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

Abstract

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