Local Collectors Research Articles

Imperial nature. Joseph Hooker and the practices of Victorian science

Imperial nature. Joseph Hooker and the practices of Victorian science

Productivity of ectomycorrhizal and selected edible saprotrophic fungi in pine forests of the pre-Pyrenees mountains, Spain: Predictive equations for forest management of mycological resources

Edible and medicinal fungi have become increasingly important non-wood forest products in Spanish forests. Annual mushroom collections increase the economic value of forests and provide income to local collectors and marketers. Most of the species are ectomycorrhizal fungi that are essential for seedling establishment and long-term nutrition of the trees. Due to the economic depression in the local wood markets of the Pyrenees, forest managers are evaluating alternatives to timber management for these forests. Information on the biology and ecology of these fungi, especially on factors influencing their productivity, are needed to properly manage and enhance this natural resource. In 1997, 23 study plots of 400 m 2 were randomly placed in Pinus nigra, Pinus sylvestris and Pinus halepensis forests of Solsonés County, Catalonia, Spain, to monitor the production of ectomycorrhizal and edible forest fungi in relation to climate and forest stand variables. The 5-year inventory (1997 through 2001) included weekly sporocarp collections from September through December to estimate the annual county production and to examine production according to forest species, edibility and commercial status. Annual county sporocarp production was 29.4 kg ha −1, of which 6.2 kg ha −1 are edible marketed species and 5.4 kg ha −1 are edible non-marketed species. Regression analysis of climate and forest stand variables reveal significant correlations with sporocarp production data. The best climate equation ( R 2 = 0.66; P < 0.001) for annual sporocarp estimation was based on the difference between monthly mean precipitation and accumulated monthly mean evapotranspiration for the months of September and October, and the monthly mean minimum soil temperature in August. Stand age was not a good explicative variable for total sporocarp production, and was negatively correlated ( R 2 = 0.23; P < 0.021) with production of edible species.

Many Beautiful Things: Colonial Botanists' Accounts of the North Queensland Rainforests

Colonial botanists played an important role in both elucidating and reshaping the nature of the North Queensland rainforests between 1860 and 1915. The Government Botanist of Victoria, Ferdinand von Mueller, was the first to begin to document the plant life of North Queensland. In 1859, on separation from New South Wales, Queensland's first Colonial Botanist was appointed to the Brisbane Botanic Gardens; this role was filled initially by Walter Hill, then by Frederick Manson Bailey.They were based at a distance from the northern rainforests and largely relied on local collectors to supply them with specimens that they would then identify, name and describe. They were also part of a network that assisted in the introduction of plants to North Queensland from other tropical locations for acclimatization purposes, and they worked to promote the development of tropical agriculture in the region. Colonial botanists not only promoted the settlement of rainforest areas and utilization of rainforest species, they also recorded and commented on the associated processes of environmental change that they observed.

Sampling Procedure for Pavement Condition Evaluation of Local Collectors and Access Roads

Sampling Procedure for Pavement Condition Evaluation of Local Collectors and Access Roads

Changes in fuelwood use and selection following electrification in the Bushbuckridge lowveld, South Africa

Fuelwood is the primary energy source for domestic purposes throughout the developing world, in both urban and rural environments. Due to the detrimental impacts of biomass use on human and environmental health, many governments have sought to reduce its use through provision of potentially cleaner energies, of which electricity is the dominant form. Yet there are surprisingly few studies of changes in fuelwood use following the introduction of electricity, especially in rural areas of Africa. This paper reports on a longitudinal study of fuelwood use, using identical approaches, in five rural villages in the Bushbuckridge region of South Africa, spanning the period over which electricity became widely available. Almost a decade after the introduction of electricity, over 90% of households still used fuelwood for thermal purposes, especially cooking, and the mean household consumption rates over the 11-year period had not changed, even with a policy of 6 kWh per month of free electricity. The proportion of households purchasing fuelwood had increased, probably in response to a number of factors, including (i) increased fuelwood scarcity in the local environment as reflected by increased fuelwood collection times, changes in fuelwood species preferences, and ranking of scarcity by local collectors, and (ii) increases in the price of fuelwood well below that of other fuels and the prevailing inflation rate. Overall, there was an increase in the number of species harvested over the 11-year period. The implications of these findings for rural energy provision are discussed.

