Research ArticleMedicinal Plants and Ethnomedicine in PerilA Case Study from Nepal Himalaya
Ripu M Kunwar1 Mina Lamichhane Pandey2
Laxmi Mahat Kunwar2 and Ananta Bhandari3
1 Cultural and Spatial Ecology Department of Geosciences Florida Atlantic University 624 NW 13th StreetNo 34 Boca Raton FL 33486 USA
2Department of Sociology and Anthropology Tribhuvan University Kathmandu Nepal3WWF Nepal Program Baluwatar Kathmandu Nepal
Correspondence should be addressed to Ripu M Kunwar rkunwarfauedu
Received 4 November 2013 Revised 11 January 2014 Accepted 17 January 2014 Published 6 March 2014
Academic Editor Rainer W Bussmann
Copyright copy 2014 Ripu M Kunwar et al This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons AttributionLicense which permits unrestricted use distribution and reproduction in any medium provided the original work is properlycited
The impacts of climate change were severe on indigenousmedicinal plant species and their dependent communitiesThe harvestingcalendar and picking sites of these species were no longer coinciding and the changes were affecting harvestersrsquo and cultivatorsrsquoabilities to collect and use those species Secondary sites road-heads wastelands regenerated forests and so forth were beingprioritized for collection and the nonindigenous medicinal plant species were being increasingly introduced into the medicalrepertoire as a substitution and to diversify the localmedicinal stock Acceptance and application of nonindigenous species and sitesfor livelihood and ethnopharmacopoeias with caution were considered as an important adaptation strategy Findings on speciesand site specific accounts urged further researches on medicinal plants ethnomedicine and their interrelationship with impacts ofclimate change
1 Introduction
The rate of warming is increasing in high altitude areas [1ndash3] where vegetation is rapidly being changed with altitudes[4] offering unique scopes for assessment of climate relatedimpacts [5] As the warming continues it is predicted thatsome irreparableconsequences including threats to specieshabitats and distribution range [6 7] are likely to occur Highaltitude forests are more susceptible [8] and the plant speciesreflect the responses by decreasing species diversity becauseof the change in plantsrsquo functional group or shifting theirhabitats [9ndash12] Individual species either adapt to increasedtemperatures by modifying their stature and posture [13] orshift towards higher altitudes Amongst the plants indige-nous plants are expected to be highly susceptible and they areshifting their ranges as a response to climate change [10]
It is hypothesized that as species shift their ranges dueto climate change general and nonindigenous species mayfill the vacated niches and outcompete the native species by
overwhelming resource exploitation [14] The native medic-inal plants subsistence produce of the forest dependentcommunities [15] are particularly threatened by the changesresulting in a direct impact on their dependent communities[16] Changing ecological and social conditions has trans-formed and shaped traditional knowledge ofmedicinal plantstomatch the new circumstances [17]Thepresentworkwas anaccount to analyze the change of distribution phenology andmorphology of medicinal plants and their resultant impactson the mountain communities We hypothesize that thereare changes in medicinal plant distribution phenology andpopulation and these medicinal plants dependent humancommunities are changed and in due course of change thenew plants and sites are accepted as adaptation
2 Materials and Methods
21 StudyArea A total of six field visits each in one conserva-tion area of Nepal weremade Six different conservation areas
Hindawi Publishing CorporationEvidence-Based Complementary and Alternative MedicineVolume 2014 Article ID 792789 7 pageshttpdxdoiorg1011552014792789
2 Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine
0 100 200
(km)
80∘09984000998400998400E 82
∘09984000998400998400E 84
∘09984000998400998400E 86
∘09984000998400998400E 88
∘09984000998400998400E
28∘09984000998400998400N
30∘09984000998400998400N
Figure 1 Study area
(Langtang National Park Rasuwa district Shey-PhoksundoNational Park Dolpa district Rara National Park Mugudistrict Khaptad National Park Doti district DhorpatanHunting Reserve Baglung district and Apinampa conserva-tion area Darchula district) (Figure 1) were visited between2007 and 2012 Although some of the conservation areasoccupy more than one district the stated districts herein aremeant as sample site
22 Participatory Study Methods Field observations infor-mal meetings discussions and consultations were employedto collect information about folk uses of medicinal plantsand local livelihood In total two hundred and forty-ninerespondents (119873 = 249) took part in eight discussions andten consultations A maximum number of discussants (119899 =76) were from Langtang National Park and the least fromKhaptad National Park (119899 = 16) In particular elderlypeople forest guards and women representing differentethnic groups castes and occupations were encouraged toparticipate They were asked about the changes impactsand adaptation practices of climate change through historicaltimelines and trend tracking Their observations experi-ences and expectations were triangulated and used for cross-checking [18]
Matching information between individual surveys andgroup discussions was taken into account for further analysisAll species encountered during participatory field observa-tions were free-listed and the medicinal plant species werecollected during the day and displayed in the evening fordiscussions Most of the species were identified in the fieldusing literature of Polunin and Stainton [19] and Stainton[20] Common species and monospecific genera those wellknown by their vernacular names were used only for dis-cussions and not processed for further identification Theremaining unidentified species were vouchered identifiedand deposited in the National Herbarium and Plant Labo-ratories (KATH) Godawari Lalitpur Nepal Collection ofvoucher specimens along with vernacular names of voucherspecimens was facilitated by eight local assistants Theirassistance was helpful in conducting field level consultationsand discussions
23 Ecological Study Methods Rapid assessments and therandom field samplings were conducted and the geocoor-dinates were collected using Garmin eTtrex GPS Multi-variate test was carried out to see the effects of differentenvironmental variables on species richness The field dataof Langtang National Park were grouped in accordancewith altitudinal gradients aspects and sites and analyzedin the test as a case Detrended correspondence analysis(DCA) was used to test the heterogeneity of dataset As thegradient length was 2567 we used liner redundancy analysis(RDA) method for showing the relationship between speciesand environment variables following Jongman et al [21]Prior informed consents and plant collection permits weregranted for participatory and ecological studies Sometimesplant permit was accounted and do-no-harm plant collectionmethod was approached
24 Review Both the published and unpublished liter-atures were reviewed and the internet based materialswere referenced Databases of Ethnobotanical Society ofNepal (httpwwwesonorgnp) and Department of PlantResources (httpwwwmapisorg) and publications of Haraet al [22ndash24] were used for species distribution range
The contribution of herbarium collections to understandlocal and regional scales of impacts of climate change onecological processes and species distribution has recentlybeen realized [25ndash29] In this study we reviewed herbar-ium collections of 19 candidate species Abies spectabilis(Fir) Betula utilis (Birch) Dactylorhiza hatagirea (Saleporchid) Ephedra gerardiana (Joint fir) Fritillaria cirrhosa(Fritillaria) Hippophae salicifolia (Seabuckthorn) Juniperusrecurva (Juniper) Larix himalaica (Langtang fir) Liliumnepalense (Lilium) Myrica esculenta (Box myrtle) Nar-dostachys grandiflora (Spikenard) Neopicrorhiza scrophu-lariiflora (Kutki) Panax pseudoginseng (Nepali ginseng)Podophyllum hexandrum (May apple) Rhododendron antho-pogon (Anthopogon) R arboreum (Tree rhododendron)R campanulatum (Blue rhododendron) Salix calyculata(Ground salix) andTaxuswallichiana (Nepalese yew) housedin KATH The specimens of samples dated back from 1949were reviewed and their biogeographic informationwas com-puted over time using Canocoo 501 [30] and Telwala et al[31 32] Trade data of those 19 species of five consecutive years(2007ndash2011) available in Hamro Ban (official publication ofDepartment of Forests Government ofNepal)were reviewedThe species used for review were selected based on fundingliterature and frequent citations as highly impacted speciesdue to climate change [33] and the research objectives
3 Results and Discussion
31 Diversity A total of 238 useful plant species consisting of215 genera and 102 families were recorded and among them192 species were frequently cited as medicinal Among themedicinal species 170 species were indigenous and 22 specieswere nonindigenous Species are regarded as indigenous atterritory national and regional level but in the interna-tional level they can be considered as nonindigenous [34]
Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine 3
In the present study we considered that indigenous speciesare those which grow naturally or they have long been cul-tured into an area after some sorts of human modificationsGlobally native or nonnative status is generally determinedby one (or both) of two concepts (1) presence in an areabefore an arbitrary cut-off date imparts native status and(2) human-mediated movement of individuals results innonnative status [35]
32 Use The use of high percentages (80) of indigenousspecies was an indicative of ancient healing tradition butremained somewhat diffused because of the application ofnonindigenous ones The use of nonindigenous species inlocal traditional medicine was similar to the findings of anumber of other ethnobotanical studies [36ndash38] emphasiz-ing the need for more scrutiny and efforts to record andmaintain traditional knowledge As elsewhere adoption ofnonindigenous species was increasing may be seen as away to reshape and revitalize traditional practices which inmany cases provide an important alternative to the healthcare services [39] A larger number of indigenous andnonindigenous species and pharmacopoeias were embraceddue to increasing health care demand and the wider rangeof illnesses [40ndash43] Ethnomedicinal studies therefore haveshown the relevance of nonindigenous species as an asset forlocal medicinal stock [44]
33 Distribution Distribution ofmedicinal plant specieswasspecies specific Tree species B utilis (Birch) A spectabilis(Fir) and J recurva (Juniper) and understorey N grandiflora(Spikenard) and D hatagirea (Salep orchid) were specific totheir restricted distribution resulting in strenuous collectionof their produce Betula and Dactylorhiza were more suscep-tible due to their small population sizes (00058m2 035m2resp) and limited suitable habitats [45] Their distributionwas restrained by outcompetition of R campanulatumCotoneaster species and A spectabilis resulting in likelinessof pushing Betula and Dactylorhiza off the mountain tops[46 47]
The biogeographic information of plant herbariumshowed the higher altitudes of collections over time Theresult was consistent with the earlier observations as foundon F cirrhosa andH salicifolia [48] The distribution recordsof species from lower altitudes in earlier days and thesubsequent records from successive higher altitudeswere cor-roborating with distribution upshifts We found the upshiftsof L himalaica and P roxburghii 4m per year and that of Rarboreum as 088mper yearUpshift ofA spectabilis observedas 25 per year in Langtang Central Nepal substantiated theearlier findings [49ndash51] but in general vegetation upshiftin response to climate change ranges within 1-2m per year[52] Change in distribution of useful species and primaryhabitats showed the importance of the use of secondaryforests nonnative species and underutilized species [53]The change in distribution was consistent to the findings ofdisturbance gradients analysis (Figure 2) Out of four dif-ferent environmental variables computed only altitude anddisturbance were significant for the change of distribution
10
RDA
axis
2
minus20
minus15 20
RDA axis 1
Abispe
Altitude
Salsp
Rhocam
Junrec
Rhoant
Disturb
Betuti
Slope
Aspect
Larhim
Figure 2 RDA biplot showing composition of significant envi-ronmental variables that influence the distribution of plant speciesin Langtang National Park Central Nepal Species abbreviated infigure are as follows Abispe = Abies spectabilis Betuti = Betula utilisJunrec = Juniperus recurva Larhim = Larix himalaica Rhoant =Rhododendron anthopogon Rhocam = R campanulatum and Salsp= Salix species
of plant species First axis explains 1547 and the secondaxis explains 236 of the total variation in the dataset(Figure 2) Altitude possessed the positive correlation withR campanulatum J recurva and Salix species whereas Ranthopogon and L himalaicawere influenced by disturbanceWest facing slope revealed strong affinity to the regenerationand seedling growth of J recurva
Because of the changes in distribution and upshifts someof the picking sites of medicinal plant species were no longercoinciding and the abilities of the harvestersrsquo to collect anduse plants were being affected The picking sites of medicinalplants were particularly dissenting in conservation areas suchas Khaptad National Park and Rara National Park at lowerelevation and the secondary sites were increasingly soughtAt lower elevation of study sites invasion of nonnative plantsAgeratum conyzoides Bidens pilosa Eupatorium odoratumLantana camara Parthenium hysterophorus and so forth wasfrequent as found in other parts of the country [54 55]Former two species were ranged up to 3000mand introducedat lower elevations of Langtang National Park and Shey-Phoksundo National Park The frequent infestations wereseen along the roads wastelands fallow lands and grazingsites Species Taraxacum officinale was sometimes found at3000m or above of Dhorpatan Hunting Reserve and RaraNational Park however these conservation areas were not yetfaced with problematic intrusions by alien invasive speciesThe invasion was also complemented by outmigration ofpeople The outmigration laid the agricultural field fallowdecreased agricultural productivity and contributed to thedeficit of human resources for management aiding habitatdeterioration and invasion [56] As a consequence diversity
4 Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine
and distribution of indigenous medicinal plant species wereincreasingly imperiled and livelihood was compounded
34 Morphology and Phenology Small stunted and multi-stemmed individuals as adaptive features of trees were seen athigher elevations in response to climate change yet the indi-viduals were in isolation Abies trees with smaller height andlow canopy (shrub forest and groove) were observed at higherelevations to resilient the climate change Clonal growth andhigh coppicing properties as evident in R anthopogon andpeeling bark in R campanulatum were also considered asadaptive features Early leaf emergence was observed in Ssikkimensis whereas advance flower initiation was seen in Lhimalaica These advance adjustments of their phenophaseswere made by plants in response to climate change andearlier spring [57] Early bud burst and flowering basedon indigenous knowledge regarding climate change impactswere earlier evidenced [58 59] The shift in phenophasesthat seems to be the immediate impact of warming on thephysiology of species [60] is bound to prolong the totalgrowth duration of the species which is regarded as benefitto the plant productivity Early flowering of R arboreumand R campanulatum was seen but that of R anthopogoncould not be observed so it was difficult to conclude how theclimate change affects plant phenology because the changesare species and microclimate specific Shifting phenologiesand distribution may seem to be of little importance atfirst glance [16] but they have the potential to cause greatchallenges to speciesrsquo survival and peoplersquos livelihood
Besides the changes in phenology morphology anddistribution of plants the secondary metabolites and othercompounds of Plants-produce which usually value for thera-peutic properties [61] are expected to change Generally whenplants are stressed secondary metabolite production maychange as the growth is often inhibited [11 14 16 46 62]However the change on secondary chemical production inplants is largely unclear [63] In either change the plantsrsquodecade-long therapeutic potential for human health benefitsmay no longer retain resulting in threatened ethnomedicine
35 Medicinal Plants and Livelihood The result supportedthat the longer the history of contact of a community withnature the higher the number of medicinal plants used aswell as the higher the number of ailments treated [43 64 65]The earliest written records of plants used as medicine inthe Nepal Himalaya are found in the 6500-year-old textsof the Rigveda [66] 4000-year-old text of the Atharvavedaand 2500ndash3000-year-old texts of theAyurveda [67 68] Cata-logues have recorded about 2400 (33 of countryrsquos floweringplants) useful medicinal and aromatic plants in Nepal [69]and their importance in alleviating human suffering [53 70]Of 192 plants used for ethnomedicine most of them (169species) were used for more than one ailment Species Aeglemarmelos Cissampelos pareira and Terminalia bellirica eachwere used for treatment of six ailments Species used fortreatment of five ailments were Acorus calamus Bergeniaciliata and Ziziphus mauritiana A total of 66 ailments weretreated using folk lore and among them dysentery diarrhea
and skin problems were the most treated respectively by24 22 and 22 species A large number of botanicals usedin ethnomedicine were characteristics of medicinal plantspecies diversity The extensive usage of medicinal plantsfor ethnomedicine showed that it was not merely a medicalsystem but a part of culture Again multiple uses of a plantgave us idea that the area was equally rich in botanicalknowledge
Species A spectabilis Paris polyphylla O sinensis andZ armatum common in study area and widespread in usewere in great peril because of multiple uses The result alsosupported the notion that themore versatile a plant themorewidespread its usefulness [71]
A spectabilis L himalaica P roxburghii and R arboreumwere pushed off the mountain tops and they were alsooverexploited in medicinal and cultural usage Abies leafneedleswere sniffed for cough and coldAbiespoleswere usedfor mounting flags Shoots were heavily logged for furnitureand agriculture implements Survival of species withmultipleuses was also compounded because of their versatile usesthey were fetching higher prices in markets useful as spicescondiments medicinal and tonic Among the 19 studiedspecies eight species (B utilis E gerardiana J recurva Lnepalense N grandiflora N scrophulariiflora P hexandrumand R anthopogon) were the most in trade nonethelesstheir volume in trade was significantly plummeted The totaltraded volume of these species was 753 tons in 2007 and onlyabout 100 tons in 2011 The annual Nepalese medicinal planttrade of total species varied from 480 to 2500 tons over time[68] In the changed contexts livelihoodwasmore vulnerableand the alternatives were frequently sought Therefore theapplication of new species and sites was feasible and in duecourse the usage becomes an asset of adaptive knowledge
