Exercise 12. Ethnobotany on the Internet

Name of exercise: Exploring ethnobotany on the Internet

Tools: Access to the Internet, list of interesting websites

Time needed: Variable, but 2 – 3 hours is appropriate

Description: This exercise is designed to provide information on further resources to explore ethnobotany. Presented at the end of an ethnobotany course, it encourages students to build upon the concepts, skills and information presented in the lectures and exercises.

How to do it: After an introductory discussion of the Internet and the resources on ethnobotany it offers, students connect to the Internet to browse and interact with specific sites. If the objective is to gain a broad familiarity with ethnobotany on the Internet, participants can be assigned a number of sites of which they can prepare short description to be shared with the entire class. Alternatively, students can be assigned a specific task to be accomplished, such as finding information on specific plant resources from various websites, or preparing a set of references from bibliographic databases. Students should be encouraged to use standard search engines to discover new sites, using key words such as "ethnobotany", "ethnobiology", etc.

References:

The following websites, which focus completely or partly on ethnobotany, can be among the sites recommended to students. Other links are given on People and Plants Online, particularly in the online versions of the People and Plants Handbook, which students should access as part of this exercise.

http://guallart.dac.uga.edu/SocHis.html: International Society for Ethnobiology:

http://www.umma.lsa.umich.edu/Ethnobotany/Ethnobotany.html: Website of the Laboratory of Ethnobotany of the University of Michigan Museum of Anthropology, which houses extensive collections of domesticated plants from around the world as well as specimens recovered from archaeological sites.

http://www.econbot.org/: Website of the Society for Economic Botany (SEB), which was established in 1959 to foster and encourage scientific research, education, and related activities on the past, present, and future uses of plants, and the relationship between plants and people, and to make the results of such research available to the scientific community and the general public through meetings and publications.

http://www.umd.umich.edu/cgi-bin/herb/: Native American Ethnobotany Database of Foods, Drugs, Dyes, and Fibers of Native North American Peoples.

http://users.ox.ac.uk/~gree0179/: The Website of the Gifts of Health program, a focal point for policy, research and public awareness of the health needs of the majority of the world's population, who rely on indigenous or traditional medicine for their health and well-being.

http://www.traffic.org/: TRAFFIC is the joint wildlife trade monitoring programme of WWF-World Wide Fund For Nature and IUCN-The World Conservation Union. TRAFFIC is an international network, with culturally diverse staff on five continents in 20 countries and territories, and ongoing research in dozens of others. TRAFFIC recognises the diversity of cultural perspectives related to consumptive use of wildlife. Since its founding in 1976, TRAFFIC has grown to become the world's largest wildlife trade monitoring programme and a global expert on wildlife trade issues.

http://www.bsponline.org/index.html: The Biodiversity Support Program (BSP) is a consortium of World Wildlife Fund (WWF), The Nature Conservancy (TNC), and World Resources Institute (WRI). BSP is funded through a cooperative agreement between WWF, the lead consortium institution, and The United States Agency for International Development (USAID). BSP is governed by an Executive Committee comprising representatives of the three consortium partners and managed by a professional staff unit within WWF. BSP's mission is to promote conservation of the world's biological diversity, believing that a healthy and secure living resource base is essential to meeting the needs and aspirations of future generations. BSP carries out its mission by supporting projects that combine conservation with social and economic development, research and analysis of conservation approaches, and information exchange and outreach.

Example:

The fifth year students of the Department of Pharmacognosy and Pharmaceutical Botany of Khon Kaen University explored the People and Plants Online website, which is described in the following paragraphs. The objective was to give and inside view of website design and maintenance.

The homepage (http://www.rbgkew.org.uk/peopleplants/)

Provides a short description of the People and Plants Online website, access to a search engine, and an overview of the following sections.

About us ( http://www.rbgkew.org.uk/peopleplants/about.htm)

Primarily drawn from the People and Plants brochure, this section provides an overview of the aims of the People and Plants Initiative, the regions where we are active, short descriptions of the partners and access to their websites, a synopsis of past and current activities, and a list of funders.

What’s new ( http://www.rbgkew.org.uk/peopleplants/new.htm)

This section was intended to carry updates of new items on People and Plants Online, including additions to the resources (see below), news stories and the notice board news, with corresponding links. Ideally, it should give a synopsis of the new items and a link, so that browsers can explore new developments in our programs. In practice, it has been used to list new additions to the resource sections of the website, but this has not been done systematically.

Notice board ( http://www.rbgkew.org.uk/peopleplants/board.htm)

The notice board was designed to provide information on activities related to ethnobotany, conservation and development organized by other institutions and programs. Although the section has been little developed, several subsections were contemplated: Training courses, Future Events, Past Events, Positions offered, Positions requested, Projects, Publications, Websites, Awards, fellowships and grants.

Opinion ( http://www.rbgkew.org.uk/peopleplants/opinion.htm)

This section, though never developed, was designed to encourage an exchange of viewpoints on ethnobotany, conservation and development.

Frequently asked questions ( http://www.rbgkew.org.uk/peopleplants/faq.htm)

Although little developed, this section was conceived as a way of answering some of the questions that were frequently asked of People and Plants coordinators: Which universities offer undergraduate and graduate studies in ethnobotany? How can I gain field experience to complement my academic studies? If I do pursue an undergraduate, master’s or doctoral degree in ethnobotany, am I likely to find a position in ethnobotany? Which scientific journals and publishing houses focus on ethnobotany? Are there foundations that have a special interest in ethnobotany? Where can I find videos that focus on issues such as ethnobotany, biodiversity conservation, cultural continuity, resource management and community development?