Ethnopharmacology, indigenous collection and preservation techniques of some frequently used medicinal plants of Utror and Gabral, district Swat, Pakistan

An ethnomedicinal study was conducted in the remote Hindukush-Himalayan valleys of Utror and Gabral, during which 36 common folk medicinal recipes of the area were documented. The indigenous methods of medicinal plants collection and their further processing were also explored. It was also observed that huge quantities of valuable medicinal plants are lost every year due to lack of proper collection, cleaning, packing and storage techniques on the part of local collectors. Keywords: medicinal plants, folk recipes, Hindukush-Himalayas African Journal of Traditional, Complementary and Alternative Medicines Vol. 3(2) 2006: 57-73

Taxocenose de serpentes no Planalto Médio do Rio Grande do Sul, Brasil

Este trabalho foi desenvolvido na Fazenda da Brigada (28º14'39"S, 52º14'42"W), Passo Fundo, Planalto Médio do Rio Grande do Sul, e teve como objetivo contribuir com informações sobre riqueza, abundância de serpentes e comparação entre os métodos de amostragem. O estudo foi desenvolvido em duas áreas, floresta e campo, no período de janeiro de 2001 a março de 2003. Para a coleta de dados foram utilizados os seguintes métodos: procura limitada por tempo (PLT), encontros ocasionais por terceiros (EOT), encontros ocasionais pela equipe (EOE) e armadilhas de interceptação e queda (AQ). Com a utilização dos quatro métodos foi possível registrar 19 espécies de serpentes, distribuídas em três famílias (Colubridae, Elapidae e Viperidae) e coletar 284 indivíduos, sendo 128 por EOT, 36 por PLT, 112 por AQ e 8 por EOE. Utilizando todos os métodos, as três espécies mais abundantes foram: Thamnodynastes strigatus (Günther, 1858) (16,9%), Echinanthera cyanopleura (Cope, 1885) (15,2%) e Bothrops alternatus Duméril, Bibron &amp; Duméril, 1854 (13,4%). O estudo dessa taxocenose revela importantes características da ecologia de serpentes e poderá subsidiar futuros estudos de conservação para a área.

‘RUBBER FEVER’, COMMERCE AND FRENCH COLONIAL RULE IN UPPER GUINÉE, 1890–1913

This article examines the trade in wild rubber that emerged in Upper Guinée, in the colony of Guinée Française, at the end of the nineteenth century. Guinée's rubber boom went through two phases. The first, from the 1880s to 1901, was dominated by local collectors and Muslim traders who directed the trade to the British port of Freetown, Sierra Leone. In the second phase, 1901–13, expatriate merchant houses entered the long-distance trade and, with the help of the colonial state, reoriented the commerce to Conakry, port city and capital of Guinée. The Guinée case offers an alternative perspective to that provided by the better studied rubber markets of Central Africa and South America, and contributes to scholarly debates about export economies, colonial rule and social change. In Guinée, local production and commercial networks maintained significant influence in the market throughout the rubber boom, thwarting colonial efforts to control the trade. The colonial state proved particularly challenged by the practice of rubber adulteration, whereby local collectors and traders corrupted rubber with foreign objects to increase its weight. While the trade exposes the limits of colonial power, rubber also played a largely overlooked role in the social and economic transformations of the period. Evidence suggests that profits from the rubber trade enabled peasants, escaped slaves and former masters to alter their circumstances, accumulate wealth and rebuild homes and communities destroyed during the preceding era of warfare and upheaval.