Livelihood diversification (subsistence agriculture tocommercial farming and ecotourism) crop substitution(seeking new crops and varieties) changing calendars (pre-or postfarming) off-farm employment (porter trekking andhotel) seasonal migration and so forth were dominanttraditional adaptation strategies for climate change how-ever they were varied in sites Off-farm employment wasincreasingly adopted in Langtang National Park where therewas a huge impact of visitors Intensive crop and farmingrelated strategieswere frequent in study districts ofApinampaConservation area and Dhorpatan Hunting Reserve wherefolks have long been involving in subsistence agriculture andthey have not been greatly intruded by visitors thanks to therugged terrain and physiography of these conservation areasSeasonal migration a traditional adaptation strategy andcommon in Shey-Phoksundo National park offers scopes forsharing ideas and goods Folks were intending to diversify thelivelihood in Shey-Phoksundo Rara and Khaptad NationalParks where there were mixed impacts of tourism com-mercial farming and modernization As a result acceptanceand application of new species and sites for livelihood wereconsidered important for adaptation New sites previouslyneglected such as road sides disturbed forests forest fringesand agricultural ecotones were increasingly being browsedattributed to the business of local communities and acceptingthe sites as adaptation assets Again knowledge cultivation
Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine 5
and maintenance of these species within rural communitieswere decreasing caused by themodernization processes suchas acculturation Loss of traditional knowledge and even thephysical annihilation of indigenous groups not only impedethe search for new drug plants but also handicap the effortsto conservation [72]
Present study found 22 nonindigenous species (Acmellacalva Adiantum capillus-veneris Ageratum conyzoides Aloevera Angelica archangelica Cirsium verutum Cissampelospareira Drymaria cordata Eclipta prostrata Elephantopusscaber Entada phaseoloides Evolvulus alsinoides Holarrhenapubescens Ipomoea carnea Jatropha curcas Mimosa pudicaPlantago major Plumeria rubra Psidium guajava Ricinuscommunis Smilax aspera and Xanthium strumarium) andthey have long been cultured into ethnopharmacopoeias ofNepal Himalaya We can claim that the culture of non-indigenous species on ethnopharmacopoeias is mostly as asubstitution because they were introduced over time cor-roborated to the earlier findings [70ndash74] Nonnative specieshave been incorporated into materia medica from aroundthe world [44] however their importance has not beencredited [75]The entrance of nonindigenous plant species ina pharmacopoeia is a natural and evolutionary phenomenonand we need to be cautious when employing them intomedical repertoire and attributing their values [76] as theintroduction of the nonindigenous species can be both boonand bane to the society [77]
4 Conclusion
Adjustments in distribution phenology and population ofplants jeopardized the species survival and livelihood ofmountain communities Tree species A spectabilis B utilisand J recurva and understorey species N grandiflora andD hatagirea were mainly threatened due to the populationsize and site specific distribution A spectabilis F cirrhosaH salicifolia L himalaica P roxburghii and R arboreum didreveal not only the upshifts but also the fact that their distri-bution was governed by altitude and disturbance gradientsBecause of the changes in distribution and upshifts someof the original picking sites of these species were dissentedand the harvestersrsquo abilities to collect and use those specieswere affected We found that the more versatile a plant is themore widespread its usefulness is and the more usefulnessa plant has the more overexploited and endangered it islikely to be Species A spectabilis Acorus calamus Aeglemarmelos B ciliata C pareira P polyphylla O sinensis Tbellirica Z armatum and Z mauritiana were widespreadin use and in great peril because of their multiple uses Wefound 22 nonindigenous species that have been introducedinto ethnopharmacopoeias ofNepalHimalaya Acceptance ofnonindigenous species and sites for livelihood and medicalrepertoire as a substitution was considered as an adaptationbut we should be cautious when attributing their values
Conflict of Interests
Authors declare that there is no conflict of interests regardingthe publication of this paper
Acknowledgments
Authors are particularly grateful to all communities whoparticipated in their field works and dedicated a lot oftime and efforts The authors would like to thank Hari PSharma Lila N Sharma Maan Rokaya Ganesh K PokharelTulasi Acharya and Mushfiqur Rahman respectively fortheir supports in field works statistical analysis manuscriptdesigning and language editing The authors offer theirregards to Ramsharan Dani and Rita Chhetri for theirsupport in identifying and reviewing the herbaria samplesand Gokarna JThapa andMadan K Suwal for their assistancein editing GPS geocoordinates and preparing study areamapThe authors are grateful to Rainer W Bussmann Maria GFadiman and two anonymous reviewers for their criticalremarks on the paper Ripu M Kunwar is thankful to WWFNepal WLBC Missouri Botanical Garden Garden Club ofAmerica and ASC fellowship USA for providing grants forfield works
References
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[7] J P McCarty ldquoEcological consequences of recent climatechangerdquo Conservation Biology vol 15 no 2 pp 320ndash331 2001
[8] L R Holdridge Life Zone Ecology Tropical Science Center SanJose Calif USA 1967
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[12] K Krajick ldquoAll downhill from hererdquo Science vol 303 no 5664pp 1600ndash1602 2004
[13] A E Kelly and M L Goulden ldquoRapid shifts in plant distri-bution with recent climate changerdquo Proceedings of the National
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[14] G R Walther E Post P Convey et al ldquoEcological responses torecent climate changerdquo Nature vol 416 no 6879 pp 389ndash3952002
[15] A B Shrestha C P Wake P A Mayewski and J E DibbldquoMaximum temperature trends in theHimalaya and its vicinityan analysis based on temperature records from Nepal for theperiod 1971-94rdquo Journal of Climate vol 12 no 9 pp 2775ndash27861999
[16] C Cavaliere ldquoThe effects of climate change on medicinal andaromatic plantsrdquo Herbalgram vol 81 pp 44ndash57 2009
[17] H Pirker R Haselmair E Kuhn C Schunko and C R VoglldquoTransformation of traditional knowledge of medicinal plantsthe case of Tyroleans (Austria) whomigrated toAustralia Braziland Perurdquo Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine vol 8article 44 2012
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[22] H Hara W T Stearn and H J Williams An Enumeration ofthe Flowering Plants of Nepal vol 1 British Museum of NaturalHistory London UK 1978
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[25] C Lavoie and D Lachance ldquoA new herbarium-based methodfor reconstructing the phenology of plant species across largeareasrdquo American Journal of Botany vol 93 no 4 pp 512ndash5162006
[26] R V Gallagher L Hughes and M R Leishman ldquoPhenolog-ical trends among Australian alpine species using herbariumrecords to identify climate-change indicatorsrdquo Australian Jour-nal of Botany vol 57 no 1 pp 1ndash9 2009
[27] K M Robbirt A J Davy M J Hutchings and D L RobertsldquoValidation of biological collections as a source of phenologicaldata for use in climate change studies a case study with theorchid Ophrys sphegodesrdquo Journal of Ecology vol 99 no 1 pp235ndash241 2011
[28] K G Johnson S J Brooks P B Fenberg et al ldquoClimate changeand biosphere response unlocking the collections vaultrdquo Bio-Science vol 61 no 2 pp 147ndash153 2011
[29] Z Li NWu X Gao YWu and K P Oli ldquoSpecies-level pheno-logical responses to global warming as evidenced by herbariumcollections in the Tibetan Autonomous Regionrdquo BiodiversityConservation vol 22 pp 141ndash152 2013
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[31] Y Telwala BW Brook K Manish andM K Pandit ldquoClimate-induced elevational range shifts and increase in plant Species
richness in a Himalayan biodiversity epicenterrdquo PLoS ONE vol8 Article ID e57103 2013
[32] B Holzinger K Hulber M Camenisch and G GrabherrldquoChanges in plant species richness over the last century in theeastern Swiss Alps elevational gradient bedrock effects andmigration ratesrdquo Plant Ecology vol 195 no 2 pp 179ndash196 2008
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[35] M S Trudgen B L Webber and J K Scott ldquoHuman-mediated introduction of Livistona palms into central Australiaconservation and management implicationsrdquo Proceedings of theRoyal Society B vol 279 no 1745 pp 4115ndash4117 2012
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[39] C T Palmer ldquoThe inclusion of recently introduced plants inthe Hawaiian Ethnopharmacopoeiardquo Economic Botany vol 58supplement 1 pp S280ndashS293 2004
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[43] R A Voeks and P Sercombe ldquoThe scope of hunter-gathererethnomedicinerdquo Social Science and Medicine vol 51 no 5 pp679ndash690 2000
[44] B M Boom ldquoEthnobotany of the Chaicobo Indians BeniBoliviardquo Advances in Economic Botany vol 4 pp 1ndash68 1987
[45] B B Shrestha B Ghimire H D Lekhak and P K JhaldquoRegeneration of treeline birch (Betula utilis D Don) forestin a trans-Himalayan dry valley in Central Nepalrdquo MountainResearch and Development vol 27 no 3 pp 259ndash267 2007
[46] J Salick D Anderson J Woo et al Tibetan Ethnobotanyand Gradient Analyses Menri (Medicine Mountains) EasternHimalayas Millennium Ecosystem Assessment 2004 httpwwwmillenniumassessmentorgdocumentsbridgingpaperssalickjanpdf
[47] A Craighead ldquoUtilizing habitat suitability models to predictthe effects of global climate change on three different speciesof Picardquo Craighead Environmental Research Institute (CERI)Alcoa Foundation 2009
[48] R M Kunwar Y Katuwal R D Shrestha J B Karki K PShrestha and R W Bussmann ldquoClimate change medicinalplants and ethnobotany observations and reviewrdquo inProceedingof the 1st National Youth Conference pp 180ndash189 KathmanduNepal June 2010
Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine 7
[49] N P Gaire and D R Bhuju ldquoTree line dynamics with climatechange a study in Manaslu region Nepal Himalayardquo AnnualReport Nepal Academy of Science and Technology LalitpurNepal 2010
[50] M K Suwal Tree species line advance of Abies spectabilisin Manaslu Conservation Area Nepal Himalaya [MS thesis]Central Department of Botany Tribhuvan University 2010
[51] R M Kunwar Assessment of Climate Change Impacts onNon Timber Forest Products (NTFPs) Medicinal and AromaticPlants (MAPs) and Important Tree Species (ITS) in the SacredHimalayan Landscape Nepal WWF Nepal Program Kath-mandu Nepal 2011
[52] J J Camarero E Gutierrez and M J Fortin ldquoSpatial patternsof plant richness across treeline ecotones in the Pyrenees revealdifferent locations for richness and tree cover boundariesrdquoGlobal Ecology and Biogeography vol 15 no 2 pp 182ndash1912006
[53] R M Kunwar L Mahat L N Sharma K P Shrestha HKominee and R W Bussmann ldquoUnderutilized plant species infar west Nepalrdquo Journal ofMountain Science vol 9 pp 589ndash6002012
[54] Government of Nepal Study on InvAsive Alien Species (IAS) AsDrivers To Deforestation and Degradation of Forests in DifferentPhysiographic Regions of Nepal Department of Forest Ministryof Forests and Soil Conservation Kathmandu Nepal 2013
[55] R M Kunwar and R P Acharya Impact Assessment of InvasivePlant Species in Selected Ecosystems of Bhadaure Tamagi VDCKaski An Ecosystem-Based Adaptation in Mountain Ecosystemin Nepal International Union for Conservation of NatureLalitpur Nepal 2013
[56] I Maren K R Bhattarai and R P Chaudhary ldquoForest ecosys-tem services and biodiversity the resource flux from forests tofarms in the Himalayasrdquo Tech Rep Kathmandu Nepal 2013
[57] W D Billings ldquoAdaptations and origins of alpine plantsrdquo Arcticand Alpine Research vol 6 no 2 pp 129ndash142 1974
[58] P Chaudhary and K S Bawa ldquoLocal perceptions of climatechange validated by scientific evidence in the HimalayasrdquoBiology Letters vol 7 no 5 pp 767ndash770 2011
[59] J Salick and A Byg Indigenous Peoples and Climate ChangeTyndall Centre Oxford UK 2007
[60] P S Thakur and H Kaur ldquoVariation in photosynthesis tran-spiration water use efficiency light transmission and leaf areaindex in multipurpose agroforestry tree speciesrdquo Indian Journalof Plant Physiology vol 6 pp 249ndash253 2001
[61] S M A Zobayed F Afreen and T Kozai ldquoTemperaturestress can alter the photosynthetic efficiency and secondarymetabolite concentrations in St Johnrsquos wortrdquo Plant Physiologyand Biochemistry vol 43 no 10-11 pp 977ndash984 2005
[62] H A MooneyW EWinner and E J Pell Response of Plants toMultiple Stresses Academic Press San Diego Calif USA 1991
[63] S Gairola N M Shariff A Bhatt and C P Kala ldquoInfluence ofclimate change on production of secondary chemicals in highaltitude medicinal plants issues needs immediate attentionrdquoJournal of Medicinal Plant Research vol 4 no 18 pp 1825ndash18292010
[64] G T Prance ldquoAn ethnobotanical comparison of four tribes ofAmazonian Indiansrdquo Acta Amazonica vol 2 pp 7ndash27 1972
[65] EThomas I Vandebroek P Goetghebeur S Sanca S Arrazolaand P van Damme ldquoThe relationship between plant use andplant diversity in the Bolivian Andes with special reference tomedicinal plant userdquoHuman Ecology vol 36 no 6 pp 861ndash8792008
[66] S B Malla and S R Shakya ldquoMedicinal plants of Nepalrdquoin Nepal Naturesrsquo Paradise T C Majupuria Ed pp 261ndash297White Lotus Ltd Bangkok Thailand 1984
[67] V P K Nambier ldquoImproved harvesting processing and storageof medicinal plants their role in conservation and quality ofplant based drugsrdquo in Proceedings of the of Sharing Local andNational Experience in Conservation of Medicinal and AromaticPlants in South Asia N K Bhattarai and M B Karki Eds pp42ndash45Government ofNepal IDRCandMAPPA January 2002
[68] R M Kunwar B K Nepal H B Kshhetri S K Rai and RW Bussmann ldquoEthnomedicine in Himalaya a case study fromDolpa Humla Jumla and Mustang districts of Nepalrdquo Journalof Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine vol 2 article 27 2006
[69] M B Rokaya Z Munzbergova and B Timsina ldquoEthnobotani-cal study ofmedicinal plants from theHumla district of westernNepalrdquo Journal of Ethnopharmacology vol 130 no 3 pp 485ndash504 2010
[70] N P Manandhar Plants and People of Nepal Timber PressPortland Ore USA 2002
[71] J Tardıo and M Pardo-de-Santayana ldquoCultural importanceindices a comparative analysis based on the useful wild plantsof southern Cantabria (northern Spain)rdquo Economic Botany vol62 no 1 pp 24ndash39 2008
[72] R E Schultes ldquoAmazonian ethnobotany and the search for newdrugsrdquo Ciba Foundation Symposium vol 185 pp 106ndash112 1994
[73] U P de Albuquerque ldquoRe-examining hypotheses concerningthe use and knowledge of medicinal plants a study in theCaatinga vegetation of NE Brazilrdquo Journal of Ethnobiology andEthnomedicine vol 2 article 30 2006
[74] N L Alencar T A de Sousa Araujo E L C de Amorim andU P de Albuquerque ldquoThe inclusion and selection of medicinalplants in traditional pharmacopoeias-evidence in support of thediversification hypothesisrdquo Economic Botany vol 64 no 1 pp68ndash79 2010
[75] S Harris ldquoNon-native plants and their medicinal usesrdquo inPlants Health andHealing E Hsu and SHarris Eds pp 53ndash82Berghahn Book Oxford UK 2010
[76] P M Medeiros Ed Why Is Change Feared Exotic Species inTraditional Pharmacopoeias vol 2 Ethnobiology and Conser-vation 2013 httpethnobioconservationcom
[77] R M Kunwar ldquoInvasive alien plants and Eupatorium biodiver-sity and livelihoodrdquo Himalayan Journal of Sciences vol 1 no 2pp 129ndash133 2003
2 Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine
0 100 200
(km)
80∘09984000998400998400E 82
∘09984000998400998400E 84
∘09984000998400998400E 86
∘09984000998400998400E 88
∘09984000998400998400E
28∘09984000998400998400N
30∘09984000998400998400N
Figure 1 Study area
(Langtang National Park Rasuwa district Shey-PhoksundoNational Park Dolpa district Rara National Park Mugudistrict Khaptad National Park Doti district DhorpatanHunting Reserve Baglung district and Apinampa conserva-tion area Darchula district) (Figure 1) were visited between2007 and 2012 Although some of the conservation areasoccupy more than one district the stated districts herein aremeant as sample site
22 Participatory Study Methods Field observations infor-mal meetings discussions and consultations were employedto collect information about folk uses of medicinal plantsand local livelihood In total two hundred and forty-ninerespondents (119873 = 249) took part in eight discussions andten consultations A maximum number of discussants (119899 =76) were from Langtang National Park and the least fromKhaptad National Park (119899 = 16) In particular elderlypeople forest guards and women representing differentethnic groups castes and occupations were encouraged toparticipate They were asked about the changes impactsand adaptation practices of climate change through historicaltimelines and trend tracking Their observations experi-ences and expectations were triangulated and used for cross-checking [18]
Matching information between individual surveys andgroup discussions was taken into account for further analysisAll species encountered during participatory field observa-tions were free-listed and the medicinal plant species werecollected during the day and displayed in the evening fordiscussions Most of the species were identified in the fieldusing literature of Polunin and Stainton [19] and Stainton[20] Common species and monospecific genera those wellknown by their vernacular names were used only for dis-cussions and not processed for further identification Theremaining unidentified species were vouchered identifiedand deposited in the National Herbarium and Plant Labo-ratories (KATH) Godawari Lalitpur Nepal Collection ofvoucher specimens along with vernacular names of voucherspecimens was facilitated by eight local assistants Theirassistance was helpful in conducting field level consultationsand discussions
23 Ecological Study Methods Rapid assessments and therandom field samplings were conducted and the geocoor-dinates were collected using Garmin eTtrex GPS Multi-variate test was carried out to see the effects of differentenvironmental variables on species richness The field dataof Langtang National Park were grouped in accordancewith altitudinal gradients aspects and sites and analyzedin the test as a case Detrended correspondence analysis(DCA) was used to test the heterogeneity of dataset As thegradient length was 2567 we used liner redundancy analysis(RDA) method for showing the relationship between speciesand environment variables following Jongman et al [21]Prior informed consents and plant collection permits weregranted for participatory and ecological studies Sometimesplant permit was accounted and do-no-harm plant collectionmethod was approached
24 Review Both the published and unpublished liter-atures were reviewed and the internet based materialswere referenced Databases of Ethnobotanical Society ofNepal (httpwwwesonorgnp) and Department of PlantResources (httpwwwmapisorg) and publications of Haraet al [22ndash24] were used for species distribution range
The contribution of herbarium collections to understandlocal and regional scales of impacts of climate change onecological processes and species distribution has recentlybeen realized [25ndash29] In this study we reviewed herbar-ium collections of 19 candidate species Abies spectabilis(Fir) Betula utilis (Birch) Dactylorhiza hatagirea (Saleporchid) Ephedra gerardiana (Joint fir) Fritillaria cirrhosa(Fritillaria) Hippophae salicifolia (Seabuckthorn) Juniperusrecurva (Juniper) Larix himalaica (Langtang fir) Liliumnepalense (Lilium) Myrica esculenta (Box myrtle) Nar-dostachys grandiflora (Spikenard) Neopicrorhiza scrophu-lariiflora (Kutki) Panax pseudoginseng (Nepali ginseng)Podophyllum hexandrum (May apple) Rhododendron antho-pogon (Anthopogon) R arboreum (Tree rhododendron)R campanulatum (Blue rhododendron) Salix calyculata(Ground salix) andTaxuswallichiana (Nepalese yew) housedin KATH The specimens of samples dated back from 1949were reviewed and their biogeographic informationwas com-puted over time using Canocoo 501 [30] and Telwala et al[31 32] Trade data of those 19 species of five consecutive years(2007ndash2011) available in Hamro Ban (official publication ofDepartment of Forests Government ofNepal)were reviewedThe species used for review were selected based on fundingliterature and frequent citations as highly impacted speciesdue to climate change [33] and the research objectives
