Most conservation approaches are extra-locally derived yet they influence local livelihoods and rely on local actions for effective outcomes. Global localism is proposed as a research approach that substantiates the crucial need to first learn about local places and validate local people's perspectives on their livelihood resources before proposing and implementing global conservation agendas. This study investigates scientific-ecological and local ethnobotanical knowledge about landscapes, forest community types, and important plant species populations as an important contribution toward adaptive collaborative management at the Manaslu Conservation Area (MCA) of Nepal. Three questions are proposed: (1) how does the local participatory "ethnoecological" mapping of landscape resources contribute to "landscape ecological" mapping of heterogeneity in the distribution of land cover types; (2) how do the composition and structure of community forest patches (ecological diversity) compare and relate to locally recognized plant resources (ethnobotanical diversity); and (3) what is the population structure and ecological status of highly valued plant species (cultural keystone species) in the study region? Remote sensing images, semi-structured interviews, participatory maps, and ecological samples will be compiled from six Gurung ethnic villages within MCA at different elevations. Locally derived landscape knowledge is hypothesized to contribute toward a joint mapping of diversity patterns that better defines resource areas of symbolic and material value. Ecological and ethnobotanical measures of richness and relative importances will document woody plant diversity patterns among forest community types and predict resource use patterns and human-resource relations.
The research focuses on forest resources and their role in local peoples' lives and better predicts the potential for local communities to restore and/or extract plant resources sustainably based on their assessment of resource values and resource accessibility. These data are of immediate relevance for further conservation and management of the remaining forested areas to both the local people and the conservation institutes who are keen on either implementing nationally or globally derived conservation agendas in specific geographic locations. The study employs mixed methodologies (remote sensing, participatory maps, ecological samples, ethnobotanical survey, and calculation of use values) toward understanding ecological and cultural biogeographic patterns of diversity, with a focus on the composition and structure of montane "community" forests on the lower slopes of the Eastern Himalayas. The emphasis is on joint learning, gaining consensus among participants, and a test of relationships between ecological and ethnobotanical patterns of diversity. The study will validate and apply traditional knowledge toward an ecological analysis of diversity patterns that should promote an interactive natural resource management agenda which is sensitive to both human livelihoods and biodiversity conservation via participation among stakeholders and continuous integration and adaption of feedback in response to new learning and management outcomes. As a Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement award, this award also will provide support to enable a promising student to establish a strong independent research career. This project is jointly supported by the NSF Geography and Spatial Sciences Program and the NSF Office of International Science and Engineering.
This study explores "global localism" as a research approach that promotes collaborative learning about local places and local peoples’ perspectives on livelihood resources before proposing global conservation agendas. The study integrates scientific and local knowledge about landscapes, forest community types, and key plant species populations as an important contribution toward biodiversity conservation at the Manaslu Conservation Area (MCA) of Nepal. MCA occurs in an extremely remote region of the eastern Himalayas that is recognized as a "biodiversity hot spot" based on high species richness, rarity and endemism, and their threatened status. The study included nine village settlements located at different elevations for four Tibeto-Burman ethnic groups: Gurung, Tsumpa, Kuntangpa and Nubripa (Figure 1). The study of landscape patterns of diversity explored how to best integrate local knowledge with the land-cover classification of a satellite image. First, 14 participatory maps were compiled by focus groups in 7 villages, where woman mapped 276 and the men mapped 315 features such as sacred sites (40), temporary dwellings for cattle and herders (8), forests (65), pastures (33), settlements (72), agricultural lands (64), non-timber forest product collecting sites (12), water sources (58), resting places (4), and locations for particular plants (20; Figure 2). Second, unsupervised and supervised classification methods were employed to map seven land cover types for an April 2010 Landsat Thematic mapper image. Third, the satellite image was shared with the village focus groups where they could overlay their interpretation of landscape features. These three methods contributed to a map of landscape diversity patterns (Figure 3) that integrated local knowledge with the empirical classification of land cover types for biodiversity planning. The landscape mapping exercises identified community forests that were included in the ecological and ethnobotanical analyses of woody plants. Shrestha established 115 10 x 20 m plots in forest patches above four Gurung villages where she calculated the relative importances of canopy trees and counted all understory small trees, shrubs and lianas. Local plant names and uses were compiled from key informants who assisted with the ecological plot samples, free-listing exercises in the study villages, transect walks with men and women around their home areas, and participant observations while living in the study villages. Shrestha collected 155 plant vouchers that were deposited at the Herbarium of Tribhuvan, University of Nepal and at Miami University, and confirmed all plant collections using floras for China, Bhutan, and Nepal. As a first survey of woody plant diversity for the region, the study confirms 155 woody species from 55 plant families and a total of 149 plants (96%) with 401 uses. Resource use categories included fuelwood (106 uses, 103 species), fodder (55, 53), food (50, 47), construction (48, 25), technology (78, 41), remedy (28, 22), ceremonial (27, 22), and other services (9, 9). The study identified two forest types along the altitudinal gradient from lowland pine forest to a mid-montane temperate-deciduous mixed forest. Measures of woody plant species richness and ethnobotanical extractive resources compiled for the ecological plots highlight the importance of temperate mixed forests located between 2200 m-2700 m as an important zone for biodiversity conservation. From the ecological and ethnobotanical analyses, Shrestha completed a bilingual (Nepali and English) field book of the woody plants that can be shared with all potential stakeholders and form a basis for discussion about the conservation of plant resources. A third research question gained local perspectives on the distribution and population status of culturally-significant woody plants. Individual and focus group participants were asked to rank woody plant species most preferred for different uses, rank the five most preferred plants (Table 1), and to name one plant that is considered most important in their lives. In their response, the majority said that "many plants are important and not only one could be mentioned," but a few participants mentioned plants that held special ceremonial uses such as during birthing and passing rites. The tree ranked highest for its cultural importance, Pinus wallichiana occurs in lower montane forests, but the people perceive the tree to be decreasing in its availability. This research contributes a data-rich botanical record of diversity patterns at a newly established park in a geographically remote and less explored region of the Himalayas. The study hierarchically examines geographic patterns of woody plant diversity across landscapes, among forest community types, and among woody plant species in relation to the environmental setting and livelihoods of people who reside in the protected area. Shrestha worked with local people on the compilation of plant diversity patterns and validates their knowledge of those patterns. Different knowledge systems (scientific and local) are integrated through the use of different research methods to empower both non-local conservation scientists and the local people to better understand and conserve the diversity of plant resources in the study region.