Nathaniel Bletter Receives Lindbergh Grant for Quantitatively Analyzing Medicinal Plants

Bursera glabrifolia, a dominant component of the tropical dry forests in southwestern Mexico, is used to illustrate the importance of a broader contextual framework for ethnobotanical studies. The species is currently used as a carving wood to produce small, painted figurines known as alebrijes. Over the past hundred years, however, B. glabrifolia also has been exploited commercially for resin and essential oil, and over-harvesting has pushed the species to the brink of local extinction several times. The destruction of tropical dry forests threatens the ability of the species to recover from the current wave of exploitation. Eight years of study have highlighted two major aspects of the life and times ofB. glabrifolia. First, the ethnobotany of the species is extremely complex and, in addition to local artisans and collectors, involves pre-Columbian tributes, resource substitution, NAFTA duty exemptions, and the spread of cattle pastures. Second, a concerted effort to manage the species in its natural habitat would bolster the thriving alebrije market and provide a much-needed incentive for conserving tropical dry forests in Mexico

Market-information systems for the up-country vegetable farmers and marketers in Sri Lanka

A well-developed market-information system helps the farmers to plan their own production system, to harvest at the most profitable time, to decide on which market they should send the produce and negotiate on a more even footing with traders. The objective of this study was to find out about the market-information system for the up-country vegetable growers and the marketers (wholesalers and retailers) in Sri Lanka and its effect on the marketing process. The main market-information source for vegetable farmers was the wholesaler followed by local collectors and neighbouring farmers. The majority of them had already obtained price information from their respective information sources. But there was a lack of information concerning quantity and quality required and of the existing markets. There are positive relationships between the farm-gate price and wholesale price information received, information on quantity required, information on the required quality and information on the existing markets. The main marketing-information sources of both wholesalers and retailers were interpersonal informal sources such as other wholesalers, retailers, brokers, market-place owners, et cetera. They was less exposure to mass-media sources such as radio, television and newspapers.

Commercial medicinal plant extraction in the hills of Nepal: local management system and ecological sustainability.

This paper presents a case study from Jumla District, Nepal, investigating local management systems and ecological sustainability of commercial collection of a medicinal plant, spikenard (Nardostachys grandiflora DC, Valerianaceae), growing in alpine meadows. Interviews were undertaken with local collectors, traders, and district forest office staff, and the dynamics of people-plant interactions are analyzed using the Oakerson model. In all, 110 sample plots 1m square were laid out in three areas with differing collection and grazing pressures for recording of floristic composition and abundance of spikenard root biomass. Comparisons show significantly more root biomass in uncollected than collected areas with local management and the interpretation of differences in abundance is discussed. The combination of qualitative and quantitative investigations can provide a framework for the study of people-plant interactions, and this study can serve as first step in a compilation of cases to create a more detailed picture of local management systems of Nepali nontimber forest products in general and commercially collected medicinal and aromatic plants in particular.

Documenting the fungal biodiversity of Australasia: from 1800 to 2000 and beyond

In the 200 years since Labillardi&amp;egrave;re named Asero&amp;euml; rubra from Tasmania, a rich and diverse mycota has been documented from Australasia. In the 19th century, the systematic study of Australasian fungi was mostly carried out by Northern Hemisphere mycologists, who were sent material by numerous local collectors. Documentation of the mycota in the 20th century was concentrated on fungi of importance in plant and forest pathology, but workers in these fields also contributed to knowledge of native fungi. In the last few decades there has been a greater emphasis on biodiversity inventory of native fungi, which was the focus in the 19th century. Most contributions have been by relatively isolated individuals and by visitors and there remains a paucity of systematic mycologists in the region. In recent times stronger links have developed among the mycologists of Australasia and there has been increased community involvement. Species from the region tend to be based on few specimens and type and other collections are scattered across many herbaria, including many outside of the region. There are few up-to-date monographs, but a flora series (Fungi of Australia) has recently been initiated. Knowledge of distribution, substrates and habitats is poor for most species, with the exception of common plant pathogens. The task of documenting the mycota of Australasia is enormous, but its achievement in a reasonable time frame (a century rather than a millennium) needs to be considered. Better estimates of the magnitude of biodiversity are required to guide the task. The region is well-served by checklists, censuses, catalogues and databases of fungal names and specimens. Some integration of these various data sets would be beneficial, as would availability of nomenclatural and specimen data through on-line databases. Measures are suggested for making existing information accessible, such as through interim and virtual floras.