3 Results and Discussion
31 Diversity A total of 238 useful plant species consisting of215 genera and 102 families were recorded and among them192 species were frequently cited as medicinal Among themedicinal species 170 species were indigenous and 22 specieswere nonindigenous Species are regarded as indigenous atterritory national and regional level but in the interna-tional level they can be considered as nonindigenous [34]
Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine 3
In the present study we considered that indigenous speciesare those which grow naturally or they have long been cul-tured into an area after some sorts of human modificationsGlobally native or nonnative status is generally determinedby one (or both) of two concepts (1) presence in an areabefore an arbitrary cut-off date imparts native status and(2) human-mediated movement of individuals results innonnative status [35]
32 Use The use of high percentages (80) of indigenousspecies was an indicative of ancient healing tradition butremained somewhat diffused because of the application ofnonindigenous ones The use of nonindigenous species inlocal traditional medicine was similar to the findings of anumber of other ethnobotanical studies [36ndash38] emphasiz-ing the need for more scrutiny and efforts to record andmaintain traditional knowledge As elsewhere adoption ofnonindigenous species was increasing may be seen as away to reshape and revitalize traditional practices which inmany cases provide an important alternative to the healthcare services [39] A larger number of indigenous andnonindigenous species and pharmacopoeias were embraceddue to increasing health care demand and the wider rangeof illnesses [40ndash43] Ethnomedicinal studies therefore haveshown the relevance of nonindigenous species as an asset forlocal medicinal stock [44]
33 Distribution Distribution ofmedicinal plant specieswasspecies specific Tree species B utilis (Birch) A spectabilis(Fir) and J recurva (Juniper) and understorey N grandiflora(Spikenard) and D hatagirea (Salep orchid) were specific totheir restricted distribution resulting in strenuous collectionof their produce Betula and Dactylorhiza were more suscep-tible due to their small population sizes (00058m2 035m2resp) and limited suitable habitats [45] Their distributionwas restrained by outcompetition of R campanulatumCotoneaster species and A spectabilis resulting in likelinessof pushing Betula and Dactylorhiza off the mountain tops[46 47]
The biogeographic information of plant herbariumshowed the higher altitudes of collections over time Theresult was consistent with the earlier observations as foundon F cirrhosa andH salicifolia [48] The distribution recordsof species from lower altitudes in earlier days and thesubsequent records from successive higher altitudeswere cor-roborating with distribution upshifts We found the upshiftsof L himalaica and P roxburghii 4m per year and that of Rarboreum as 088mper yearUpshift ofA spectabilis observedas 25 per year in Langtang Central Nepal substantiated theearlier findings [49ndash51] but in general vegetation upshiftin response to climate change ranges within 1-2m per year[52] Change in distribution of useful species and primaryhabitats showed the importance of the use of secondaryforests nonnative species and underutilized species [53]The change in distribution was consistent to the findings ofdisturbance gradients analysis (Figure 2) Out of four dif-ferent environmental variables computed only altitude anddisturbance were significant for the change of distribution
10
RDA
axis
2
minus20
minus15 20
RDA axis 1
Abispe
Altitude
Salsp
Rhocam
Junrec
Rhoant
Disturb
Betuti
Slope
Aspect
Larhim
Figure 2 RDA biplot showing composition of significant envi-ronmental variables that influence the distribution of plant speciesin Langtang National Park Central Nepal Species abbreviated infigure are as follows Abispe = Abies spectabilis Betuti = Betula utilisJunrec = Juniperus recurva Larhim = Larix himalaica Rhoant =Rhododendron anthopogon Rhocam = R campanulatum and Salsp= Salix species
of plant species First axis explains 1547 and the secondaxis explains 236 of the total variation in the dataset(Figure 2) Altitude possessed the positive correlation withR campanulatum J recurva and Salix species whereas Ranthopogon and L himalaicawere influenced by disturbanceWest facing slope revealed strong affinity to the regenerationand seedling growth of J recurva
Because of the changes in distribution and upshifts someof the picking sites of medicinal plant species were no longercoinciding and the abilities of the harvestersrsquo to collect anduse plants were being affected The picking sites of medicinalplants were particularly dissenting in conservation areas suchas Khaptad National Park and Rara National Park at lowerelevation and the secondary sites were increasingly soughtAt lower elevation of study sites invasion of nonnative plantsAgeratum conyzoides Bidens pilosa Eupatorium odoratumLantana camara Parthenium hysterophorus and so forth wasfrequent as found in other parts of the country [54 55]Former two species were ranged up to 3000mand introducedat lower elevations of Langtang National Park and Shey-Phoksundo National Park The frequent infestations wereseen along the roads wastelands fallow lands and grazingsites Species Taraxacum officinale was sometimes found at3000m or above of Dhorpatan Hunting Reserve and RaraNational Park however these conservation areas were not yetfaced with problematic intrusions by alien invasive speciesThe invasion was also complemented by outmigration ofpeople The outmigration laid the agricultural field fallowdecreased agricultural productivity and contributed to thedeficit of human resources for management aiding habitatdeterioration and invasion [56] As a consequence diversity
4 Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine
and distribution of indigenous medicinal plant species wereincreasingly imperiled and livelihood was compounded
34 Morphology and Phenology Small stunted and multi-stemmed individuals as adaptive features of trees were seen athigher elevations in response to climate change yet the indi-viduals were in isolation Abies trees with smaller height andlow canopy (shrub forest and groove) were observed at higherelevations to resilient the climate change Clonal growth andhigh coppicing properties as evident in R anthopogon andpeeling bark in R campanulatum were also considered asadaptive features Early leaf emergence was observed in Ssikkimensis whereas advance flower initiation was seen in Lhimalaica These advance adjustments of their phenophaseswere made by plants in response to climate change andearlier spring [57] Early bud burst and flowering basedon indigenous knowledge regarding climate change impactswere earlier evidenced [58 59] The shift in phenophasesthat seems to be the immediate impact of warming on thephysiology of species [60] is bound to prolong the totalgrowth duration of the species which is regarded as benefitto the plant productivity Early flowering of R arboreumand R campanulatum was seen but that of R anthopogoncould not be observed so it was difficult to conclude how theclimate change affects plant phenology because the changesare species and microclimate specific Shifting phenologiesand distribution may seem to be of little importance atfirst glance [16] but they have the potential to cause greatchallenges to speciesrsquo survival and peoplersquos livelihood
Besides the changes in phenology morphology anddistribution of plants the secondary metabolites and othercompounds of Plants-produce which usually value for thera-peutic properties [61] are expected to change Generally whenplants are stressed secondary metabolite production maychange as the growth is often inhibited [11 14 16 46 62]However the change on secondary chemical production inplants is largely unclear [63] In either change the plantsrsquodecade-long therapeutic potential for human health benefitsmay no longer retain resulting in threatened ethnomedicine
35 Medicinal Plants and Livelihood The result supportedthat the longer the history of contact of a community withnature the higher the number of medicinal plants used aswell as the higher the number of ailments treated [43 64 65]The earliest written records of plants used as medicine inthe Nepal Himalaya are found in the 6500-year-old textsof the Rigveda [66] 4000-year-old text of the Atharvavedaand 2500ndash3000-year-old texts of theAyurveda [67 68] Cata-logues have recorded about 2400 (33 of countryrsquos floweringplants) useful medicinal and aromatic plants in Nepal [69]and their importance in alleviating human suffering [53 70]Of 192 plants used for ethnomedicine most of them (169species) were used for more than one ailment Species Aeglemarmelos Cissampelos pareira and Terminalia bellirica eachwere used for treatment of six ailments Species used fortreatment of five ailments were Acorus calamus Bergeniaciliata and Ziziphus mauritiana A total of 66 ailments weretreated using folk lore and among them dysentery diarrhea
and skin problems were the most treated respectively by24 22 and 22 species A large number of botanicals usedin ethnomedicine were characteristics of medicinal plantspecies diversity The extensive usage of medicinal plantsfor ethnomedicine showed that it was not merely a medicalsystem but a part of culture Again multiple uses of a plantgave us idea that the area was equally rich in botanicalknowledge
Species A spectabilis Paris polyphylla O sinensis andZ armatum common in study area and widespread in usewere in great peril because of multiple uses The result alsosupported the notion that themore versatile a plant themorewidespread its usefulness [71]
A spectabilis L himalaica P roxburghii and R arboreumwere pushed off the mountain tops and they were alsooverexploited in medicinal and cultural usage Abies leafneedleswere sniffed for cough and coldAbiespoleswere usedfor mounting flags Shoots were heavily logged for furnitureand agriculture implements Survival of species withmultipleuses was also compounded because of their versatile usesthey were fetching higher prices in markets useful as spicescondiments medicinal and tonic Among the 19 studiedspecies eight species (B utilis E gerardiana J recurva Lnepalense N grandiflora N scrophulariiflora P hexandrumand R anthopogon) were the most in trade nonethelesstheir volume in trade was significantly plummeted The totaltraded volume of these species was 753 tons in 2007 and onlyabout 100 tons in 2011 The annual Nepalese medicinal planttrade of total species varied from 480 to 2500 tons over time[68] In the changed contexts livelihoodwasmore vulnerableand the alternatives were frequently sought Therefore theapplication of new species and sites was feasible and in duecourse the usage becomes an asset of adaptive knowledge
Livelihood diversification (subsistence agriculture tocommercial farming and ecotourism) crop substitution(seeking new crops and varieties) changing calendars (pre-or postfarming) off-farm employment (porter trekking andhotel) seasonal migration and so forth were dominanttraditional adaptation strategies for climate change how-ever they were varied in sites Off-farm employment wasincreasingly adopted in Langtang National Park where therewas a huge impact of visitors Intensive crop and farmingrelated strategieswere frequent in study districts ofApinampaConservation area and Dhorpatan Hunting Reserve wherefolks have long been involving in subsistence agriculture andthey have not been greatly intruded by visitors thanks to therugged terrain and physiography of these conservation areasSeasonal migration a traditional adaptation strategy andcommon in Shey-Phoksundo National park offers scopes forsharing ideas and goods Folks were intending to diversify thelivelihood in Shey-Phoksundo Rara and Khaptad NationalParks where there were mixed impacts of tourism com-mercial farming and modernization As a result acceptanceand application of new species and sites for livelihood wereconsidered important for adaptation New sites previouslyneglected such as road sides disturbed forests forest fringesand agricultural ecotones were increasingly being browsedattributed to the business of local communities and acceptingthe sites as adaptation assets Again knowledge cultivation
Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine 5
and maintenance of these species within rural communitieswere decreasing caused by themodernization processes suchas acculturation Loss of traditional knowledge and even thephysical annihilation of indigenous groups not only impedethe search for new drug plants but also handicap the effortsto conservation [72]
Present study found 22 nonindigenous species (Acmellacalva Adiantum capillus-veneris Ageratum conyzoides Aloevera Angelica archangelica Cirsium verutum Cissampelospareira Drymaria cordata Eclipta prostrata Elephantopusscaber Entada phaseoloides Evolvulus alsinoides Holarrhenapubescens Ipomoea carnea Jatropha curcas Mimosa pudicaPlantago major Plumeria rubra Psidium guajava Ricinuscommunis Smilax aspera and Xanthium strumarium) andthey have long been cultured into ethnopharmacopoeias ofNepal Himalaya We can claim that the culture of non-indigenous species on ethnopharmacopoeias is mostly as asubstitution because they were introduced over time cor-roborated to the earlier findings [70ndash74] Nonnative specieshave been incorporated into materia medica from aroundthe world [44] however their importance has not beencredited [75]The entrance of nonindigenous plant species ina pharmacopoeia is a natural and evolutionary phenomenonand we need to be cautious when employing them intomedical repertoire and attributing their values [76] as theintroduction of the nonindigenous species can be both boonand bane to the society [77]
4 Conclusion
Adjustments in distribution phenology and population ofplants jeopardized the species survival and livelihood ofmountain communities Tree species A spectabilis B utilisand J recurva and understorey species N grandiflora andD hatagirea were mainly threatened due to the populationsize and site specific distribution A spectabilis F cirrhosaH salicifolia L himalaica P roxburghii and R arboreum didreveal not only the upshifts but also the fact that their distri-bution was governed by altitude and disturbance gradientsBecause of the changes in distribution and upshifts someof the original picking sites of these species were dissentedand the harvestersrsquo abilities to collect and use those specieswere affected We found that the more versatile a plant is themore widespread its usefulness is and the more usefulnessa plant has the more overexploited and endangered it islikely to be Species A spectabilis Acorus calamus Aeglemarmelos B ciliata C pareira P polyphylla O sinensis Tbellirica Z armatum and Z mauritiana were widespreadin use and in great peril because of their multiple uses Wefound 22 nonindigenous species that have been introducedinto ethnopharmacopoeias ofNepalHimalaya Acceptance ofnonindigenous species and sites for livelihood and medicalrepertoire as a substitution was considered as an adaptationbut we should be cautious when attributing their values
Conflict of Interests
Authors declare that there is no conflict of interests regardingthe publication of this paper
Acknowledgments
Authors are particularly grateful to all communities whoparticipated in their field works and dedicated a lot oftime and efforts The authors would like to thank Hari PSharma Lila N Sharma Maan Rokaya Ganesh K PokharelTulasi Acharya and Mushfiqur Rahman respectively fortheir supports in field works statistical analysis manuscriptdesigning and language editing The authors offer theirregards to Ramsharan Dani and Rita Chhetri for theirsupport in identifying and reviewing the herbaria samplesand Gokarna JThapa andMadan K Suwal for their assistancein editing GPS geocoordinates and preparing study areamapThe authors are grateful to Rainer W Bussmann Maria GFadiman and two anonymous reviewers for their criticalremarks on the paper Ripu M Kunwar is thankful to WWFNepal WLBC Missouri Botanical Garden Garden Club ofAmerica and ASC fellowship USA for providing grants forfield works
References
[1] X Liu and B Chen ldquoClimatic warming in the tibetan plateauduring recent decadesrdquo International Journal of Climatologyvol 20 pp 1729ndash1742 2000
[2] WWF Nepal ldquoAn overview of glaciers glacier retreat andsubsequent impacts in Nepal India and Chinardquo CountryReport Himalayan Glaciers and River Project WWF-NepalKathmandu Nepal 2006
[3] MoE National Adaptation Programme of Action (NAPA) toClimate Change Ministry of Environment Government ofNepal Kathmandu Nepal 2010
[4] M Beniston Ed Mountain Environments in Changing Cli-mates Routledge London UK 1994
[5] D WhitemanMountain Meteorology Oxford University Press2000
[6] I ChestinWWF Eco-Regional Climate Change and BiodiversityDecline no 1 Altai-Sayan Ecoregion Mt Belukha Russia 2001
[7] J P McCarty ldquoEcological consequences of recent climatechangerdquo Conservation Biology vol 15 no 2 pp 320ndash331 2001
[8] L R Holdridge Life Zone Ecology Tropical Science Center SanJose Calif USA 1967
[9] IPCC ldquoThe regional impacts of climate change an assessmentof vulnerabilityrdquo Intergovernmental Panel on Climate ChangeWMO and UNEP 1996
[10] C Parmesan and G Yohe ldquoA globally coherent fingerprint ofclimate change impacts across natural systemsrdquoNature vol 421no 6918 pp 37ndash42 2003
[11] C Korner ldquoA re-assessment of high elevation treeline positionsand their explanationrdquo Oecologia vol 115 no 4 pp 445ndash4591998
[12] K Krajick ldquoAll downhill from hererdquo Science vol 303 no 5664pp 1600ndash1602 2004
[13] A E Kelly and M L Goulden ldquoRapid shifts in plant distri-bution with recent climate changerdquo Proceedings of the National
6 Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine
Academy of Sciences of the United States of America vol 105 no33 pp 11823ndash11826 2008
[14] G R Walther E Post P Convey et al ldquoEcological responses torecent climate changerdquo Nature vol 416 no 6879 pp 389ndash3952002
[15] A B Shrestha C P Wake P A Mayewski and J E DibbldquoMaximum temperature trends in theHimalaya and its vicinityan analysis based on temperature records from Nepal for theperiod 1971-94rdquo Journal of Climate vol 12 no 9 pp 2775ndash27861999
[16] C Cavaliere ldquoThe effects of climate change on medicinal andaromatic plantsrdquo Herbalgram vol 81 pp 44ndash57 2009
[17] H Pirker R Haselmair E Kuhn C Schunko and C R VoglldquoTransformation of traditional knowledge of medicinal plantsthe case of Tyroleans (Austria) whomigrated toAustralia Braziland Perurdquo Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine vol 8article 44 2012
[18] A B Cunningham Applied EthnobotanymdashPeople Wild PlantUse and Conservation Earthscan Publications London UK2002
[19] O Polunin and A Stainton Flowers of the Himalaya OxfordUniversity Press New Delhi India 1984
[20] A Stainton Flowers of Himalaya A Supplement Oxford Uni-versity Press New Delhi India 1988
[21] R H G Jongman C J F ter Braak and O F R vanTongerenData Analysis in Community and Landscape EcologyCambridge University Press Cambridge UK 1987
[22] H Hara W T Stearn and H J Williams An Enumeration ofthe Flowering Plants of Nepal vol 1 British Museum of NaturalHistory London UK 1978
