Change in forest and vegetation cover influencing distribution and uses of plants in the Kailash Sacred Landscape, Nepal

Ripu M. Kunwar (), Aaron Evans (), Janardan Mainali (), Abdul S. Ansari (), Bhagawat Rimal () and Rainer W. Bussmann ()
Additional contact information
Ripu M. Kunwar: Florida Atlantic University
Aaron Evans: Florida Atlantic University
Janardan Mainali: Portland State University
Abdul S. Ansari: UNDP Climate Change Program
Bhagawat Rimal: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Rainer W. Bussmann: Saving Knowledge

Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, 2020, vol. 22, issue 2, No 37, 1397-1412

Abstract: Abstract The study of vegetation and land-use change has been frequently used to assess the anthropogenic impacts on the distribution and uses of medicinal plant species. Using data from ecological investigations, remote sensing and participant observations, the nexus of socioeconomy, forest management and conservation of medicinal plants can be analyzed. In the current study, we employed a similar approach to study the impact of forest and vegetation cover, socioeconomic changes on plant distribution and use in remote and rural districts of Nepal. We have used remote-sensing data to analyze the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and Leaf Area Index (LAI) as proxies to analyze the changes in forest cover and vegetation. Informant interviews and group discussions were held with local participants to assess their opinion about the uses and distribution of plants, forests and vegetation. While the overall vegetation cover was decreasing, a fluctuated pattern was recorded with a reduction in NDVI from 2000 to 2008, and subsequent increase after that. A positive correlation between LAI and NDVI was found, but the index varied spatially and temporally and sometimes was negatively correlated as NDVI saturated and became insensitive. Due to decreasing old-growth primary forests, land-use changes, and increasing sociocultural transformations, we found that the tradition of transhumance and collection of indigenous medicinal plants were rapidly being changed and the non-indigenous plants were increasingly being collected from the accessible forest areas and human-derived landscapes. These changes help us conclude that the salient sites and species are being assimilated in the local traditions; making traditional systems more versatile, diverse and adaptive.

Keywords: Normalized Difference Vegetation Index; Forest; Medicinal plants; Kailash; Nepal Himalaya (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10668-018-0254-4 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:endesu:v:22:y:2020:i:2:d:10.1007_s10668-018-0254-4

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/economics/journal/10668

DOI: 10.1007/s10668-018-0254-4

Access Statistics for this article

Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development is currently edited by Luc Hens

More articles in Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().