Non-Timber Forest Products Marketing Systems and Market Players in Southwest Virginia

Non-timber forest products (NTFPs) are important in rural southwest Virginia as a source of household income. Marketing system of crafts, medicinal and herbal, and specialty wood products are studied using exploratory and qualitative research methods. Fifty market players at various levels in marketing chains are interviewed to get the information on elements of marketing system -products, product differentiation, value addition, pricing, promotion, distribution, and marketing chains. NTFP trade is a common phenomenon in southwest Virginia. The greatest opportunity exists for local level marketing of crafts and specialty wood products. In the case of medicinal and herbal products, very little local value addition takes place within the region, and as a result local market players have little control. Policy interventions are required to enhance the returns to local collectors, which will also contribute to sustainable management of forest resources.

SUSTAINING INCOMES FROM NON TIMBER FOREST PRODUCTS: INTRODUCTION AND SYNTHESIS

ABSTRACT Among the reasons why an income that people get from any given non timber forest product can decline are, over-harvesting of the resource base, capturing of the business by local elite, domestication of the product, decreased demand, or manufacturing of substitutes. In all of these scenarios, income for local collectors is likely to diminish or disappear altogether. This Special Issue of the International Tree Crops Journal brings together a number of studies from Bolivia, Peru, Zimbabwe and Cameroon assessing the sustainability of incomes from non timber forest products once their commercialisation has already been achieved. The studies conclude that avoiding over-harvesting of a commercially successful forest product will in most cases require some restraints on harvesting, usually through developing rules and regulations at the appropriate level. These institutional arrangements are also needed to avoid exclusive income capturing by powerful elites. Sustained production can also be achieved through intensified management or cultivation. Maintaining market demand requires constant marketing effort, or adjusting the products that are supplied to different demands. Even so, there is always the possibility that commercially successful forest products will be replaced by others that provide a higher consumer satisfaction or are produced more efficiently. A constant effort is thus needed to develop new products, for which the entire production-marketing may have to be setup.

A CONCERTED APPROACH TOUÑA DE GATODEVELOPMENT IN PERU

Uncaria tomentosa and U. guianensis appear to hold a potential to become an important export commodity and a source of income for small farmers in the tropical forest belt of the country. Both species have been important in traditional healing in many South American countries. They contain about sixty substances that are being tested widely for possible medical treatments. Uncaria tomentosa has been traded from Peru since 1994 until it reached a peak export of 726 t in 1996. Despite the general discourse on the potential of species, such as these Uncaria spp., the many stakeholders with some interest in these species do not co-ordinate their activities sufficiently to enhance sustained income for the country and the rural poor. At the national level, there has been pressure on the government to implement legislation to prohibit the sales of the raw material of these species, in order to capture larger shares of benefits for the national economy. Initially false conservation arguments were used to stop collection from the wild, as there is sufficient evidence to argue that at current harvesting levels there is no threat to the two species. Regional government agencies have promoted the production of the two species without having a clear picture of future market development, allowing the possibility that much of the future production cannot be sold. Both actions may possibly negatively affect the benefits that accrue to local collectors or producers

Trade of wild animals and plants in China-Laos border areas: status and suggestion for effective management

An investigation was conducted on wild plants and animals trade in China_Laos border areas. The results showed that during the period of 1997～1998, the annual amount of the trade was over 10 million US dollars, of which about 5 million US dollars through legal channel and 3.8 million US dollars registered in Xishuangbanna Transboundary Trade Management Bureau. Our study recorded 51 species of wild plants in the transboundary trade, including 35.3% species prohibited for trade and 43.14% species with export_amount limitation by Laos government. There were about 134 species of animals in the trade, including 56 species of mammals, 45 birds, 31 reptiles, one fish and one species of amphibian. Among which, 71 species were forbidden for trade by some international conventions, 19 species were categorized as first_class protected in CITES, and 32 species as second_class protected. In legal trade, the price of wild plants and animals increased by 20%～70% in average from the collectors to the first peddlers. When the products were transported to Mengla County of Yunnan Province, the price increases about 2.7 times of the original price, if transported to other places outside Yunnan Province, the price was about 3.6 times of the original. The price of illegal trade was about 2.7～4.5 times higher than the legal one, and most of the profits was obtained by intermediary traders. Local collectors gained a relatively small part of the profit, however, they could still get 0.6～2.8 US dollars per person per day, which was higher than other agricultural activities such as paddy rice or upland rice cultivation in this area. We also put forward some suggestions for effective management of the trade of the animals and plants in the China_Laos border areas.