[23] H Hara and H J Williams An Enumeration of the FloweringPlants of Nepal vol 2 British Museum of Natural HistoryLondon UK 1979
[24] H Hara A O Chater and H J Williams An Enumeration ofthe Flowering Plants of Nepal vol 3 British Museum of NaturalHistory London UK 1982
[25] C Lavoie and D Lachance ldquoA new herbarium-based methodfor reconstructing the phenology of plant species across largeareasrdquo American Journal of Botany vol 93 no 4 pp 512ndash5162006
[26] R V Gallagher L Hughes and M R Leishman ldquoPhenolog-ical trends among Australian alpine species using herbariumrecords to identify climate-change indicatorsrdquo Australian Jour-nal of Botany vol 57 no 1 pp 1ndash9 2009
[27] K M Robbirt A J Davy M J Hutchings and D L RobertsldquoValidation of biological collections as a source of phenologicaldata for use in climate change studies a case study with theorchid Ophrys sphegodesrdquo Journal of Ecology vol 99 no 1 pp235ndash241 2011
[28] K G Johnson S J Brooks P B Fenberg et al ldquoClimate changeand biosphere response unlocking the collections vaultrdquo Bio-Science vol 61 no 2 pp 147ndash153 2011
[29] Z Li NWu X Gao YWu and K P Oli ldquoSpecies-level pheno-logical responses to global warming as evidenced by herbariumcollections in the Tibetan Autonomous Regionrdquo BiodiversityConservation vol 22 pp 141ndash152 2013
[30] C J F ter Braak and P Smilauer Canoco Reference Manual andUserrsquos Guide Software for Ordination version 50 Microcom-puter Power Ithaca NY USA 2012
[31] Y Telwala BW Brook K Manish andM K Pandit ldquoClimate-induced elevational range shifts and increase in plant Species
richness in a Himalayan biodiversity epicenterrdquo PLoS ONE vol8 Article ID e57103 2013
[32] B Holzinger K Hulber M Camenisch and G GrabherrldquoChanges in plant species richness over the last century in theeastern Swiss Alps elevational gradient bedrock effects andmigration ratesrdquo Plant Ecology vol 195 no 2 pp 179ndash196 2008
[33] R P Chaudhary K K Shrestha P K Jha and K P BhattaKailash Sacred Landscape Conservation Initiative FeasibilityAssessment Report Central Department of Botany TribhuvanUniversity Kathmandu Nepal 2010
[34] T Kondo M D Crisp C Linde et al ldquoNot an ancient relic theendemic Livistona palms of arid central Australia could havebeen introduced by humansrdquo Proceedings of the Royal Society Bvol 279 pp 2652ndash2661 2012
[35] M S Trudgen B L Webber and J K Scott ldquoHuman-mediated introduction of Livistona palms into central Australiaconservation and management implicationsrdquo Proceedings of theRoyal Society B vol 279 no 1745 pp 4115ndash4117 2012
[36] A L C Gonzalez M Sorensen and I Thailade ldquoUse andvaluation of native and introduced medicinal plant species inCampo Hermoso and Zetaquira Boyaca Colombiardquo Journal ofEthnobiology and Ethnomedicine vol 9 article 23 2013
[37] P A Cox ldquoWild plants as food and medicine in Polynesiardquo inEating on the Wild Side The Pharmacologic Ecologic and SocialImplications of Using Noncultigens N L Etkin Ed Universityof Arizona Press Tucson Ariz USA 1994
[38] A Ankli O Sticher andM Heinrich ldquoMedical ethnobotany oftheYucatecMaya healersrsquo consensus as a quantitative criterionrdquoEconomic Botany vol 53 no 2 pp 144ndash160 1999
[39] C T Palmer ldquoThe inclusion of recently introduced plants inthe Hawaiian Ethnopharmacopoeiardquo Economic Botany vol 58supplement 1 pp S280ndashS293 2004
[40] C H Brown ldquoMode of subsistence and folk biological taxon-omyrdquo Current Anthropology vol 26 no 1 pp 43ndash53 1985
[41] S A Alchon Native Society and Disease in Colonial EcuadorCambridge University Press Cambridge UK 1991
[42] R A Voeks ldquoDisturbance pharmacopoeias medicine andmythfrom the humid tropicsrdquo Annals of the Association of AmericanGeographers vol 94 no 4 pp 868ndash888 2004
[43] R A Voeks and P Sercombe ldquoThe scope of hunter-gathererethnomedicinerdquo Social Science and Medicine vol 51 no 5 pp679ndash690 2000
[44] B M Boom ldquoEthnobotany of the Chaicobo Indians BeniBoliviardquo Advances in Economic Botany vol 4 pp 1ndash68 1987
[45] B B Shrestha B Ghimire H D Lekhak and P K JhaldquoRegeneration of treeline birch (Betula utilis D Don) forestin a trans-Himalayan dry valley in Central Nepalrdquo MountainResearch and Development vol 27 no 3 pp 259ndash267 2007
[46] J Salick D Anderson J Woo et al Tibetan Ethnobotanyand Gradient Analyses Menri (Medicine Mountains) EasternHimalayas Millennium Ecosystem Assessment 2004 httpwwwmillenniumassessmentorgdocumentsbridgingpaperssalickjanpdf
[47] A Craighead ldquoUtilizing habitat suitability models to predictthe effects of global climate change on three different speciesof Picardquo Craighead Environmental Research Institute (CERI)Alcoa Foundation 2009
[48] R M Kunwar Y Katuwal R D Shrestha J B Karki K PShrestha and R W Bussmann ldquoClimate change medicinalplants and ethnobotany observations and reviewrdquo inProceedingof the 1st National Youth Conference pp 180ndash189 KathmanduNepal June 2010
Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine 7
[49] N P Gaire and D R Bhuju ldquoTree line dynamics with climatechange a study in Manaslu region Nepal Himalayardquo AnnualReport Nepal Academy of Science and Technology LalitpurNepal 2010
[50] M K Suwal Tree species line advance of Abies spectabilisin Manaslu Conservation Area Nepal Himalaya [MS thesis]Central Department of Botany Tribhuvan University 2010
[51] R M Kunwar Assessment of Climate Change Impacts onNon Timber Forest Products (NTFPs) Medicinal and AromaticPlants (MAPs) and Important Tree Species (ITS) in the SacredHimalayan Landscape Nepal WWF Nepal Program Kath-mandu Nepal 2011
[52] J J Camarero E Gutierrez and M J Fortin ldquoSpatial patternsof plant richness across treeline ecotones in the Pyrenees revealdifferent locations for richness and tree cover boundariesrdquoGlobal Ecology and Biogeography vol 15 no 2 pp 182ndash1912006
[53] R M Kunwar L Mahat L N Sharma K P Shrestha HKominee and R W Bussmann ldquoUnderutilized plant species infar west Nepalrdquo Journal ofMountain Science vol 9 pp 589ndash6002012
[54] Government of Nepal Study on InvAsive Alien Species (IAS) AsDrivers To Deforestation and Degradation of Forests in DifferentPhysiographic Regions of Nepal Department of Forest Ministryof Forests and Soil Conservation Kathmandu Nepal 2013
[55] R M Kunwar and R P Acharya Impact Assessment of InvasivePlant Species in Selected Ecosystems of Bhadaure Tamagi VDCKaski An Ecosystem-Based Adaptation in Mountain Ecosystemin Nepal International Union for Conservation of NatureLalitpur Nepal 2013
[56] I Maren K R Bhattarai and R P Chaudhary ldquoForest ecosys-tem services and biodiversity the resource flux from forests tofarms in the Himalayasrdquo Tech Rep Kathmandu Nepal 2013
[57] W D Billings ldquoAdaptations and origins of alpine plantsrdquo Arcticand Alpine Research vol 6 no 2 pp 129ndash142 1974
[58] P Chaudhary and K S Bawa ldquoLocal perceptions of climatechange validated by scientific evidence in the HimalayasrdquoBiology Letters vol 7 no 5 pp 767ndash770 2011
[59] J Salick and A Byg Indigenous Peoples and Climate ChangeTyndall Centre Oxford UK 2007
[60] P S Thakur and H Kaur ldquoVariation in photosynthesis tran-spiration water use efficiency light transmission and leaf areaindex in multipurpose agroforestry tree speciesrdquo Indian Journalof Plant Physiology vol 6 pp 249ndash253 2001
[61] S M A Zobayed F Afreen and T Kozai ldquoTemperaturestress can alter the photosynthetic efficiency and secondarymetabolite concentrations in St Johnrsquos wortrdquo Plant Physiologyand Biochemistry vol 43 no 10-11 pp 977ndash984 2005
[62] H A MooneyW EWinner and E J Pell Response of Plants toMultiple Stresses Academic Press San Diego Calif USA 1991
[63] S Gairola N M Shariff A Bhatt and C P Kala ldquoInfluence ofclimate change on production of secondary chemicals in highaltitude medicinal plants issues needs immediate attentionrdquoJournal of Medicinal Plant Research vol 4 no 18 pp 1825ndash18292010
[64] G T Prance ldquoAn ethnobotanical comparison of four tribes ofAmazonian Indiansrdquo Acta Amazonica vol 2 pp 7ndash27 1972
[65] EThomas I Vandebroek P Goetghebeur S Sanca S Arrazolaand P van Damme ldquoThe relationship between plant use andplant diversity in the Bolivian Andes with special reference tomedicinal plant userdquoHuman Ecology vol 36 no 6 pp 861ndash8792008
[66] S B Malla and S R Shakya ldquoMedicinal plants of Nepalrdquoin Nepal Naturesrsquo Paradise T C Majupuria Ed pp 261ndash297White Lotus Ltd Bangkok Thailand 1984
[67] V P K Nambier ldquoImproved harvesting processing and storageof medicinal plants their role in conservation and quality ofplant based drugsrdquo in Proceedings of the of Sharing Local andNational Experience in Conservation of Medicinal and AromaticPlants in South Asia N K Bhattarai and M B Karki Eds pp42ndash45Government ofNepal IDRCandMAPPA January 2002
[68] R M Kunwar B K Nepal H B Kshhetri S K Rai and RW Bussmann ldquoEthnomedicine in Himalaya a case study fromDolpa Humla Jumla and Mustang districts of Nepalrdquo Journalof Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine vol 2 article 27 2006
[69] M B Rokaya Z Munzbergova and B Timsina ldquoEthnobotani-cal study ofmedicinal plants from theHumla district of westernNepalrdquo Journal of Ethnopharmacology vol 130 no 3 pp 485ndash504 2010
[70] N P Manandhar Plants and People of Nepal Timber PressPortland Ore USA 2002
[71] J Tardıo and M Pardo-de-Santayana ldquoCultural importanceindices a comparative analysis based on the useful wild plantsof southern Cantabria (northern Spain)rdquo Economic Botany vol62 no 1 pp 24ndash39 2008
[72] R E Schultes ldquoAmazonian ethnobotany and the search for newdrugsrdquo Ciba Foundation Symposium vol 185 pp 106ndash112 1994
[73] U P de Albuquerque ldquoRe-examining hypotheses concerningthe use and knowledge of medicinal plants a study in theCaatinga vegetation of NE Brazilrdquo Journal of Ethnobiology andEthnomedicine vol 2 article 30 2006
[74] N L Alencar T A de Sousa Araujo E L C de Amorim andU P de Albuquerque ldquoThe inclusion and selection of medicinalplants in traditional pharmacopoeias-evidence in support of thediversification hypothesisrdquo Economic Botany vol 64 no 1 pp68ndash79 2010
[75] S Harris ldquoNon-native plants and their medicinal usesrdquo inPlants Health andHealing E Hsu and SHarris Eds pp 53ndash82Berghahn Book Oxford UK 2010
[76] P M Medeiros Ed Why Is Change Feared Exotic Species inTraditional Pharmacopoeias vol 2 Ethnobiology and Conser-vation 2013 httpethnobioconservationcom
[77] R M Kunwar ldquoInvasive alien plants and Eupatorium biodiver-sity and livelihoodrdquo Himalayan Journal of Sciences vol 1 no 2pp 129ndash133 2003
Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine 3
In the present study we considered that indigenous speciesare those which grow naturally or they have long been cul-tured into an area after some sorts of human modificationsGlobally native or nonnative status is generally determinedby one (or both) of two concepts (1) presence in an areabefore an arbitrary cut-off date imparts native status and(2) human-mediated movement of individuals results innonnative status [35]
32 Use The use of high percentages (80) of indigenousspecies was an indicative of ancient healing tradition butremained somewhat diffused because of the application ofnonindigenous ones The use of nonindigenous species inlocal traditional medicine was similar to the findings of anumber of other ethnobotanical studies [36ndash38] emphasiz-ing the need for more scrutiny and efforts to record andmaintain traditional knowledge As elsewhere adoption ofnonindigenous species was increasing may be seen as away to reshape and revitalize traditional practices which inmany cases provide an important alternative to the healthcare services [39] A larger number of indigenous andnonindigenous species and pharmacopoeias were embraceddue to increasing health care demand and the wider rangeof illnesses [40ndash43] Ethnomedicinal studies therefore haveshown the relevance of nonindigenous species as an asset forlocal medicinal stock [44]
33 Distribution Distribution ofmedicinal plant specieswasspecies specific Tree species B utilis (Birch) A spectabilis(Fir) and J recurva (Juniper) and understorey N grandiflora(Spikenard) and D hatagirea (Salep orchid) were specific totheir restricted distribution resulting in strenuous collectionof their produce Betula and Dactylorhiza were more suscep-tible due to their small population sizes (00058m2 035m2resp) and limited suitable habitats [45] Their distributionwas restrained by outcompetition of R campanulatumCotoneaster species and A spectabilis resulting in likelinessof pushing Betula and Dactylorhiza off the mountain tops[46 47]
The biogeographic information of plant herbariumshowed the higher altitudes of collections over time Theresult was consistent with the earlier observations as foundon F cirrhosa andH salicifolia [48] The distribution recordsof species from lower altitudes in earlier days and thesubsequent records from successive higher altitudeswere cor-roborating with distribution upshifts We found the upshiftsof L himalaica and P roxburghii 4m per year and that of Rarboreum as 088mper yearUpshift ofA spectabilis observedas 25 per year in Langtang Central Nepal substantiated theearlier findings [49ndash51] but in general vegetation upshiftin response to climate change ranges within 1-2m per year[52] Change in distribution of useful species and primaryhabitats showed the importance of the use of secondaryforests nonnative species and underutilized species [53]The change in distribution was consistent to the findings ofdisturbance gradients analysis (Figure 2) Out of four dif-ferent environmental variables computed only altitude anddisturbance were significant for the change of distribution
10
RDA
axis
2
minus20
minus15 20
RDA axis 1
Abispe
Altitude
Salsp
Rhocam
Junrec
Rhoant
Disturb
Betuti
Slope
Aspect
Larhim
Figure 2 RDA biplot showing composition of significant envi-ronmental variables that influence the distribution of plant speciesin Langtang National Park Central Nepal Species abbreviated infigure are as follows Abispe = Abies spectabilis Betuti = Betula utilisJunrec = Juniperus recurva Larhim = Larix himalaica Rhoant =Rhododendron anthopogon Rhocam = R campanulatum and Salsp= Salix species
of plant species First axis explains 1547 and the secondaxis explains 236 of the total variation in the dataset(Figure 2) Altitude possessed the positive correlation withR campanulatum J recurva and Salix species whereas Ranthopogon and L himalaicawere influenced by disturbanceWest facing slope revealed strong affinity to the regenerationand seedling growth of J recurva
Because of the changes in distribution and upshifts someof the picking sites of medicinal plant species were no longercoinciding and the abilities of the harvestersrsquo to collect anduse plants were being affected The picking sites of medicinalplants were particularly dissenting in conservation areas suchas Khaptad National Park and Rara National Park at lowerelevation and the secondary sites were increasingly soughtAt lower elevation of study sites invasion of nonnative plantsAgeratum conyzoides Bidens pilosa Eupatorium odoratumLantana camara Parthenium hysterophorus and so forth wasfrequent as found in other parts of the country [54 55]Former two species were ranged up to 3000mand introducedat lower elevations of Langtang National Park and Shey-Phoksundo National Park The frequent infestations wereseen along the roads wastelands fallow lands and grazingsites Species Taraxacum officinale was sometimes found at3000m or above of Dhorpatan Hunting Reserve and RaraNational Park however these conservation areas were not yetfaced with problematic intrusions by alien invasive speciesThe invasion was also complemented by outmigration ofpeople The outmigration laid the agricultural field fallowdecreased agricultural productivity and contributed to thedeficit of human resources for management aiding habitatdeterioration and invasion [56] As a consequence diversity
4 Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine
and distribution of indigenous medicinal plant species wereincreasingly imperiled and livelihood was compounded
34 Morphology and Phenology Small stunted and multi-stemmed individuals as adaptive features of trees were seen athigher elevations in response to climate change yet the indi-viduals were in isolation Abies trees with smaller height andlow canopy (shrub forest and groove) were observed at higherelevations to resilient the climate change Clonal growth andhigh coppicing properties as evident in R anthopogon andpeeling bark in R campanulatum were also considered asadaptive features Early leaf emergence was observed in Ssikkimensis whereas advance flower initiation was seen in Lhimalaica These advance adjustments of their phenophaseswere made by plants in response to climate change andearlier spring [57] Early bud burst and flowering basedon indigenous knowledge regarding climate change impactswere earlier evidenced [58 59] The shift in phenophasesthat seems to be the immediate impact of warming on thephysiology of species [60] is bound to prolong the totalgrowth duration of the species which is regarded as benefitto the plant productivity Early flowering of R arboreumand R campanulatum was seen but that of R anthopogoncould not be observed so it was difficult to conclude how theclimate change affects plant phenology because the changesare species and microclimate specific Shifting phenologiesand distribution may seem to be of little importance atfirst glance [16] but they have the potential to cause greatchallenges to speciesrsquo survival and peoplersquos livelihood
Besides the changes in phenology morphology anddistribution of plants the secondary metabolites and othercompounds of Plants-produce which usually value for thera-peutic properties [61] are expected to change Generally whenplants are stressed secondary metabolite production maychange as the growth is often inhibited [11 14 16 46 62]However the change on secondary chemical production inplants is largely unclear [63] In either change the plantsrsquodecade-long therapeutic potential for human health benefitsmay no longer retain resulting in threatened ethnomedicine
35 Medicinal Plants and Livelihood The result supportedthat the longer the history of contact of a community withnature the higher the number of medicinal plants used aswell as the higher the number of ailments treated [43 64 65]The earliest written records of plants used as medicine inthe Nepal Himalaya are found in the 6500-year-old textsof the Rigveda [66] 4000-year-old text of the Atharvavedaand 2500ndash3000-year-old texts of theAyurveda [67 68] Cata-logues have recorded about 2400 (33 of countryrsquos floweringplants) useful medicinal and aromatic plants in Nepal [69]and their importance in alleviating human suffering [53 70]Of 192 plants used for ethnomedicine most of them (169species) were used for more than one ailment Species Aeglemarmelos Cissampelos pareira and Terminalia bellirica eachwere used for treatment of six ailments Species used fortreatment of five ailments were Acorus calamus Bergeniaciliata and Ziziphus mauritiana A total of 66 ailments weretreated using folk lore and among them dysentery diarrhea
and skin problems were the most treated respectively by24 22 and 22 species A large number of botanicals usedin ethnomedicine were characteristics of medicinal plantspecies diversity The extensive usage of medicinal plantsfor ethnomedicine showed that it was not merely a medicalsystem but a part of culture Again multiple uses of a plantgave us idea that the area was equally rich in botanicalknowledge
Species A spectabilis Paris polyphylla O sinensis andZ armatum common in study area and widespread in usewere in great peril because of multiple uses The result alsosupported the notion that themore versatile a plant themorewidespread its usefulness [71]