Archive ( http://www.rbgkew.org.uk/peopleplants/archive.htm)

The archive section was created to hold old news items that have been taken off of the "What’s New" page. Its limited contents are a result of the slight development of the "What’s New" section.

Feedback ( http://www.rbgkew.org.uk/peopleplants/feedback.htm)

A section that allows browsers to send their opinions to coordinators of the People and Plants Initiative (in practice to Fatima Zahmoun, who records comments and updates to addresses), it currently contains a general comment form, and a questionnaire on publications. The latter has been much used by recipients of People and Plants publications to provide feedback and confirm their interest in receiving publications.

Resources ( http://www.rbgkew.org.uk/peopleplants/resources.htm)

An overview of the materials developed in the course of the People and Plants Initiative, this section provides links to the following resources.

Curricula ( http://www.rbgkew.org.uk/peopleplants/curricula/index.html)

Developed with the intention of providing curricular materials, this section contains a short description of a consultancy on ethnobotanical training in Central America carried out by Sonia Lagos Witte in 1994-95, and the more recent ethnobotanical training in Thailand realized by Gary Martin. The latter subsection contains a description of the overall structure of the course, a final report and synopses of 20 lectures and 12 exercises.

Discussion Papers ( http://www.rbgkew.org.uk/peopleplants/dp/index.html)

This section was created to post online copies of WWE People and Plants discussion papers. Two papers have been posted: Ethics, biodiversity and new natural product development (A.B. Cunningham , 1993) and Fair deals in the search for new natural products (S. Laird , 1995).

Handbook ( http://www.rbgkew.org.uk/peopleplants/handbook/index.html )

This section was created to post online copies of the English versions of the People and Plants Handbook. The following five issues have been posted: Issue 1 - Keeping in touch: journals, networks, newsletters, organizations and professional societies, Gary J. Martin and Alison L. Hoare, editors, January 1996 Issue 2 - Protecting rights: legal and ethical implications of ethnobiology, Gary J. Martin, Alison L. Hoare and Darrell A. Posey, editors, July 1996 Issue 3 - Returning results: community and environmental education, Gary J. Martin and Alison L. Hoare, editors, March 1997 Issue 4 - Measuring diversity: methods of assessing biological resources and local knowledge. Gary J. Martin, Alison L. Hoare and Agnes Lee Agama, editors. Issue 5 - Cultivating the forest: development of agroforestry systems. Gary J. Martin, Agnes Lee Agama and Roger Leakey, editors. The following issues are in preparation and will be posted in the future: Issue 6 - Managing Resources: community-based conservation. Gary J. Martin, Sasha Barrow, Patricia Shanley and Anthony B. Cunningham, editors; Issue 7 – Growing Diversity: People and Plant Genetic Resources. Gary J. Martin, Sasha Barrow and Pablo Eyzaguirre, editors.

Lessons learned ( http://www.rbgkew.org.uk/peopleplants/lessons/index.html )

This section was designed to be built up gradually as general lessons and principles emerge from the People and Plants Initiative and other programs. The final goal is to put online general principles in applied ethnobotany. Currently, there are two contributions: Ecological footprint of the wooden rhino: depletion of hardwoods for the carving trade in Kenya (Anthony B. Cunningham) and People and Plants applied ethnobotany project at Ayubia National Park (ANP), Pakistan (Yildiz Aumeeruddy-Thomas).

Methods manuals ( http://www.rbgkew.org.uk/peopleplants/manual/index.html )

This section provides ordering information (now outdated) and synopses of the three People and Plants Methods Manual to be published thus far: Ethnobotany: A Methods Manual (Gary J. Martin, 1995), Plant invaders: the threat to natural ecosystems, (Quentin C. B. Cronk and Janice L. Fuller, 1995) and Plants and protected areas: a guide to in situ management, (John Tuxill and Gary Paul Nabhan, 1998).

Regional activities ( http://www.rbgkew.org.uk/peopleplants/manual/index.html )

Although this section was created to provide information on regional programs in Africa, the Himalayas, Southeast Asia and the Pacific, it is only the section of Africa that has been developed. The Africa section contains an overview of this regional program and Bulletin No.1 of the African Ethnobotany Network (November, 1997).

Research techniques
( http://www.rbgkew.org.uk/peopleplants/research/index.html )

Originally conceived as a source of information of research techniques useful in ethnobotanical research, this section has been largely superseded by the curricula section and its information of exercises presented in an ethnobotany course at Khon Kaen University in 1999.

Videos ( http://www.rbgkew.org.uk/peopleplants/videos/index.html )

This section provides ordering information (now outdated?) and synopses of the three People and Plants videos produced thus far: People, Gorillas and Forests: Ethnobotanical Methods and Multiple-use Management in Uganda, AB Cunningham; editing by Nick Chevallier Productions (South Africa, 27 mins), Saving the wooden rhino: ethnobotanical methods and Kenya’s woodcarving industry, AB Cunningham; editing by Nick Chevallier Productions (South Africa, 25 mins); and Carvings, Consumers and Conservation. AB Cunningham; editing by Nick Chevallier Productions (South Africa, 10 mins).

Working papers ( http://www.rbgkew.org.uk/peopleplants/wp/index.html )

This section was created to post online copies of the English versions of People and Plants Working Papers. Two papers have been posted: African medicinal plants: setting priorities at the interface between conservation and primary healthcare (A.B. Cunningham, 1993) and People, park and plant use. Recommendations for multiple-use zones and development alternatives around Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, Uganda (A.B. Cunningham, 1996).

BACK