CARPATHIAN MINERALS IN THE EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY WOODWARDIAN COLLECTION AT CAMBRIDGE

The Woodwardian collection of the Sedgwick Museum, University of Cambridge is probably the oldest earth science collection preserved intact in the world. Among its c. 9,4oo specimens (1,574 of which are foreign) it holds seventy-five specimens of minerals, fossils and other objects of curiosity derived from the Carpathians. Local collectors and travellers supplied John Woodward (1665-1728), the London physician and naturalist, with the specimens, which he carefully stored, registered in a catalogue and used as evidence in his natural history studies. Although scattered in origin, the Carpathian specimens possibly constitute the oldest surviving mineral collection of the region, originating in the mining districts of Lower Hungary (now Slovakia), in Transylvania (now Romania), and in Hungary proper. The collectors and the localities are identified here.

Concurrent and distributed garbage collection of active objects

This paper shows how to perform concurrent and distributed automatic garbage collection of objects possessing their own thread of control. The relevance of garbage collection and active objects to distributed applications is briefly discussed and the specific model of active objects used in the paper is explained. The collector is comprised of independent local collectors, one per node, and a distributed global collector. The mutator (application), the local collectors and the global collector run concurrently. An important part of this paper is the detailed presentation of the algorithms necessary to achieve correct concurrent operation among the collectors and between the collectors and the mutator. The collector builds on previous algorithms for taking snapshots in distributed systems and for detecting termination. >

Technical note beneficiation of egyptian feldspar for application in the glass and ceramics industries

Batch flotation tests were carried out to upgrade an Egyptian feldspar ore to meet the specifications required for the glass and ceramic industries. A flotation scheme consisting of two circuits was suggested. The first circuit was anionic flotation to remove the iron bearing minerals by using a mixture of local collectors (dodecyl benzene sulphonic acid : rice bran oil : kerosene). The second flotation circuit was a cationic one for direct flotation of the feldspar mineral from the associated free silica by using another local surfactant (quaternary ammonium salt) in the presence of HF acid. Both circuits were complimentary to each other and each had its own operating conditions. The results showed that a final concentrate assaying 89.5% feldspar mineral, 0.1% Fe 2O 3 and 18.65% Al 2O 3 was obtained, at the optimum operating conditions, from an ore containing about 11.97% Al 2O 3, 0.53% Fe 2O 3 and 57.5% feldspar mineral, satisfying the requirements of the glass and ceramic industries.

Smoking Pistoles and the Origins of the Constitution

Had Bill Clinton been around in the 1780s-as governor, say, of North Carolina-this is the type of study he might have curled up with of an evening while he pondered the problems of public finance in a country just emerging from a prolonged, costly struggle against a foreign empire and burdened with a substantial public debt. Redeeming the Republic is a book for the public policy wonks of the 1780s. Roger H. Brown argues, quite simply, that the Federalist movement to replace the Articles of Confederation with the more energetic government of the Constitution was chiefly driven by the inability of the state governments to collect the hard money taxes they had duly levied in compliance with the requisitions of the Continental Congress. Rather than depict the legislatures as fecklessly indifferent to its plight, Brown demonstrates that the majority of states-even Rhode Island!-made good faith efforts to meet their federal obligations, and to do so with payments in the specie that Congress needed to satisfy its foreign creditors. Nearly everywhere, however, these efforts sparked popular resistance from taxpayers who in the best of times often lacked access to hard money, and who now found the demands of local tax collectors even more offensive in the depressed postwar economy. Popular clamor for tax relief compelled the responsive state legislatures to abandon their programs of taxation, reducing Congress to a near destitute condition and persuading Federalists (as Brown somewhat anachronistically calls the nationalist reformers of the mid-1780s) that no state-centered federal union could long endure. Brown develops this argument with case studies of problems of tax collection in Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts. The details vary from state to state, but the underlying plot remains the same. In what Brown describes as a pressure-resistance-retreat model (p. 122), state governments levied the requisite taxes and then directed local collectors to pursue appropriate legal remedies when individual taxpayers failed to com-