A spectabilis L himalaica P roxburghii and R arboreumwere pushed off the mountain tops and they were alsooverexploited in medicinal and cultural usage Abies leafneedleswere sniffed for cough and coldAbiespoleswere usedfor mounting flags Shoots were heavily logged for furnitureand agriculture implements Survival of species withmultipleuses was also compounded because of their versatile usesthey were fetching higher prices in markets useful as spicescondiments medicinal and tonic Among the 19 studiedspecies eight species (B utilis E gerardiana J recurva Lnepalense N grandiflora N scrophulariiflora P hexandrumand R anthopogon) were the most in trade nonethelesstheir volume in trade was significantly plummeted The totaltraded volume of these species was 753 tons in 2007 and onlyabout 100 tons in 2011 The annual Nepalese medicinal planttrade of total species varied from 480 to 2500 tons over time[68] In the changed contexts livelihoodwasmore vulnerableand the alternatives were frequently sought Therefore theapplication of new species and sites was feasible and in duecourse the usage becomes an asset of adaptive knowledge
Livelihood diversification (subsistence agriculture tocommercial farming and ecotourism) crop substitution(seeking new crops and varieties) changing calendars (pre-or postfarming) off-farm employment (porter trekking andhotel) seasonal migration and so forth were dominanttraditional adaptation strategies for climate change how-ever they were varied in sites Off-farm employment wasincreasingly adopted in Langtang National Park where therewas a huge impact of visitors Intensive crop and farmingrelated strategieswere frequent in study districts ofApinampaConservation area and Dhorpatan Hunting Reserve wherefolks have long been involving in subsistence agriculture andthey have not been greatly intruded by visitors thanks to therugged terrain and physiography of these conservation areasSeasonal migration a traditional adaptation strategy andcommon in Shey-Phoksundo National park offers scopes forsharing ideas and goods Folks were intending to diversify thelivelihood in Shey-Phoksundo Rara and Khaptad NationalParks where there were mixed impacts of tourism com-mercial farming and modernization As a result acceptanceand application of new species and sites for livelihood wereconsidered important for adaptation New sites previouslyneglected such as road sides disturbed forests forest fringesand agricultural ecotones were increasingly being browsedattributed to the business of local communities and acceptingthe sites as adaptation assets Again knowledge cultivation
Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine 5
and maintenance of these species within rural communitieswere decreasing caused by themodernization processes suchas acculturation Loss of traditional knowledge and even thephysical annihilation of indigenous groups not only impedethe search for new drug plants but also handicap the effortsto conservation [72]
Present study found 22 nonindigenous species (Acmellacalva Adiantum capillus-veneris Ageratum conyzoides Aloevera Angelica archangelica Cirsium verutum Cissampelospareira Drymaria cordata Eclipta prostrata Elephantopusscaber Entada phaseoloides Evolvulus alsinoides Holarrhenapubescens Ipomoea carnea Jatropha curcas Mimosa pudicaPlantago major Plumeria rubra Psidium guajava Ricinuscommunis Smilax aspera and Xanthium strumarium) andthey have long been cultured into ethnopharmacopoeias ofNepal Himalaya We can claim that the culture of non-indigenous species on ethnopharmacopoeias is mostly as asubstitution because they were introduced over time cor-roborated to the earlier findings [70ndash74] Nonnative specieshave been incorporated into materia medica from aroundthe world [44] however their importance has not beencredited [75]The entrance of nonindigenous plant species ina pharmacopoeia is a natural and evolutionary phenomenonand we need to be cautious when employing them intomedical repertoire and attributing their values [76] as theintroduction of the nonindigenous species can be both boonand bane to the society [77]
4 Conclusion
Adjustments in distribution phenology and population ofplants jeopardized the species survival and livelihood ofmountain communities Tree species A spectabilis B utilisand J recurva and understorey species N grandiflora andD hatagirea were mainly threatened due to the populationsize and site specific distribution A spectabilis F cirrhosaH salicifolia L himalaica P roxburghii and R arboreum didreveal not only the upshifts but also the fact that their distri-bution was governed by altitude and disturbance gradientsBecause of the changes in distribution and upshifts someof the original picking sites of these species were dissentedand the harvestersrsquo abilities to collect and use those specieswere affected We found that the more versatile a plant is themore widespread its usefulness is and the more usefulnessa plant has the more overexploited and endangered it islikely to be Species A spectabilis Acorus calamus Aeglemarmelos B ciliata C pareira P polyphylla O sinensis Tbellirica Z armatum and Z mauritiana were widespreadin use and in great peril because of their multiple uses Wefound 22 nonindigenous species that have been introducedinto ethnopharmacopoeias ofNepalHimalaya Acceptance ofnonindigenous species and sites for livelihood and medicalrepertoire as a substitution was considered as an adaptationbut we should be cautious when attributing their values
Conflict of Interests
Authors declare that there is no conflict of interests regardingthe publication of this paper
Acknowledgments
Authors are particularly grateful to all communities whoparticipated in their field works and dedicated a lot oftime and efforts The authors would like to thank Hari PSharma Lila N Sharma Maan Rokaya Ganesh K PokharelTulasi Acharya and Mushfiqur Rahman respectively fortheir supports in field works statistical analysis manuscriptdesigning and language editing The authors offer theirregards to Ramsharan Dani and Rita Chhetri for theirsupport in identifying and reviewing the herbaria samplesand Gokarna JThapa andMadan K Suwal for their assistancein editing GPS geocoordinates and preparing study areamapThe authors are grateful to Rainer W Bussmann Maria GFadiman and two anonymous reviewers for their criticalremarks on the paper Ripu M Kunwar is thankful to WWFNepal WLBC Missouri Botanical Garden Garden Club ofAmerica and ASC fellowship USA for providing grants forfield works
References
[1] X Liu and B Chen ldquoClimatic warming in the tibetan plateauduring recent decadesrdquo International Journal of Climatologyvol 20 pp 1729ndash1742 2000
[2] WWF Nepal ldquoAn overview of glaciers glacier retreat andsubsequent impacts in Nepal India and Chinardquo CountryReport Himalayan Glaciers and River Project WWF-NepalKathmandu Nepal 2006
[3] MoE National Adaptation Programme of Action (NAPA) toClimate Change Ministry of Environment Government ofNepal Kathmandu Nepal 2010
[4] M Beniston Ed Mountain Environments in Changing Cli-mates Routledge London UK 1994
[5] D WhitemanMountain Meteorology Oxford University Press2000
[6] I ChestinWWF Eco-Regional Climate Change and BiodiversityDecline no 1 Altai-Sayan Ecoregion Mt Belukha Russia 2001
[7] J P McCarty ldquoEcological consequences of recent climatechangerdquo Conservation Biology vol 15 no 2 pp 320ndash331 2001
[8] L R Holdridge Life Zone Ecology Tropical Science Center SanJose Calif USA 1967
[9] IPCC ldquoThe regional impacts of climate change an assessmentof vulnerabilityrdquo Intergovernmental Panel on Climate ChangeWMO and UNEP 1996
[10] C Parmesan and G Yohe ldquoA globally coherent fingerprint ofclimate change impacts across natural systemsrdquoNature vol 421no 6918 pp 37ndash42 2003
[11] C Korner ldquoA re-assessment of high elevation treeline positionsand their explanationrdquo Oecologia vol 115 no 4 pp 445ndash4591998
[12] K Krajick ldquoAll downhill from hererdquo Science vol 303 no 5664pp 1600ndash1602 2004
[13] A E Kelly and M L Goulden ldquoRapid shifts in plant distri-bution with recent climate changerdquo Proceedings of the National
6 Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine
Academy of Sciences of the United States of America vol 105 no33 pp 11823ndash11826 2008
[14] G R Walther E Post P Convey et al ldquoEcological responses torecent climate changerdquo Nature vol 416 no 6879 pp 389ndash3952002
[15] A B Shrestha C P Wake P A Mayewski and J E DibbldquoMaximum temperature trends in theHimalaya and its vicinityan analysis based on temperature records from Nepal for theperiod 1971-94rdquo Journal of Climate vol 12 no 9 pp 2775ndash27861999
[16] C Cavaliere ldquoThe effects of climate change on medicinal andaromatic plantsrdquo Herbalgram vol 81 pp 44ndash57 2009
[17] H Pirker R Haselmair E Kuhn C Schunko and C R VoglldquoTransformation of traditional knowledge of medicinal plantsthe case of Tyroleans (Austria) whomigrated toAustralia Braziland Perurdquo Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine vol 8article 44 2012
[18] A B Cunningham Applied EthnobotanymdashPeople Wild PlantUse and Conservation Earthscan Publications London UK2002
[19] O Polunin and A Stainton Flowers of the Himalaya OxfordUniversity Press New Delhi India 1984
[20] A Stainton Flowers of Himalaya A Supplement Oxford Uni-versity Press New Delhi India 1988
[21] R H G Jongman C J F ter Braak and O F R vanTongerenData Analysis in Community and Landscape EcologyCambridge University Press Cambridge UK 1987
[22] H Hara W T Stearn and H J Williams An Enumeration ofthe Flowering Plants of Nepal vol 1 British Museum of NaturalHistory London UK 1978
[23] H Hara and H J Williams An Enumeration of the FloweringPlants of Nepal vol 2 British Museum of Natural HistoryLondon UK 1979
[24] H Hara A O Chater and H J Williams An Enumeration ofthe Flowering Plants of Nepal vol 3 British Museum of NaturalHistory London UK 1982
[25] C Lavoie and D Lachance ldquoA new herbarium-based methodfor reconstructing the phenology of plant species across largeareasrdquo American Journal of Botany vol 93 no 4 pp 512ndash5162006
[26] R V Gallagher L Hughes and M R Leishman ldquoPhenolog-ical trends among Australian alpine species using herbariumrecords to identify climate-change indicatorsrdquo Australian Jour-nal of Botany vol 57 no 1 pp 1ndash9 2009
[27] K M Robbirt A J Davy M J Hutchings and D L RobertsldquoValidation of biological collections as a source of phenologicaldata for use in climate change studies a case study with theorchid Ophrys sphegodesrdquo Journal of Ecology vol 99 no 1 pp235ndash241 2011
[28] K G Johnson S J Brooks P B Fenberg et al ldquoClimate changeand biosphere response unlocking the collections vaultrdquo Bio-Science vol 61 no 2 pp 147ndash153 2011
[29] Z Li NWu X Gao YWu and K P Oli ldquoSpecies-level pheno-logical responses to global warming as evidenced by herbariumcollections in the Tibetan Autonomous Regionrdquo BiodiversityConservation vol 22 pp 141ndash152 2013
[30] C J F ter Braak and P Smilauer Canoco Reference Manual andUserrsquos Guide Software for Ordination version 50 Microcom-puter Power Ithaca NY USA 2012
[31] Y Telwala BW Brook K Manish andM K Pandit ldquoClimate-induced elevational range shifts and increase in plant Species
richness in a Himalayan biodiversity epicenterrdquo PLoS ONE vol8 Article ID e57103 2013
[32] B Holzinger K Hulber M Camenisch and G GrabherrldquoChanges in plant species richness over the last century in theeastern Swiss Alps elevational gradient bedrock effects andmigration ratesrdquo Plant Ecology vol 195 no 2 pp 179ndash196 2008
[33] R P Chaudhary K K Shrestha P K Jha and K P BhattaKailash Sacred Landscape Conservation Initiative FeasibilityAssessment Report Central Department of Botany TribhuvanUniversity Kathmandu Nepal 2010
[34] T Kondo M D Crisp C Linde et al ldquoNot an ancient relic theendemic Livistona palms of arid central Australia could havebeen introduced by humansrdquo Proceedings of the Royal Society Bvol 279 pp 2652ndash2661 2012
[35] M S Trudgen B L Webber and J K Scott ldquoHuman-mediated introduction of Livistona palms into central Australiaconservation and management implicationsrdquo Proceedings of theRoyal Society B vol 279 no 1745 pp 4115ndash4117 2012
[36] A L C Gonzalez M Sorensen and I Thailade ldquoUse andvaluation of native and introduced medicinal plant species inCampo Hermoso and Zetaquira Boyaca Colombiardquo Journal ofEthnobiology and Ethnomedicine vol 9 article 23 2013
[37] P A Cox ldquoWild plants as food and medicine in Polynesiardquo inEating on the Wild Side The Pharmacologic Ecologic and SocialImplications of Using Noncultigens N L Etkin Ed Universityof Arizona Press Tucson Ariz USA 1994
[38] A Ankli O Sticher andM Heinrich ldquoMedical ethnobotany oftheYucatecMaya healersrsquo consensus as a quantitative criterionrdquoEconomic Botany vol 53 no 2 pp 144ndash160 1999
[39] C T Palmer ldquoThe inclusion of recently introduced plants inthe Hawaiian Ethnopharmacopoeiardquo Economic Botany vol 58supplement 1 pp S280ndashS293 2004
[40] C H Brown ldquoMode of subsistence and folk biological taxon-omyrdquo Current Anthropology vol 26 no 1 pp 43ndash53 1985
[41] S A Alchon Native Society and Disease in Colonial EcuadorCambridge University Press Cambridge UK 1991
[42] R A Voeks ldquoDisturbance pharmacopoeias medicine andmythfrom the humid tropicsrdquo Annals of the Association of AmericanGeographers vol 94 no 4 pp 868ndash888 2004
[43] R A Voeks and P Sercombe ldquoThe scope of hunter-gathererethnomedicinerdquo Social Science and Medicine vol 51 no 5 pp679ndash690 2000
[44] B M Boom ldquoEthnobotany of the Chaicobo Indians BeniBoliviardquo Advances in Economic Botany vol 4 pp 1ndash68 1987
[45] B B Shrestha B Ghimire H D Lekhak and P K JhaldquoRegeneration of treeline birch (Betula utilis D Don) forestin a trans-Himalayan dry valley in Central Nepalrdquo MountainResearch and Development vol 27 no 3 pp 259ndash267 2007
[46] J Salick D Anderson J Woo et al Tibetan Ethnobotanyand Gradient Analyses Menri (Medicine Mountains) EasternHimalayas Millennium Ecosystem Assessment 2004 httpwwwmillenniumassessmentorgdocumentsbridgingpaperssalickjanpdf
[47] A Craighead ldquoUtilizing habitat suitability models to predictthe effects of global climate change on three different speciesof Picardquo Craighead Environmental Research Institute (CERI)Alcoa Foundation 2009
[48] R M Kunwar Y Katuwal R D Shrestha J B Karki K PShrestha and R W Bussmann ldquoClimate change medicinalplants and ethnobotany observations and reviewrdquo inProceedingof the 1st National Youth Conference pp 180ndash189 KathmanduNepal June 2010
Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine 7
[49] N P Gaire and D R Bhuju ldquoTree line dynamics with climatechange a study in Manaslu region Nepal Himalayardquo AnnualReport Nepal Academy of Science and Technology LalitpurNepal 2010
[50] M K Suwal Tree species line advance of Abies spectabilisin Manaslu Conservation Area Nepal Himalaya [MS thesis]Central Department of Botany Tribhuvan University 2010
[51] R M Kunwar Assessment of Climate Change Impacts onNon Timber Forest Products (NTFPs) Medicinal and AromaticPlants (MAPs) and Important Tree Species (ITS) in the SacredHimalayan Landscape Nepal WWF Nepal Program Kath-mandu Nepal 2011
[52] J J Camarero E Gutierrez and M J Fortin ldquoSpatial patternsof plant richness across treeline ecotones in the Pyrenees revealdifferent locations for richness and tree cover boundariesrdquoGlobal Ecology and Biogeography vol 15 no 2 pp 182ndash1912006
[53] R M Kunwar L Mahat L N Sharma K P Shrestha HKominee and R W Bussmann ldquoUnderutilized plant species infar west Nepalrdquo Journal ofMountain Science vol 9 pp 589ndash6002012
[54] Government of Nepal Study on InvAsive Alien Species (IAS) AsDrivers To Deforestation and Degradation of Forests in DifferentPhysiographic Regions of Nepal Department of Forest Ministryof Forests and Soil Conservation Kathmandu Nepal 2013
[55] R M Kunwar and R P Acharya Impact Assessment of InvasivePlant Species in Selected Ecosystems of Bhadaure Tamagi VDCKaski An Ecosystem-Based Adaptation in Mountain Ecosystemin Nepal International Union for Conservation of NatureLalitpur Nepal 2013
[56] I Maren K R Bhattarai and R P Chaudhary ldquoForest ecosys-tem services and biodiversity the resource flux from forests tofarms in the Himalayasrdquo Tech Rep Kathmandu Nepal 2013
[57] W D Billings ldquoAdaptations and origins of alpine plantsrdquo Arcticand Alpine Research vol 6 no 2 pp 129ndash142 1974
[58] P Chaudhary and K S Bawa ldquoLocal perceptions of climatechange validated by scientific evidence in the HimalayasrdquoBiology Letters vol 7 no 5 pp 767ndash770 2011
[59] J Salick and A Byg Indigenous Peoples and Climate ChangeTyndall Centre Oxford UK 2007
[60] P S Thakur and H Kaur ldquoVariation in photosynthesis tran-spiration water use efficiency light transmission and leaf areaindex in multipurpose agroforestry tree speciesrdquo Indian Journalof Plant Physiology vol 6 pp 249ndash253 2001
[61] S M A Zobayed F Afreen and T Kozai ldquoTemperaturestress can alter the photosynthetic efficiency and secondarymetabolite concentrations in St Johnrsquos wortrdquo Plant Physiologyand Biochemistry vol 43 no 10-11 pp 977ndash984 2005
[62] H A MooneyW EWinner and E J Pell Response of Plants toMultiple Stresses Academic Press San Diego Calif USA 1991
[63] S Gairola N M Shariff A Bhatt and C P Kala ldquoInfluence ofclimate change on production of secondary chemicals in highaltitude medicinal plants issues needs immediate attentionrdquoJournal of Medicinal Plant Research vol 4 no 18 pp 1825ndash18292010
[64] G T Prance ldquoAn ethnobotanical comparison of four tribes ofAmazonian Indiansrdquo Acta Amazonica vol 2 pp 7ndash27 1972
[65] EThomas I Vandebroek P Goetghebeur S Sanca S Arrazolaand P van Damme ldquoThe relationship between plant use andplant diversity in the Bolivian Andes with special reference tomedicinal plant userdquoHuman Ecology vol 36 no 6 pp 861ndash8792008
[66] S B Malla and S R Shakya ldquoMedicinal plants of Nepalrdquoin Nepal Naturesrsquo Paradise T C Majupuria Ed pp 261ndash297White Lotus Ltd Bangkok Thailand 1984
[67] V P K Nambier ldquoImproved harvesting processing and storageof medicinal plants their role in conservation and quality ofplant based drugsrdquo in Proceedings of the of Sharing Local andNational Experience in Conservation of Medicinal and AromaticPlants in South Asia N K Bhattarai and M B Karki Eds pp42ndash45Government ofNepal IDRCandMAPPA January 2002
[68] R M Kunwar B K Nepal H B Kshhetri S K Rai and RW Bussmann ldquoEthnomedicine in Himalaya a case study fromDolpa Humla Jumla and Mustang districts of Nepalrdquo Journalof Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine vol 2 article 27 2006
[69] M B Rokaya Z Munzbergova and B Timsina ldquoEthnobotani-cal study ofmedicinal plants from theHumla district of westernNepalrdquo Journal of Ethnopharmacology vol 130 no 3 pp 485ndash504 2010
[70] N P Manandhar Plants and People of Nepal Timber PressPortland Ore USA 2002
[71] J Tardıo and M Pardo-de-Santayana ldquoCultural importanceindices a comparative analysis based on the useful wild plantsof southern Cantabria (northern Spain)rdquo Economic Botany vol62 no 1 pp 24ndash39 2008
[72] R E Schultes ldquoAmazonian ethnobotany and the search for newdrugsrdquo Ciba Foundation Symposium vol 185 pp 106ndash112 1994
[73] U P de Albuquerque ldquoRe-examining hypotheses concerningthe use and knowledge of medicinal plants a study in theCaatinga vegetation of NE Brazilrdquo Journal of Ethnobiology andEthnomedicine vol 2 article 30 2006
[74] N L Alencar T A de Sousa Araujo E L C de Amorim andU P de Albuquerque ldquoThe inclusion and selection of medicinalplants in traditional pharmacopoeias-evidence in support of thediversification hypothesisrdquo Economic Botany vol 64 no 1 pp68ndash79 2010
[75] S Harris ldquoNon-native plants and their medicinal usesrdquo inPlants Health andHealing E Hsu and SHarris Eds pp 53ndash82Berghahn Book Oxford UK 2010
[76] P M Medeiros Ed Why Is Change Feared Exotic Species inTraditional Pharmacopoeias vol 2 Ethnobiology and Conser-vation 2013 httpethnobioconservationcom
