I wish to thank the tribal headmen, traditional doctors and herbalists of Tamil Nadu for sharing their knowledge and to Prof. M.S. Swaminathan, Chairman, M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF), Madras, for his encouragement. I am also grateful for the help and assistance received from my colleagues and officials of the Departments of Forests of Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Kerala.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Flint, M. 1992. Biological diversity and developing countries. In A. Markandya, ed. Earthscan Reader in Environmental Economics, pp. 437-469.

Garrod, G. & Wills, K.G. 1999. Economic evaluation of the environment: methods and case studies. Earthscan Reader in Environmental Economics, pp. 263-288.

Kadekodi, G.K. 2001. Valuation of natural resources: What we have learnt from Indian experience? Ind. J. of Agric. Econ 56(3): 285-312.

Schultes, R.E. 1991. The reason for ethno-botanical conservation. In O. Akerele, V. Heywood & H. Synge, eds. Conservation of medicinal plants, pp. 65-75. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.