[77] R M Kunwar ldquoInvasive alien plants and Eupatorium biodiver-sity and livelihoodrdquo Himalayan Journal of Sciences vol 1 no 2pp 129ndash133 2003
4 Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine
and distribution of indigenous medicinal plant species wereincreasingly imperiled and livelihood was compounded
34 Morphology and Phenology Small stunted and multi-stemmed individuals as adaptive features of trees were seen athigher elevations in response to climate change yet the indi-viduals were in isolation Abies trees with smaller height andlow canopy (shrub forest and groove) were observed at higherelevations to resilient the climate change Clonal growth andhigh coppicing properties as evident in R anthopogon andpeeling bark in R campanulatum were also considered asadaptive features Early leaf emergence was observed in Ssikkimensis whereas advance flower initiation was seen in Lhimalaica These advance adjustments of their phenophaseswere made by plants in response to climate change andearlier spring [57] Early bud burst and flowering basedon indigenous knowledge regarding climate change impactswere earlier evidenced [58 59] The shift in phenophasesthat seems to be the immediate impact of warming on thephysiology of species [60] is bound to prolong the totalgrowth duration of the species which is regarded as benefitto the plant productivity Early flowering of R arboreumand R campanulatum was seen but that of R anthopogoncould not be observed so it was difficult to conclude how theclimate change affects plant phenology because the changesare species and microclimate specific Shifting phenologiesand distribution may seem to be of little importance atfirst glance [16] but they have the potential to cause greatchallenges to speciesrsquo survival and peoplersquos livelihood
Besides the changes in phenology morphology anddistribution of plants the secondary metabolites and othercompounds of Plants-produce which usually value for thera-peutic properties [61] are expected to change Generally whenplants are stressed secondary metabolite production maychange as the growth is often inhibited [11 14 16 46 62]However the change on secondary chemical production inplants is largely unclear [63] In either change the plantsrsquodecade-long therapeutic potential for human health benefitsmay no longer retain resulting in threatened ethnomedicine
35 Medicinal Plants and Livelihood The result supportedthat the longer the history of contact of a community withnature the higher the number of medicinal plants used aswell as the higher the number of ailments treated [43 64 65]The earliest written records of plants used as medicine inthe Nepal Himalaya are found in the 6500-year-old textsof the Rigveda [66] 4000-year-old text of the Atharvavedaand 2500ndash3000-year-old texts of theAyurveda [67 68] Cata-logues have recorded about 2400 (33 of countryrsquos floweringplants) useful medicinal and aromatic plants in Nepal [69]and their importance in alleviating human suffering [53 70]Of 192 plants used for ethnomedicine most of them (169species) were used for more than one ailment Species Aeglemarmelos Cissampelos pareira and Terminalia bellirica eachwere used for treatment of six ailments Species used fortreatment of five ailments were Acorus calamus Bergeniaciliata and Ziziphus mauritiana A total of 66 ailments weretreated using folk lore and among them dysentery diarrhea
and skin problems were the most treated respectively by24 22 and 22 species A large number of botanicals usedin ethnomedicine were characteristics of medicinal plantspecies diversity The extensive usage of medicinal plantsfor ethnomedicine showed that it was not merely a medicalsystem but a part of culture Again multiple uses of a plantgave us idea that the area was equally rich in botanicalknowledge
Species A spectabilis Paris polyphylla O sinensis andZ armatum common in study area and widespread in usewere in great peril because of multiple uses The result alsosupported the notion that themore versatile a plant themorewidespread its usefulness [71]
A spectabilis L himalaica P roxburghii and R arboreumwere pushed off the mountain tops and they were alsooverexploited in medicinal and cultural usage Abies leafneedleswere sniffed for cough and coldAbiespoleswere usedfor mounting flags Shoots were heavily logged for furnitureand agriculture implements Survival of species withmultipleuses was also compounded because of their versatile usesthey were fetching higher prices in markets useful as spicescondiments medicinal and tonic Among the 19 studiedspecies eight species (B utilis E gerardiana J recurva Lnepalense N grandiflora N scrophulariiflora P hexandrumand R anthopogon) were the most in trade nonethelesstheir volume in trade was significantly plummeted The totaltraded volume of these species was 753 tons in 2007 and onlyabout 100 tons in 2011 The annual Nepalese medicinal planttrade of total species varied from 480 to 2500 tons over time[68] In the changed contexts livelihoodwasmore vulnerableand the alternatives were frequently sought Therefore theapplication of new species and sites was feasible and in duecourse the usage becomes an asset of adaptive knowledge
Livelihood diversification (subsistence agriculture tocommercial farming and ecotourism) crop substitution(seeking new crops and varieties) changing calendars (pre-or postfarming) off-farm employment (porter trekking andhotel) seasonal migration and so forth were dominanttraditional adaptation strategies for climate change how-ever they were varied in sites Off-farm employment wasincreasingly adopted in Langtang National Park where therewas a huge impact of visitors Intensive crop and farmingrelated strategieswere frequent in study districts ofApinampaConservation area and Dhorpatan Hunting Reserve wherefolks have long been involving in subsistence agriculture andthey have not been greatly intruded by visitors thanks to therugged terrain and physiography of these conservation areasSeasonal migration a traditional adaptation strategy andcommon in Shey-Phoksundo National park offers scopes forsharing ideas and goods Folks were intending to diversify thelivelihood in Shey-Phoksundo Rara and Khaptad NationalParks where there were mixed impacts of tourism com-mercial farming and modernization As a result acceptanceand application of new species and sites for livelihood wereconsidered important for adaptation New sites previouslyneglected such as road sides disturbed forests forest fringesand agricultural ecotones were increasingly being browsedattributed to the business of local communities and acceptingthe sites as adaptation assets Again knowledge cultivation
Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine 5
and maintenance of these species within rural communitieswere decreasing caused by themodernization processes suchas acculturation Loss of traditional knowledge and even thephysical annihilation of indigenous groups not only impedethe search for new drug plants but also handicap the effortsto conservation [72]
Present study found 22 nonindigenous species (Acmellacalva Adiantum capillus-veneris Ageratum conyzoides Aloevera Angelica archangelica Cirsium verutum Cissampelospareira Drymaria cordata Eclipta prostrata Elephantopusscaber Entada phaseoloides Evolvulus alsinoides Holarrhenapubescens Ipomoea carnea Jatropha curcas Mimosa pudicaPlantago major Plumeria rubra Psidium guajava Ricinuscommunis Smilax aspera and Xanthium strumarium) andthey have long been cultured into ethnopharmacopoeias ofNepal Himalaya We can claim that the culture of non-indigenous species on ethnopharmacopoeias is mostly as asubstitution because they were introduced over time cor-roborated to the earlier findings [70ndash74] Nonnative specieshave been incorporated into materia medica from aroundthe world [44] however their importance has not beencredited [75]The entrance of nonindigenous plant species ina pharmacopoeia is a natural and evolutionary phenomenonand we need to be cautious when employing them intomedical repertoire and attributing their values [76] as theintroduction of the nonindigenous species can be both boonand bane to the society [77]
4 Conclusion
Adjustments in distribution phenology and population ofplants jeopardized the species survival and livelihood ofmountain communities Tree species A spectabilis B utilisand J recurva and understorey species N grandiflora andD hatagirea were mainly threatened due to the populationsize and site specific distribution A spectabilis F cirrhosaH salicifolia L himalaica P roxburghii and R arboreum didreveal not only the upshifts but also the fact that their distri-bution was governed by altitude and disturbance gradientsBecause of the changes in distribution and upshifts someof the original picking sites of these species were dissentedand the harvestersrsquo abilities to collect and use those specieswere affected We found that the more versatile a plant is themore widespread its usefulness is and the more usefulnessa plant has the more overexploited and endangered it islikely to be Species A spectabilis Acorus calamus Aeglemarmelos B ciliata C pareira P polyphylla O sinensis Tbellirica Z armatum and Z mauritiana were widespreadin use and in great peril because of their multiple uses Wefound 22 nonindigenous species that have been introducedinto ethnopharmacopoeias ofNepalHimalaya Acceptance ofnonindigenous species and sites for livelihood and medicalrepertoire as a substitution was considered as an adaptationbut we should be cautious when attributing their values
Conflict of Interests
Authors declare that there is no conflict of interests regardingthe publication of this paper
Acknowledgments
Authors are particularly grateful to all communities whoparticipated in their field works and dedicated a lot oftime and efforts The authors would like to thank Hari PSharma Lila N Sharma Maan Rokaya Ganesh K PokharelTulasi Acharya and Mushfiqur Rahman respectively fortheir supports in field works statistical analysis manuscriptdesigning and language editing The authors offer theirregards to Ramsharan Dani and Rita Chhetri for theirsupport in identifying and reviewing the herbaria samplesand Gokarna JThapa andMadan K Suwal for their assistancein editing GPS geocoordinates and preparing study areamapThe authors are grateful to Rainer W Bussmann Maria GFadiman and two anonymous reviewers for their criticalremarks on the paper Ripu M Kunwar is thankful to WWFNepal WLBC Missouri Botanical Garden Garden Club ofAmerica and ASC fellowship USA for providing grants forfield works
References
[1] X Liu and B Chen ldquoClimatic warming in the tibetan plateauduring recent decadesrdquo International Journal of Climatologyvol 20 pp 1729ndash1742 2000
[2] WWF Nepal ldquoAn overview of glaciers glacier retreat andsubsequent impacts in Nepal India and Chinardquo CountryReport Himalayan Glaciers and River Project WWF-NepalKathmandu Nepal 2006
[3] MoE National Adaptation Programme of Action (NAPA) toClimate Change Ministry of Environment Government ofNepal Kathmandu Nepal 2010
[4] M Beniston Ed Mountain Environments in Changing Cli-mates Routledge London UK 1994
[5] D WhitemanMountain Meteorology Oxford University Press2000
[6] I ChestinWWF Eco-Regional Climate Change and BiodiversityDecline no 1 Altai-Sayan Ecoregion Mt Belukha Russia 2001
[7] J P McCarty ldquoEcological consequences of recent climatechangerdquo Conservation Biology vol 15 no 2 pp 320ndash331 2001
[8] L R Holdridge Life Zone Ecology Tropical Science Center SanJose Calif USA 1967
[9] IPCC ldquoThe regional impacts of climate change an assessmentof vulnerabilityrdquo Intergovernmental Panel on Climate ChangeWMO and UNEP 1996
[10] C Parmesan and G Yohe ldquoA globally coherent fingerprint ofclimate change impacts across natural systemsrdquoNature vol 421no 6918 pp 37ndash42 2003
[11] C Korner ldquoA re-assessment of high elevation treeline positionsand their explanationrdquo Oecologia vol 115 no 4 pp 445ndash4591998
[12] K Krajick ldquoAll downhill from hererdquo Science vol 303 no 5664pp 1600ndash1602 2004
[13] A E Kelly and M L Goulden ldquoRapid shifts in plant distri-bution with recent climate changerdquo Proceedings of the National
6 Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine
Academy of Sciences of the United States of America vol 105 no33 pp 11823ndash11826 2008
[14] G R Walther E Post P Convey et al ldquoEcological responses torecent climate changerdquo Nature vol 416 no 6879 pp 389ndash3952002
[15] A B Shrestha C P Wake P A Mayewski and J E DibbldquoMaximum temperature trends in theHimalaya and its vicinityan analysis based on temperature records from Nepal for theperiod 1971-94rdquo Journal of Climate vol 12 no 9 pp 2775ndash27861999
[16] C Cavaliere ldquoThe effects of climate change on medicinal andaromatic plantsrdquo Herbalgram vol 81 pp 44ndash57 2009
[17] H Pirker R Haselmair E Kuhn C Schunko and C R VoglldquoTransformation of traditional knowledge of medicinal plantsthe case of Tyroleans (Austria) whomigrated toAustralia Braziland Perurdquo Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine vol 8article 44 2012
[18] A B Cunningham Applied EthnobotanymdashPeople Wild PlantUse and Conservation Earthscan Publications London UK2002
[19] O Polunin and A Stainton Flowers of the Himalaya OxfordUniversity Press New Delhi India 1984
[20] A Stainton Flowers of Himalaya A Supplement Oxford Uni-versity Press New Delhi India 1988
[21] R H G Jongman C J F ter Braak and O F R vanTongerenData Analysis in Community and Landscape EcologyCambridge University Press Cambridge UK 1987
[22] H Hara W T Stearn and H J Williams An Enumeration ofthe Flowering Plants of Nepal vol 1 British Museum of NaturalHistory London UK 1978
[23] H Hara and H J Williams An Enumeration of the FloweringPlants of Nepal vol 2 British Museum of Natural HistoryLondon UK 1979
[24] H Hara A O Chater and H J Williams An Enumeration ofthe Flowering Plants of Nepal vol 3 British Museum of NaturalHistory London UK 1982
[25] C Lavoie and D Lachance ldquoA new herbarium-based methodfor reconstructing the phenology of plant species across largeareasrdquo American Journal of Botany vol 93 no 4 pp 512ndash5162006
[26] R V Gallagher L Hughes and M R Leishman ldquoPhenolog-ical trends among Australian alpine species using herbariumrecords to identify climate-change indicatorsrdquo Australian Jour-nal of Botany vol 57 no 1 pp 1ndash9 2009
[27] K M Robbirt A J Davy M J Hutchings and D L RobertsldquoValidation of biological collections as a source of phenologicaldata for use in climate change studies a case study with theorchid Ophrys sphegodesrdquo Journal of Ecology vol 99 no 1 pp235ndash241 2011
[28] K G Johnson S J Brooks P B Fenberg et al ldquoClimate changeand biosphere response unlocking the collections vaultrdquo Bio-Science vol 61 no 2 pp 147ndash153 2011
[29] Z Li NWu X Gao YWu and K P Oli ldquoSpecies-level pheno-logical responses to global warming as evidenced by herbariumcollections in the Tibetan Autonomous Regionrdquo BiodiversityConservation vol 22 pp 141ndash152 2013
[30] C J F ter Braak and P Smilauer Canoco Reference Manual andUserrsquos Guide Software for Ordination version 50 Microcom-puter Power Ithaca NY USA 2012
[31] Y Telwala BW Brook K Manish andM K Pandit ldquoClimate-induced elevational range shifts and increase in plant Species
richness in a Himalayan biodiversity epicenterrdquo PLoS ONE vol8 Article ID e57103 2013
[32] B Holzinger K Hulber M Camenisch and G GrabherrldquoChanges in plant species richness over the last century in theeastern Swiss Alps elevational gradient bedrock effects andmigration ratesrdquo Plant Ecology vol 195 no 2 pp 179ndash196 2008
[33] R P Chaudhary K K Shrestha P K Jha and K P BhattaKailash Sacred Landscape Conservation Initiative FeasibilityAssessment Report Central Department of Botany TribhuvanUniversity Kathmandu Nepal 2010
[34] T Kondo M D Crisp C Linde et al ldquoNot an ancient relic theendemic Livistona palms of arid central Australia could havebeen introduced by humansrdquo Proceedings of the Royal Society Bvol 279 pp 2652ndash2661 2012
[35] M S Trudgen B L Webber and J K Scott ldquoHuman-mediated introduction of Livistona palms into central Australiaconservation and management implicationsrdquo Proceedings of theRoyal Society B vol 279 no 1745 pp 4115ndash4117 2012
[36] A L C Gonzalez M Sorensen and I Thailade ldquoUse andvaluation of native and introduced medicinal plant species inCampo Hermoso and Zetaquira Boyaca Colombiardquo Journal ofEthnobiology and Ethnomedicine vol 9 article 23 2013
[37] P A Cox ldquoWild plants as food and medicine in Polynesiardquo inEating on the Wild Side The Pharmacologic Ecologic and SocialImplications of Using Noncultigens N L Etkin Ed Universityof Arizona Press Tucson Ariz USA 1994
[38] A Ankli O Sticher andM Heinrich ldquoMedical ethnobotany oftheYucatecMaya healersrsquo consensus as a quantitative criterionrdquoEconomic Botany vol 53 no 2 pp 144ndash160 1999
[39] C T Palmer ldquoThe inclusion of recently introduced plants inthe Hawaiian Ethnopharmacopoeiardquo Economic Botany vol 58supplement 1 pp S280ndashS293 2004
[40] C H Brown ldquoMode of subsistence and folk biological taxon-omyrdquo Current Anthropology vol 26 no 1 pp 43ndash53 1985
[41] S A Alchon Native Society and Disease in Colonial EcuadorCambridge University Press Cambridge UK 1991
[42] R A Voeks ldquoDisturbance pharmacopoeias medicine andmythfrom the humid tropicsrdquo Annals of the Association of AmericanGeographers vol 94 no 4 pp 868ndash888 2004
[43] R A Voeks and P Sercombe ldquoThe scope of hunter-gathererethnomedicinerdquo Social Science and Medicine vol 51 no 5 pp679ndash690 2000
[44] B M Boom ldquoEthnobotany of the Chaicobo Indians BeniBoliviardquo Advances in Economic Botany vol 4 pp 1ndash68 1987
[45] B B Shrestha B Ghimire H D Lekhak and P K JhaldquoRegeneration of treeline birch (Betula utilis D Don) forestin a trans-Himalayan dry valley in Central Nepalrdquo MountainResearch and Development vol 27 no 3 pp 259ndash267 2007
[46] J Salick D Anderson J Woo et al Tibetan Ethnobotanyand Gradient Analyses Menri (Medicine Mountains) EasternHimalayas Millennium Ecosystem Assessment 2004 httpwwwmillenniumassessmentorgdocumentsbridgingpaperssalickjanpdf
[47] A Craighead ldquoUtilizing habitat suitability models to predictthe effects of global climate change on three different speciesof Picardquo Craighead Environmental Research Institute (CERI)Alcoa Foundation 2009
[48] R M Kunwar Y Katuwal R D Shrestha J B Karki K PShrestha and R W Bussmann ldquoClimate change medicinalplants and ethnobotany observations and reviewrdquo inProceedingof the 1st National Youth Conference pp 180ndash189 KathmanduNepal June 2010
Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine 7
[49] N P Gaire and D R Bhuju ldquoTree line dynamics with climatechange a study in Manaslu region Nepal Himalayardquo AnnualReport Nepal Academy of Science and Technology LalitpurNepal 2010
[50] M K Suwal Tree species line advance of Abies spectabilisin Manaslu Conservation Area Nepal Himalaya [MS thesis]Central Department of Botany Tribhuvan University 2010
[51] R M Kunwar Assessment of Climate Change Impacts onNon Timber Forest Products (NTFPs) Medicinal and AromaticPlants (MAPs) and Important Tree Species (ITS) in the SacredHimalayan Landscape Nepal WWF Nepal Program Kath-mandu Nepal 2011
[52] J J Camarero E Gutierrez and M J Fortin ldquoSpatial patternsof plant richness across treeline ecotones in the Pyrenees revealdifferent locations for richness and tree cover boundariesrdquoGlobal Ecology and Biogeography vol 15 no 2 pp 182ndash1912006
[53] R M Kunwar L Mahat L N Sharma K P Shrestha HKominee and R W Bussmann ldquoUnderutilized plant species infar west Nepalrdquo Journal ofMountain Science vol 9 pp 589ndash6002012
[54] Government of Nepal Study on InvAsive Alien Species (IAS) AsDrivers To Deforestation and Degradation of Forests in DifferentPhysiographic Regions of Nepal Department of Forest Ministryof Forests and Soil Conservation Kathmandu Nepal 2013
[55] R M Kunwar and R P Acharya Impact Assessment of InvasivePlant Species in Selected Ecosystems of Bhadaure Tamagi VDCKaski An Ecosystem-Based Adaptation in Mountain Ecosystemin Nepal International Union for Conservation of NatureLalitpur Nepal 2013
[56] I Maren K R Bhattarai and R P Chaudhary ldquoForest ecosys-tem services and biodiversity the resource flux from forests tofarms in the Himalayasrdquo Tech Rep Kathmandu Nepal 2013
[57] W D Billings ldquoAdaptations and origins of alpine plantsrdquo Arcticand Alpine Research vol 6 no 2 pp 129ndash142 1974
[58] P Chaudhary and K S Bawa ldquoLocal perceptions of climatechange validated by scientific evidence in the HimalayasrdquoBiology Letters vol 7 no 5 pp 767ndash770 2011
[59] J Salick and A Byg Indigenous Peoples and Climate ChangeTyndall Centre Oxford UK 2007
[60] P S Thakur and H Kaur ldquoVariation in photosynthesis tran-spiration water use efficiency light transmission and leaf areaindex in multipurpose agroforestry tree speciesrdquo Indian Journalof Plant Physiology vol 6 pp 249ndash253 2001
[61] S M A Zobayed F Afreen and T Kozai ldquoTemperaturestress can alter the photosynthetic efficiency and secondarymetabolite concentrations in St Johnrsquos wortrdquo Plant Physiologyand Biochemistry vol 43 no 10-11 pp 977ndash984 2005
[62] H A MooneyW EWinner and E J Pell Response of Plants toMultiple Stresses Academic Press San Diego Calif USA 1991
[63] S Gairola N M Shariff A Bhatt and C P Kala ldquoInfluence ofclimate change on production of secondary chemicals in highaltitude medicinal plants issues needs immediate attentionrdquoJournal of Medicinal Plant Research vol 4 no 18 pp 1825ndash18292010
[64] G T Prance ldquoAn ethnobotanical comparison of four tribes ofAmazonian Indiansrdquo Acta Amazonica vol 2 pp 7ndash27 1972
[65] EThomas I Vandebroek P Goetghebeur S Sanca S Arrazolaand P van Damme ldquoThe relationship between plant use andplant diversity in the Bolivian Andes with special reference tomedicinal plant userdquoHuman Ecology vol 36 no 6 pp 861ndash8792008
[66] S B Malla and S R Shakya ldquoMedicinal plants of Nepalrdquoin Nepal Naturesrsquo Paradise T C Majupuria Ed pp 261ndash297White Lotus Ltd Bangkok Thailand 1984
[67] V P K Nambier ldquoImproved harvesting processing and storageof medicinal plants their role in conservation and quality ofplant based drugsrdquo in Proceedings of the of Sharing Local andNational Experience in Conservation of Medicinal and AromaticPlants in South Asia N K Bhattarai and M B Karki Eds pp42ndash45Government ofNepal IDRCandMAPPA January 2002
[68] R M Kunwar B K Nepal H B Kshhetri S K Rai and RW Bussmann ldquoEthnomedicine in Himalaya a case study fromDolpa Humla Jumla and Mustang districts of Nepalrdquo Journalof Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine vol 2 article 27 2006
[69] M B Rokaya Z Munzbergova and B Timsina ldquoEthnobotani-cal study ofmedicinal plants from theHumla district of westernNepalrdquo Journal of Ethnopharmacology vol 130 no 3 pp 485ndash504 2010
[70] N P Manandhar Plants and People of Nepal Timber PressPortland Ore USA 2002
[71] J Tardıo and M Pardo-de-Santayana ldquoCultural importanceindices a comparative analysis based on the useful wild plantsof southern Cantabria (northern Spain)rdquo Economic Botany vol62 no 1 pp 24ndash39 2008
[72] R E Schultes ldquoAmazonian ethnobotany and the search for newdrugsrdquo Ciba Foundation Symposium vol 185 pp 106ndash112 1994
[73] U P de Albuquerque ldquoRe-examining hypotheses concerningthe use and knowledge of medicinal plants a study in theCaatinga vegetation of NE Brazilrdquo Journal of Ethnobiology andEthnomedicine vol 2 article 30 2006
[74] N L Alencar T A de Sousa Araujo E L C de Amorim andU P de Albuquerque ldquoThe inclusion and selection of medicinalplants in traditional pharmacopoeias-evidence in support of thediversification hypothesisrdquo Economic Botany vol 64 no 1 pp68ndash79 2010
[75] S Harris ldquoNon-native plants and their medicinal usesrdquo inPlants Health andHealing E Hsu and SHarris Eds pp 53ndash82Berghahn Book Oxford UK 2010
[76] P M Medeiros Ed Why Is Change Feared Exotic Species inTraditional Pharmacopoeias vol 2 Ethnobiology and Conser-vation 2013 httpethnobioconservationcom
[77] R M Kunwar ldquoInvasive alien plants and Eupatorium biodiver-sity and livelihoodrdquo Himalayan Journal of Sciences vol 1 no 2pp 129ndash133 2003
Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine 5
and maintenance of these species within rural communitieswere decreasing caused by themodernization processes suchas acculturation Loss of traditional knowledge and even thephysical annihilation of indigenous groups not only impedethe search for new drug plants but also handicap the effortsto conservation [72]
Present study found 22 nonindigenous species (Acmellacalva Adiantum capillus-veneris Ageratum conyzoides Aloevera Angelica archangelica Cirsium verutum Cissampelospareira Drymaria cordata Eclipta prostrata Elephantopusscaber Entada phaseoloides Evolvulus alsinoides Holarrhenapubescens Ipomoea carnea Jatropha curcas Mimosa pudicaPlantago major Plumeria rubra Psidium guajava Ricinuscommunis Smilax aspera and Xanthium strumarium) andthey have long been cultured into ethnopharmacopoeias ofNepal Himalaya We can claim that the culture of non-indigenous species on ethnopharmacopoeias is mostly as asubstitution because they were introduced over time cor-roborated to the earlier findings [70ndash74] Nonnative specieshave been incorporated into materia medica from aroundthe world [44] however their importance has not beencredited [75]The entrance of nonindigenous plant species ina pharmacopoeia is a natural and evolutionary phenomenonand we need to be cautious when employing them intomedical repertoire and attributing their values [76] as theintroduction of the nonindigenous species can be both boonand bane to the society [77]
4 Conclusion
Adjustments in distribution phenology and population ofplants jeopardized the species survival and livelihood ofmountain communities Tree species A spectabilis B utilisand J recurva and understorey species N grandiflora andD hatagirea were mainly threatened due to the populationsize and site specific distribution A spectabilis F cirrhosaH salicifolia L himalaica P roxburghii and R arboreum didreveal not only the upshifts but also the fact that their distri-bution was governed by altitude and disturbance gradientsBecause of the changes in distribution and upshifts someof the original picking sites of these species were dissentedand the harvestersrsquo abilities to collect and use those specieswere affected We found that the more versatile a plant is themore widespread its usefulness is and the more usefulnessa plant has the more overexploited and endangered it islikely to be Species A spectabilis Acorus calamus Aeglemarmelos B ciliata C pareira P polyphylla O sinensis Tbellirica Z armatum and Z mauritiana were widespreadin use and in great peril because of their multiple uses Wefound 22 nonindigenous species that have been introducedinto ethnopharmacopoeias ofNepalHimalaya Acceptance ofnonindigenous species and sites for livelihood and medicalrepertoire as a substitution was considered as an adaptationbut we should be cautious when attributing their values
Conflict of Interests
Authors declare that there is no conflict of interests regardingthe publication of this paper
Acknowledgments
Authors are particularly grateful to all communities whoparticipated in their field works and dedicated a lot oftime and efforts The authors would like to thank Hari PSharma Lila N Sharma Maan Rokaya Ganesh K PokharelTulasi Acharya and Mushfiqur Rahman respectively fortheir supports in field works statistical analysis manuscriptdesigning and language editing The authors offer theirregards to Ramsharan Dani and Rita Chhetri for theirsupport in identifying and reviewing the herbaria samplesand Gokarna JThapa andMadan K Suwal for their assistancein editing GPS geocoordinates and preparing study areamapThe authors are grateful to Rainer W Bussmann Maria GFadiman and two anonymous reviewers for their criticalremarks on the paper Ripu M Kunwar is thankful to WWFNepal WLBC Missouri Botanical Garden Garden Club ofAmerica and ASC fellowship USA for providing grants forfield works
References
[1] X Liu and B Chen ldquoClimatic warming in the tibetan plateauduring recent decadesrdquo International Journal of Climatologyvol 20 pp 1729ndash1742 2000
[2] WWF Nepal ldquoAn overview of glaciers glacier retreat andsubsequent impacts in Nepal India and Chinardquo CountryReport Himalayan Glaciers and River Project WWF-NepalKathmandu Nepal 2006
[3] MoE National Adaptation Programme of Action (NAPA) toClimate Change Ministry of Environment Government ofNepal Kathmandu Nepal 2010
[4] M Beniston Ed Mountain Environments in Changing Cli-mates Routledge London UK 1994
[5] D WhitemanMountain Meteorology Oxford University Press2000
[6] I ChestinWWF Eco-Regional Climate Change and BiodiversityDecline no 1 Altai-Sayan Ecoregion Mt Belukha Russia 2001
[7] J P McCarty ldquoEcological consequences of recent climatechangerdquo Conservation Biology vol 15 no 2 pp 320ndash331 2001
[8] L R Holdridge Life Zone Ecology Tropical Science Center SanJose Calif USA 1967
[9] IPCC ldquoThe regional impacts of climate change an assessmentof vulnerabilityrdquo Intergovernmental Panel on Climate ChangeWMO and UNEP 1996
[10] C Parmesan and G Yohe ldquoA globally coherent fingerprint ofclimate change impacts across natural systemsrdquoNature vol 421no 6918 pp 37ndash42 2003
[11] C Korner ldquoA re-assessment of high elevation treeline positionsand their explanationrdquo Oecologia vol 115 no 4 pp 445ndash4591998
[12] K Krajick ldquoAll downhill from hererdquo Science vol 303 no 5664pp 1600ndash1602 2004
[13] A E Kelly and M L Goulden ldquoRapid shifts in plant distri-bution with recent climate changerdquo Proceedings of the National
6 Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine
Academy of Sciences of the United States of America vol 105 no33 pp 11823ndash11826 2008
[14] G R Walther E Post P Convey et al ldquoEcological responses torecent climate changerdquo Nature vol 416 no 6879 pp 389ndash3952002
[15] A B Shrestha C P Wake P A Mayewski and J E DibbldquoMaximum temperature trends in theHimalaya and its vicinityan analysis based on temperature records from Nepal for theperiod 1971-94rdquo Journal of Climate vol 12 no 9 pp 2775ndash27861999
[16] C Cavaliere ldquoThe effects of climate change on medicinal andaromatic plantsrdquo Herbalgram vol 81 pp 44ndash57 2009
[17] H Pirker R Haselmair E Kuhn C Schunko and C R VoglldquoTransformation of traditional knowledge of medicinal plantsthe case of Tyroleans (Austria) whomigrated toAustralia Braziland Perurdquo Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine vol 8article 44 2012
[18] A B Cunningham Applied EthnobotanymdashPeople Wild PlantUse and Conservation Earthscan Publications London UK2002
[19] O Polunin and A Stainton Flowers of the Himalaya OxfordUniversity Press New Delhi India 1984
[20] A Stainton Flowers of Himalaya A Supplement Oxford Uni-versity Press New Delhi India 1988
[21] R H G Jongman C J F ter Braak and O F R vanTongerenData Analysis in Community and Landscape EcologyCambridge University Press Cambridge UK 1987
[22] H Hara W T Stearn and H J Williams An Enumeration ofthe Flowering Plants of Nepal vol 1 British Museum of NaturalHistory London UK 1978
[23] H Hara and H J Williams An Enumeration of the FloweringPlants of Nepal vol 2 British Museum of Natural HistoryLondon UK 1979
[24] H Hara A O Chater and H J Williams An Enumeration ofthe Flowering Plants of Nepal vol 3 British Museum of NaturalHistory London UK 1982
[25] C Lavoie and D Lachance ldquoA new herbarium-based methodfor reconstructing the phenology of plant species across largeareasrdquo American Journal of Botany vol 93 no 4 pp 512ndash5162006
[26] R V Gallagher L Hughes and M R Leishman ldquoPhenolog-ical trends among Australian alpine species using herbariumrecords to identify climate-change indicatorsrdquo Australian Jour-nal of Botany vol 57 no 1 pp 1ndash9 2009
[27] K M Robbirt A J Davy M J Hutchings and D L RobertsldquoValidation of biological collections as a source of phenologicaldata for use in climate change studies a case study with theorchid Ophrys sphegodesrdquo Journal of Ecology vol 99 no 1 pp235ndash241 2011
[28] K G Johnson S J Brooks P B Fenberg et al ldquoClimate changeand biosphere response unlocking the collections vaultrdquo Bio-Science vol 61 no 2 pp 147ndash153 2011
[29] Z Li NWu X Gao YWu and K P Oli ldquoSpecies-level pheno-logical responses to global warming as evidenced by herbariumcollections in the Tibetan Autonomous Regionrdquo BiodiversityConservation vol 22 pp 141ndash152 2013
[30] C J F ter Braak and P Smilauer Canoco Reference Manual andUserrsquos Guide Software for Ordination version 50 Microcom-puter Power Ithaca NY USA 2012
[31] Y Telwala BW Brook K Manish andM K Pandit ldquoClimate-induced elevational range shifts and increase in plant Species
richness in a Himalayan biodiversity epicenterrdquo PLoS ONE vol8 Article ID e57103 2013
[32] B Holzinger K Hulber M Camenisch and G GrabherrldquoChanges in plant species richness over the last century in theeastern Swiss Alps elevational gradient bedrock effects andmigration ratesrdquo Plant Ecology vol 195 no 2 pp 179ndash196 2008
[33] R P Chaudhary K K Shrestha P K Jha and K P BhattaKailash Sacred Landscape Conservation Initiative FeasibilityAssessment Report Central Department of Botany TribhuvanUniversity Kathmandu Nepal 2010
[34] T Kondo M D Crisp C Linde et al ldquoNot an ancient relic theendemic Livistona palms of arid central Australia could havebeen introduced by humansrdquo Proceedings of the Royal Society Bvol 279 pp 2652ndash2661 2012
[35] M S Trudgen B L Webber and J K Scott ldquoHuman-mediated introduction of Livistona palms into central Australiaconservation and management implicationsrdquo Proceedings of theRoyal Society B vol 279 no 1745 pp 4115ndash4117 2012
[36] A L C Gonzalez M Sorensen and I Thailade ldquoUse andvaluation of native and introduced medicinal plant species inCampo Hermoso and Zetaquira Boyaca Colombiardquo Journal ofEthnobiology and Ethnomedicine vol 9 article 23 2013
[37] P A Cox ldquoWild plants as food and medicine in Polynesiardquo inEating on the Wild Side The Pharmacologic Ecologic and SocialImplications of Using Noncultigens N L Etkin Ed Universityof Arizona Press Tucson Ariz USA 1994
[38] A Ankli O Sticher andM Heinrich ldquoMedical ethnobotany oftheYucatecMaya healersrsquo consensus as a quantitative criterionrdquoEconomic Botany vol 53 no 2 pp 144ndash160 1999
[39] C T Palmer ldquoThe inclusion of recently introduced plants inthe Hawaiian Ethnopharmacopoeiardquo Economic Botany vol 58supplement 1 pp S280ndashS293 2004
[40] C H Brown ldquoMode of subsistence and folk biological taxon-omyrdquo Current Anthropology vol 26 no 1 pp 43ndash53 1985
[41] S A Alchon Native Society and Disease in Colonial EcuadorCambridge University Press Cambridge UK 1991
[42] R A Voeks ldquoDisturbance pharmacopoeias medicine andmythfrom the humid tropicsrdquo Annals of the Association of AmericanGeographers vol 94 no 4 pp 868ndash888 2004
[43] R A Voeks and P Sercombe ldquoThe scope of hunter-gathererethnomedicinerdquo Social Science and Medicine vol 51 no 5 pp679ndash690 2000
[44] B M Boom ldquoEthnobotany of the Chaicobo Indians BeniBoliviardquo Advances in Economic Botany vol 4 pp 1ndash68 1987
[45] B B Shrestha B Ghimire H D Lekhak and P K JhaldquoRegeneration of treeline birch (Betula utilis D Don) forestin a trans-Himalayan dry valley in Central Nepalrdquo MountainResearch and Development vol 27 no 3 pp 259ndash267 2007
[46] J Salick D Anderson J Woo et al Tibetan Ethnobotanyand Gradient Analyses Menri (Medicine Mountains) EasternHimalayas Millennium Ecosystem Assessment 2004 httpwwwmillenniumassessmentorgdocumentsbridgingpaperssalickjanpdf
[47] A Craighead ldquoUtilizing habitat suitability models to predictthe effects of global climate change on three different speciesof Picardquo Craighead Environmental Research Institute (CERI)Alcoa Foundation 2009
[48] R M Kunwar Y Katuwal R D Shrestha J B Karki K PShrestha and R W Bussmann ldquoClimate change medicinalplants and ethnobotany observations and reviewrdquo inProceedingof the 1st National Youth Conference pp 180ndash189 KathmanduNepal June 2010
Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine 7
[49] N P Gaire and D R Bhuju ldquoTree line dynamics with climatechange a study in Manaslu region Nepal Himalayardquo AnnualReport Nepal Academy of Science and Technology LalitpurNepal 2010
[50] M K Suwal Tree species line advance of Abies spectabilisin Manaslu Conservation Area Nepal Himalaya [MS thesis]Central Department of Botany Tribhuvan University 2010
[51] R M Kunwar Assessment of Climate Change Impacts onNon Timber Forest Products (NTFPs) Medicinal and AromaticPlants (MAPs) and Important Tree Species (ITS) in the SacredHimalayan Landscape Nepal WWF Nepal Program Kath-mandu Nepal 2011
[52] J J Camarero E Gutierrez and M J Fortin ldquoSpatial patternsof plant richness across treeline ecotones in the Pyrenees revealdifferent locations for richness and tree cover boundariesrdquoGlobal Ecology and Biogeography vol 15 no 2 pp 182ndash1912006
[53] R M Kunwar L Mahat L N Sharma K P Shrestha HKominee and R W Bussmann ldquoUnderutilized plant species infar west Nepalrdquo Journal ofMountain Science vol 9 pp 589ndash6002012
[54] Government of Nepal Study on InvAsive Alien Species (IAS) AsDrivers To Deforestation and Degradation of Forests in DifferentPhysiographic Regions of Nepal Department of Forest Ministryof Forests and Soil Conservation Kathmandu Nepal 2013
[55] R M Kunwar and R P Acharya Impact Assessment of InvasivePlant Species in Selected Ecosystems of Bhadaure Tamagi VDCKaski An Ecosystem-Based Adaptation in Mountain Ecosystemin Nepal International Union for Conservation of NatureLalitpur Nepal 2013
[56] I Maren K R Bhattarai and R P Chaudhary ldquoForest ecosys-tem services and biodiversity the resource flux from forests tofarms in the Himalayasrdquo Tech Rep Kathmandu Nepal 2013
[57] W D Billings ldquoAdaptations and origins of alpine plantsrdquo Arcticand Alpine Research vol 6 no 2 pp 129ndash142 1974
[58] P Chaudhary and K S Bawa ldquoLocal perceptions of climatechange validated by scientific evidence in the HimalayasrdquoBiology Letters vol 7 no 5 pp 767ndash770 2011
[59] J Salick and A Byg Indigenous Peoples and Climate ChangeTyndall Centre Oxford UK 2007
[60] P S Thakur and H Kaur ldquoVariation in photosynthesis tran-spiration water use efficiency light transmission and leaf areaindex in multipurpose agroforestry tree speciesrdquo Indian Journalof Plant Physiology vol 6 pp 249ndash253 2001
[61] S M A Zobayed F Afreen and T Kozai ldquoTemperaturestress can alter the photosynthetic efficiency and secondarymetabolite concentrations in St Johnrsquos wortrdquo Plant Physiologyand Biochemistry vol 43 no 10-11 pp 977ndash984 2005
[62] H A MooneyW EWinner and E J Pell Response of Plants toMultiple Stresses Academic Press San Diego Calif USA 1991
[63] S Gairola N M Shariff A Bhatt and C P Kala ldquoInfluence ofclimate change on production of secondary chemicals in highaltitude medicinal plants issues needs immediate attentionrdquoJournal of Medicinal Plant Research vol 4 no 18 pp 1825ndash18292010
[64] G T Prance ldquoAn ethnobotanical comparison of four tribes ofAmazonian Indiansrdquo Acta Amazonica vol 2 pp 7ndash27 1972
[65] EThomas I Vandebroek P Goetghebeur S Sanca S Arrazolaand P van Damme ldquoThe relationship between plant use andplant diversity in the Bolivian Andes with special reference tomedicinal plant userdquoHuman Ecology vol 36 no 6 pp 861ndash8792008
[66] S B Malla and S R Shakya ldquoMedicinal plants of Nepalrdquoin Nepal Naturesrsquo Paradise T C Majupuria Ed pp 261ndash297White Lotus Ltd Bangkok Thailand 1984
[67] V P K Nambier ldquoImproved harvesting processing and storageof medicinal plants their role in conservation and quality ofplant based drugsrdquo in Proceedings of the of Sharing Local andNational Experience in Conservation of Medicinal and AromaticPlants in South Asia N K Bhattarai and M B Karki Eds pp42ndash45Government ofNepal IDRCandMAPPA January 2002
[68] R M Kunwar B K Nepal H B Kshhetri S K Rai and RW Bussmann ldquoEthnomedicine in Himalaya a case study fromDolpa Humla Jumla and Mustang districts of Nepalrdquo Journalof Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine vol 2 article 27 2006
[69] M B Rokaya Z Munzbergova and B Timsina ldquoEthnobotani-cal study ofmedicinal plants from theHumla district of westernNepalrdquo Journal of Ethnopharmacology vol 130 no 3 pp 485ndash504 2010
[70] N P Manandhar Plants and People of Nepal Timber PressPortland Ore USA 2002
[71] J Tardıo and M Pardo-de-Santayana ldquoCultural importanceindices a comparative analysis based on the useful wild plantsof southern Cantabria (northern Spain)rdquo Economic Botany vol62 no 1 pp 24ndash39 2008
[72] R E Schultes ldquoAmazonian ethnobotany and the search for newdrugsrdquo Ciba Foundation Symposium vol 185 pp 106ndash112 1994
[73] U P de Albuquerque ldquoRe-examining hypotheses concerningthe use and knowledge of medicinal plants a study in theCaatinga vegetation of NE Brazilrdquo Journal of Ethnobiology andEthnomedicine vol 2 article 30 2006
[74] N L Alencar T A de Sousa Araujo E L C de Amorim andU P de Albuquerque ldquoThe inclusion and selection of medicinalplants in traditional pharmacopoeias-evidence in support of thediversification hypothesisrdquo Economic Botany vol 64 no 1 pp68ndash79 2010
[75] S Harris ldquoNon-native plants and their medicinal usesrdquo inPlants Health andHealing E Hsu and SHarris Eds pp 53ndash82Berghahn Book Oxford UK 2010
[76] P M Medeiros Ed Why Is Change Feared Exotic Species inTraditional Pharmacopoeias vol 2 Ethnobiology and Conser-vation 2013 httpethnobioconservationcom
[77] R M Kunwar ldquoInvasive alien plants and Eupatorium biodiver-sity and livelihoodrdquo Himalayan Journal of Sciences vol 1 no 2pp 129ndash133 2003
6 Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine
Academy of Sciences of the United States of America vol 105 no33 pp 11823ndash11826 2008
[14] G R Walther E Post P Convey et al ldquoEcological responses torecent climate changerdquo Nature vol 416 no 6879 pp 389ndash3952002
[15] A B Shrestha C P Wake P A Mayewski and J E DibbldquoMaximum temperature trends in theHimalaya and its vicinityan analysis based on temperature records from Nepal for theperiod 1971-94rdquo Journal of Climate vol 12 no 9 pp 2775ndash27861999
[16] C Cavaliere ldquoThe effects of climate change on medicinal andaromatic plantsrdquo Herbalgram vol 81 pp 44ndash57 2009
[17] H Pirker R Haselmair E Kuhn C Schunko and C R VoglldquoTransformation of traditional knowledge of medicinal plantsthe case of Tyroleans (Austria) whomigrated toAustralia Braziland Perurdquo Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine vol 8article 44 2012
[18] A B Cunningham Applied EthnobotanymdashPeople Wild PlantUse and Conservation Earthscan Publications London UK2002
[19] O Polunin and A Stainton Flowers of the Himalaya OxfordUniversity Press New Delhi India 1984
[20] A Stainton Flowers of Himalaya A Supplement Oxford Uni-versity Press New Delhi India 1988
[21] R H G Jongman C J F ter Braak and O F R vanTongerenData Analysis in Community and Landscape EcologyCambridge University Press Cambridge UK 1987
[22] H Hara W T Stearn and H J Williams An Enumeration ofthe Flowering Plants of Nepal vol 1 British Museum of NaturalHistory London UK 1978
[23] H Hara and H J Williams An Enumeration of the FloweringPlants of Nepal vol 2 British Museum of Natural HistoryLondon UK 1979
[24] H Hara A O Chater and H J Williams An Enumeration ofthe Flowering Plants of Nepal vol 3 British Museum of NaturalHistory London UK 1982
[25] C Lavoie and D Lachance ldquoA new herbarium-based methodfor reconstructing the phenology of plant species across largeareasrdquo American Journal of Botany vol 93 no 4 pp 512ndash5162006
[26] R V Gallagher L Hughes and M R Leishman ldquoPhenolog-ical trends among Australian alpine species using herbariumrecords to identify climate-change indicatorsrdquo Australian Jour-nal of Botany vol 57 no 1 pp 1ndash9 2009
[27] K M Robbirt A J Davy M J Hutchings and D L RobertsldquoValidation of biological collections as a source of phenologicaldata for use in climate change studies a case study with theorchid Ophrys sphegodesrdquo Journal of Ecology vol 99 no 1 pp235ndash241 2011
[28] K G Johnson S J Brooks P B Fenberg et al ldquoClimate changeand biosphere response unlocking the collections vaultrdquo Bio-Science vol 61 no 2 pp 147ndash153 2011
[29] Z Li NWu X Gao YWu and K P Oli ldquoSpecies-level pheno-logical responses to global warming as evidenced by herbariumcollections in the Tibetan Autonomous Regionrdquo BiodiversityConservation vol 22 pp 141ndash152 2013
[30] C J F ter Braak and P Smilauer Canoco Reference Manual andUserrsquos Guide Software for Ordination version 50 Microcom-puter Power Ithaca NY USA 2012
[31] Y Telwala BW Brook K Manish andM K Pandit ldquoClimate-induced elevational range shifts and increase in plant Species
richness in a Himalayan biodiversity epicenterrdquo PLoS ONE vol8 Article ID e57103 2013
[32] B Holzinger K Hulber M Camenisch and G GrabherrldquoChanges in plant species richness over the last century in theeastern Swiss Alps elevational gradient bedrock effects andmigration ratesrdquo Plant Ecology vol 195 no 2 pp 179ndash196 2008
[33] R P Chaudhary K K Shrestha P K Jha and K P BhattaKailash Sacred Landscape Conservation Initiative FeasibilityAssessment Report Central Department of Botany TribhuvanUniversity Kathmandu Nepal 2010
[34] T Kondo M D Crisp C Linde et al ldquoNot an ancient relic theendemic Livistona palms of arid central Australia could havebeen introduced by humansrdquo Proceedings of the Royal Society Bvol 279 pp 2652ndash2661 2012
[35] M S Trudgen B L Webber and J K Scott ldquoHuman-mediated introduction of Livistona palms into central Australiaconservation and management implicationsrdquo Proceedings of theRoyal Society B vol 279 no 1745 pp 4115ndash4117 2012
[36] A L C Gonzalez M Sorensen and I Thailade ldquoUse andvaluation of native and introduced medicinal plant species inCampo Hermoso and Zetaquira Boyaca Colombiardquo Journal ofEthnobiology and Ethnomedicine vol 9 article 23 2013
[37] P A Cox ldquoWild plants as food and medicine in Polynesiardquo inEating on the Wild Side The Pharmacologic Ecologic and SocialImplications of Using Noncultigens N L Etkin Ed Universityof Arizona Press Tucson Ariz USA 1994
[38] A Ankli O Sticher andM Heinrich ldquoMedical ethnobotany oftheYucatecMaya healersrsquo consensus as a quantitative criterionrdquoEconomic Botany vol 53 no 2 pp 144ndash160 1999
[39] C T Palmer ldquoThe inclusion of recently introduced plants inthe Hawaiian Ethnopharmacopoeiardquo Economic Botany vol 58supplement 1 pp S280ndashS293 2004
[40] C H Brown ldquoMode of subsistence and folk biological taxon-omyrdquo Current Anthropology vol 26 no 1 pp 43ndash53 1985
[41] S A Alchon Native Society and Disease in Colonial EcuadorCambridge University Press Cambridge UK 1991
[42] R A Voeks ldquoDisturbance pharmacopoeias medicine andmythfrom the humid tropicsrdquo Annals of the Association of AmericanGeographers vol 94 no 4 pp 868ndash888 2004
[43] R A Voeks and P Sercombe ldquoThe scope of hunter-gathererethnomedicinerdquo Social Science and Medicine vol 51 no 5 pp679ndash690 2000
[44] B M Boom ldquoEthnobotany of the Chaicobo Indians BeniBoliviardquo Advances in Economic Botany vol 4 pp 1ndash68 1987
[45] B B Shrestha B Ghimire H D Lekhak and P K JhaldquoRegeneration of treeline birch (Betula utilis D Don) forestin a trans-Himalayan dry valley in Central Nepalrdquo MountainResearch and Development vol 27 no 3 pp 259ndash267 2007
[46] J Salick D Anderson J Woo et al Tibetan Ethnobotanyand Gradient Analyses Menri (Medicine Mountains) EasternHimalayas Millennium Ecosystem Assessment 2004 httpwwwmillenniumassessmentorgdocumentsbridgingpaperssalickjanpdf
[47] A Craighead ldquoUtilizing habitat suitability models to predictthe effects of global climate change on three different speciesof Picardquo Craighead Environmental Research Institute (CERI)Alcoa Foundation 2009
[48] R M Kunwar Y Katuwal R D Shrestha J B Karki K PShrestha and R W Bussmann ldquoClimate change medicinalplants and ethnobotany observations and reviewrdquo inProceedingof the 1st National Youth Conference pp 180ndash189 KathmanduNepal June 2010
Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine 7
[49] N P Gaire and D R Bhuju ldquoTree line dynamics with climatechange a study in Manaslu region Nepal Himalayardquo AnnualReport Nepal Academy of Science and Technology LalitpurNepal 2010
[50] M K Suwal Tree species line advance of Abies spectabilisin Manaslu Conservation Area Nepal Himalaya [MS thesis]Central Department of Botany Tribhuvan University 2010
[51] R M Kunwar Assessment of Climate Change Impacts onNon Timber Forest Products (NTFPs) Medicinal and AromaticPlants (MAPs) and Important Tree Species (ITS) in the SacredHimalayan Landscape Nepal WWF Nepal Program Kath-mandu Nepal 2011
[52] J J Camarero E Gutierrez and M J Fortin ldquoSpatial patternsof plant richness across treeline ecotones in the Pyrenees revealdifferent locations for richness and tree cover boundariesrdquoGlobal Ecology and Biogeography vol 15 no 2 pp 182ndash1912006
[53] R M Kunwar L Mahat L N Sharma K P Shrestha HKominee and R W Bussmann ldquoUnderutilized plant species infar west Nepalrdquo Journal ofMountain Science vol 9 pp 589ndash6002012
[54] Government of Nepal Study on InvAsive Alien Species (IAS) AsDrivers To Deforestation and Degradation of Forests in DifferentPhysiographic Regions of Nepal Department of Forest Ministryof Forests and Soil Conservation Kathmandu Nepal 2013
[55] R M Kunwar and R P Acharya Impact Assessment of InvasivePlant Species in Selected Ecosystems of Bhadaure Tamagi VDCKaski An Ecosystem-Based Adaptation in Mountain Ecosystemin Nepal International Union for Conservation of NatureLalitpur Nepal 2013
[56] I Maren K R Bhattarai and R P Chaudhary ldquoForest ecosys-tem services and biodiversity the resource flux from forests tofarms in the Himalayasrdquo Tech Rep Kathmandu Nepal 2013
[57] W D Billings ldquoAdaptations and origins of alpine plantsrdquo Arcticand Alpine Research vol 6 no 2 pp 129ndash142 1974
[58] P Chaudhary and K S Bawa ldquoLocal perceptions of climatechange validated by scientific evidence in the HimalayasrdquoBiology Letters vol 7 no 5 pp 767ndash770 2011
[59] J Salick and A Byg Indigenous Peoples and Climate ChangeTyndall Centre Oxford UK 2007
[60] P S Thakur and H Kaur ldquoVariation in photosynthesis tran-spiration water use efficiency light transmission and leaf areaindex in multipurpose agroforestry tree speciesrdquo Indian Journalof Plant Physiology vol 6 pp 249ndash253 2001
[61] S M A Zobayed F Afreen and T Kozai ldquoTemperaturestress can alter the photosynthetic efficiency and secondarymetabolite concentrations in St Johnrsquos wortrdquo Plant Physiologyand Biochemistry vol 43 no 10-11 pp 977ndash984 2005
[62] H A MooneyW EWinner and E J Pell Response of Plants toMultiple Stresses Academic Press San Diego Calif USA 1991
[63] S Gairola N M Shariff A Bhatt and C P Kala ldquoInfluence ofclimate change on production of secondary chemicals in highaltitude medicinal plants issues needs immediate attentionrdquoJournal of Medicinal Plant Research vol 4 no 18 pp 1825ndash18292010
[64] G T Prance ldquoAn ethnobotanical comparison of four tribes ofAmazonian Indiansrdquo Acta Amazonica vol 2 pp 7ndash27 1972
[65] EThomas I Vandebroek P Goetghebeur S Sanca S Arrazolaand P van Damme ldquoThe relationship between plant use andplant diversity in the Bolivian Andes with special reference tomedicinal plant userdquoHuman Ecology vol 36 no 6 pp 861ndash8792008
[66] S B Malla and S R Shakya ldquoMedicinal plants of Nepalrdquoin Nepal Naturesrsquo Paradise T C Majupuria Ed pp 261ndash297White Lotus Ltd Bangkok Thailand 1984
[67] V P K Nambier ldquoImproved harvesting processing and storageof medicinal plants their role in conservation and quality ofplant based drugsrdquo in Proceedings of the of Sharing Local andNational Experience in Conservation of Medicinal and AromaticPlants in South Asia N K Bhattarai and M B Karki Eds pp42ndash45Government ofNepal IDRCandMAPPA January 2002
[68] R M Kunwar B K Nepal H B Kshhetri S K Rai and RW Bussmann ldquoEthnomedicine in Himalaya a case study fromDolpa Humla Jumla and Mustang districts of Nepalrdquo Journalof Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine vol 2 article 27 2006
[69] M B Rokaya Z Munzbergova and B Timsina ldquoEthnobotani-cal study ofmedicinal plants from theHumla district of westernNepalrdquo Journal of Ethnopharmacology vol 130 no 3 pp 485ndash504 2010
[70] N P Manandhar Plants and People of Nepal Timber PressPortland Ore USA 2002
[71] J Tardıo and M Pardo-de-Santayana ldquoCultural importanceindices a comparative analysis based on the useful wild plantsof southern Cantabria (northern Spain)rdquo Economic Botany vol62 no 1 pp 24ndash39 2008
[72] R E Schultes ldquoAmazonian ethnobotany and the search for newdrugsrdquo Ciba Foundation Symposium vol 185 pp 106ndash112 1994
[73] U P de Albuquerque ldquoRe-examining hypotheses concerningthe use and knowledge of medicinal plants a study in theCaatinga vegetation of NE Brazilrdquo Journal of Ethnobiology andEthnomedicine vol 2 article 30 2006
[74] N L Alencar T A de Sousa Araujo E L C de Amorim andU P de Albuquerque ldquoThe inclusion and selection of medicinalplants in traditional pharmacopoeias-evidence in support of thediversification hypothesisrdquo Economic Botany vol 64 no 1 pp68ndash79 2010
[75] S Harris ldquoNon-native plants and their medicinal usesrdquo inPlants Health andHealing E Hsu and SHarris Eds pp 53ndash82Berghahn Book Oxford UK 2010
[76] P M Medeiros Ed Why Is Change Feared Exotic Species inTraditional Pharmacopoeias vol 2 Ethnobiology and Conser-vation 2013 httpethnobioconservationcom
[77] R M Kunwar ldquoInvasive alien plants and Eupatorium biodiver-sity and livelihoodrdquo Himalayan Journal of Sciences vol 1 no 2pp 129ndash133 2003
Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine 7
[49] N P Gaire and D R Bhuju ldquoTree line dynamics with climatechange a study in Manaslu region Nepal Himalayardquo AnnualReport Nepal Academy of Science and Technology LalitpurNepal 2010
[50] M K Suwal Tree species line advance of Abies spectabilisin Manaslu Conservation Area Nepal Himalaya [MS thesis]Central Department of Botany Tribhuvan University 2010
[51] R M Kunwar Assessment of Climate Change Impacts onNon Timber Forest Products (NTFPs) Medicinal and AromaticPlants (MAPs) and Important Tree Species (ITS) in the SacredHimalayan Landscape Nepal WWF Nepal Program Kath-mandu Nepal 2011
[52] J J Camarero E Gutierrez and M J Fortin ldquoSpatial patternsof plant richness across treeline ecotones in the Pyrenees revealdifferent locations for richness and tree cover boundariesrdquoGlobal Ecology and Biogeography vol 15 no 2 pp 182ndash1912006
[53] R M Kunwar L Mahat L N Sharma K P Shrestha HKominee and R W Bussmann ldquoUnderutilized plant species infar west Nepalrdquo Journal ofMountain Science vol 9 pp 589ndash6002012
[54] Government of Nepal Study on InvAsive Alien Species (IAS) AsDrivers To Deforestation and Degradation of Forests in DifferentPhysiographic Regions of Nepal Department of Forest Ministryof Forests and Soil Conservation Kathmandu Nepal 2013
[55] R M Kunwar and R P Acharya Impact Assessment of InvasivePlant Species in Selected Ecosystems of Bhadaure Tamagi VDCKaski An Ecosystem-Based Adaptation in Mountain Ecosystemin Nepal International Union for Conservation of NatureLalitpur Nepal 2013
[56] I Maren K R Bhattarai and R P Chaudhary ldquoForest ecosys-tem services and biodiversity the resource flux from forests tofarms in the Himalayasrdquo Tech Rep Kathmandu Nepal 2013
[57] W D Billings ldquoAdaptations and origins of alpine plantsrdquo Arcticand Alpine Research vol 6 no 2 pp 129ndash142 1974
[58] P Chaudhary and K S Bawa ldquoLocal perceptions of climatechange validated by scientific evidence in the HimalayasrdquoBiology Letters vol 7 no 5 pp 767ndash770 2011
[59] J Salick and A Byg Indigenous Peoples and Climate ChangeTyndall Centre Oxford UK 2007
[60] P S Thakur and H Kaur ldquoVariation in photosynthesis tran-spiration water use efficiency light transmission and leaf areaindex in multipurpose agroforestry tree speciesrdquo Indian Journalof Plant Physiology vol 6 pp 249ndash253 2001
[61] S M A Zobayed F Afreen and T Kozai ldquoTemperaturestress can alter the photosynthetic efficiency and secondarymetabolite concentrations in St Johnrsquos wortrdquo Plant Physiologyand Biochemistry vol 43 no 10-11 pp 977ndash984 2005
[62] H A MooneyW EWinner and E J Pell Response of Plants toMultiple Stresses Academic Press San Diego Calif USA 1991
[63] S Gairola N M Shariff A Bhatt and C P Kala ldquoInfluence ofclimate change on production of secondary chemicals in highaltitude medicinal plants issues needs immediate attentionrdquoJournal of Medicinal Plant Research vol 4 no 18 pp 1825ndash18292010
[64] G T Prance ldquoAn ethnobotanical comparison of four tribes ofAmazonian Indiansrdquo Acta Amazonica vol 2 pp 7ndash27 1972
[65] EThomas I Vandebroek P Goetghebeur S Sanca S Arrazolaand P van Damme ldquoThe relationship between plant use andplant diversity in the Bolivian Andes with special reference tomedicinal plant userdquoHuman Ecology vol 36 no 6 pp 861ndash8792008
[66] S B Malla and S R Shakya ldquoMedicinal plants of Nepalrdquoin Nepal Naturesrsquo Paradise T C Majupuria Ed pp 261ndash297White Lotus Ltd Bangkok Thailand 1984
[67] V P K Nambier ldquoImproved harvesting processing and storageof medicinal plants their role in conservation and quality ofplant based drugsrdquo in Proceedings of the of Sharing Local andNational Experience in Conservation of Medicinal and AromaticPlants in South Asia N K Bhattarai and M B Karki Eds pp42ndash45Government ofNepal IDRCandMAPPA January 2002
[68] R M Kunwar B K Nepal H B Kshhetri S K Rai and RW Bussmann ldquoEthnomedicine in Himalaya a case study fromDolpa Humla Jumla and Mustang districts of Nepalrdquo Journalof Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine vol 2 article 27 2006
[69] M B Rokaya Z Munzbergova and B Timsina ldquoEthnobotani-cal study ofmedicinal plants from theHumla district of westernNepalrdquo Journal of Ethnopharmacology vol 130 no 3 pp 485ndash504 2010
[70] N P Manandhar Plants and People of Nepal Timber PressPortland Ore USA 2002
[71] J Tardıo and M Pardo-de-Santayana ldquoCultural importanceindices a comparative analysis based on the useful wild plantsof southern Cantabria (northern Spain)rdquo Economic Botany vol62 no 1 pp 24ndash39 2008
[72] R E Schultes ldquoAmazonian ethnobotany and the search for newdrugsrdquo Ciba Foundation Symposium vol 185 pp 106ndash112 1994
[73] U P de Albuquerque ldquoRe-examining hypotheses concerningthe use and knowledge of medicinal plants a study in theCaatinga vegetation of NE Brazilrdquo Journal of Ethnobiology andEthnomedicine vol 2 article 30 2006
[74] N L Alencar T A de Sousa Araujo E L C de Amorim andU P de Albuquerque ldquoThe inclusion and selection of medicinalplants in traditional pharmacopoeias-evidence in support of thediversification hypothesisrdquo Economic Botany vol 64 no 1 pp68ndash79 2010
[75] S Harris ldquoNon-native plants and their medicinal usesrdquo inPlants Health andHealing E Hsu and SHarris Eds pp 53ndash82Berghahn Book Oxford UK 2010
[76] P M Medeiros Ed Why Is Change Feared Exotic Species inTraditional Pharmacopoeias vol 2 Ethnobiology and Conser-vation 2013 httpethnobioconservationcom
[77] R M Kunwar ldquoInvasive alien plants and Eupatorium biodiver-sity and livelihoodrdquo Himalayan Journal of Sciences vol 1 no 2pp 129ndash133 2003
