Research on conservation of ardisia silvestris pitard in yen son village, ba vi commune

MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF FORESTRY *** STUDENT THESIS RESEARCH ON CONSERVATION OF Ardisia silvestris Pitard IN YEN SON VILLAGE, BA VI COMMUNE Major: Natural Resources Management Code: D850101 Faculty: Forest Resources and Environmental Management Student: Nguyen Thi Hong Hanh Student ID: 1553090356 Class: K60 Natural Resources Management Course: 2015 - 2019 Advanced Education Program Developed in collaboration with Colorado State University, USA Supervisor: Dr Phung Thi Tuyen Hanoi, 2019 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT First of all, I am grateful to teachers of Vietnam National University of Forestry for establishing me to complete this thesis I wish to express my sincere gratitude to officers of my university for providing me with all the necessary facilities I take this opportunity to record our sincere thanks to all members of Faculty of Forest Resources and Environmental Management for their help and encouragement I am deeply indebted to my supervisor Dr Phung Thi Tuyen whose stimulating motivation and valuable ideas helped me to complete this thesis I also acknowledge all members of People’s Committee of Ba Vi Commune and local people living in Yen Son village, Ba Vi commune for support necessary things and provide me documents during my researching time in Yen Son village, Ba Vi commune ABSTRACT Conservation of medicinal plant in general and Ardisia silvestris Pitard in particular is a critical ecological, cultural and economic issue in Vietnam, as with other parts of South-east Asia, and the tropics and sub-tropics generally (Tran Van On et al., 2001) This study presents the status of protecting A silvestris in Yen Son village, Ba Vi commune with a variety of contents such as the use value of A silvestris for Dao ethnic, experience of Dao ethnic in using A silvestris, situation in planting, harvesting and preserving A silvestris, the role of local people in species conservation, pros and cons in protecting A silvestris and solutions are proposed to develop A silvestris species in Yen Son village Interviews were used to collect all qualitative and quantitative plant data Semi-structured questionnaires were used to obtain information on the knowledge, attitude and practices of thirty household Participatory rural appraisal method was used to assess the role of local people in species conservation, pros and cons in protecting A silvestris As a result, almost household having a garden plant A silvestris with several different purposes Some households plant A silvestris to cure stomach while some others use it for both treat and prevent diseases Especially, households which have a person working as a healer plant A silvestris not only to make medicines but also to protect this species because A silvestris is threatened by the number of species when reaching level EN of the Vietnam Red Book in 2017 Because of the increasing demand for A silvestris, the number of this species decreases sharply Therefore, people started to plant A silvestris at their household gardens with many different forms of planting such as growing trees from seeds, roots and growing trees by asexual breeding method Besides, local people play a significant part in protecting A silvestris Conservation of this species, however, is not easy when being affected by several factors such as devastated vegetation, nomadic farming, overexploitation, the demand for medicinal plants increased, knowledge of using medicinal herbs is not documented, and income, household economic conditions From factors above, positive solutions have been proposed to solve this problem TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ABSTRACT TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF TABLES AND CHARTS INTRODUCTION CHAPTER I LITERATURE REVIEW 11 1.1 Worldwide research 11 1.2 Research in Vietnam 11 1.2.1 History of medicinal practitioner in Yen Son village, Ba Vi commune 11 1.2.2 Research in Vietnam 13 1.3 The study on A silvestris 16 CHAPTER II OBJECTIVE, CONTENT, SCOPE AND METHOD 18 2.1 Objectives 18 2.2 Research contents 18 2.3 Scope 18 2.4 Methods 18 2.4.1 Determination of the use-value and experiences of Dao ethnic about A silvestris and assessment of situation in planting, harvesting and preserving A silvestris 18 2.4.2 Analysis of the role of local people in species conservation 23 2.4.4 Evaluation of pros and cons in protecting A silvestris and proposing solutions to develop A silvestris species in Yen Son village 24 CHAPTER III NATURAL, SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC CONDITIONS OF THE RESEARCH AREA 27 3.1 Natural conditions 27 3.1.1 Geographic location - Terrain 27 3.1.2 Land 27 3.1.3 Climate and hydrological 28 3.1.4 Flora 29 3.1.5 Fauna and insects 29 3.2 Social and economic conditions 30 3.2.1 Population distribution 30 3.2.2 Ethnic composition 30 3.2.3 Labor distribution 30 3.2.4 Land areas 30 3.2.5 Results of agricultural production activities 30 3.2.6 Results of forest development and protection 31 3.2.7 Traditional costumes and festivals 31 3.3 General assessment of the potential of the commune 31 3.3.1 Advantages 31 3.3.2 Disadvantages 31 CHAPTER IV RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS 33 4.1 Use-value and experiences of Dao ethnic about A silvestris 33 4.1.1 Use-value of A silvestris 33 4.1.2 Experiences in using A silvestris of Dao ethnic 34 4.2 Situation of exploitation, processing and preservation of A silvestris in Yen Son village 36 4.2.1 Situation of exploitation 36 4.2.2 Situation of processing and preserving 38 4.3 Assessment of experience of planting A silvestris in Yen Son village 39 4.3.1 The status of planting A silvestris in household garden 39 4.3.2 Experience of planting A silvestris 44 4.3.2.1 Planting A silvestris with seeds 45 4.3.2.2 Planting A silvestris by asexual breeding method 46 4.3.3 Impacts that affect the current status of planting A silvestris 47 4.3.3.1 Lack of breed 47 4.3.3.2 Lack of land 47 4.3.3.3 Lack of funds 48 4.4 The role of local people in species conservation 48 4.5 Pros and cons in protecting A silvestris and solutions proposed to develop A silvestris species in Yen Son village 49 4.5.1 Advantages 50 4.5.2 Disadvantages 51 4.5.3 Solutions 52 CONCLUSIONS, LIMITATION AND RECOMMENDATIONS 55 REFERENCES LIST OF TABLES AND CHARTS Table 2.1 Criteria for assessment of the role of local people in species conservation 24 Table 2.2 Criteria for assessment of pros and cons in protecting A silvestris ……… 25 Table 4.1 Purpose of using A silvestris of the households ………………………… 33 Table 4.2 The status of A silvestris in household garden …………………………… 39 Table 4.3 Three major methods of cultivation of local people ……………………… 44 Table 4.4 Experiences in planting A silvestris with seeds ………………………… 45 Table 4.5 Experiences in planting A silvestris with asexual breeding method ……… 46 Table 4.6 Criteria for assessment of the role of local people in species conservation 48 Table 4.7 Criteria for assessment of pros and cons in protecting A silvestris ……… 50 FIGURE Fig Morphological characteristics of A silvestris ………………………………… 15 Fig Processing and preserving A silvestris ……………………………… 38 APPENDIX Appendix List of interviewed households ………………………………………… 60 Appendix Morphological characteristics of A silvestris …………………………… 61 Appendix A silvestris before and after collecting and drying processes ………… 61 Appendix A silvestris in household gardens ……………………………………… 61 INTRODUCTION Vietnam is one of the biodiversity centers of the world In recent years, biodiversity resources are overexploited and devastated, so the issue of biodiversity conservation is an urgent requirement in Vietnam today Plant conservation indicators based directly on genetic diversity information have been proposed and explored, but metrics covering a wide range of plants are not currently feasible due to the lack of genetic data (Khoury, 2019) According to Hoang Van Sam (2012), about 80% of the world’s population relies on traditional medicine Although in many communities medicinal plants are the only available source for medical treatment van Andel (2000), Hoang Van Sam (2008), local indigenous remedies are less used now than before In many tropical regions indigenous knowledge is at risk of extinction just as is biodiversity itself Slikkerveer (1999) Considerable and growing observation has been given in recent years to issues surrounding the in-situ conservation, and ecologicallybased sustainable use from wild populations of medicinal plants Most conservation focus has been given to individual, internationally and regionally economically significant, over-exploitation medicinal plant species Nowhere are these issues more acute as in tropical and sub-tropical regions, where still today most people rely on medicinal, timber, and an array of other non-timber vegetation/animal products, derived principally from increasingly degraded, fragmented, species-diverse forest and savanna biomes (Tran Van On, 2001) However, up to now, there are many more medicinal plant species in nature that people either not know about, or have limited knowledge of their applicability Ardisia silvestris Pitard (Belonging to the family Myrsinaceae) which is one of traditional medicinal plants used by Dao ethnics in Vietnam A total of 500 evergreen shrubs and trees in this family were found throughout the subtropical and tropical regions of the world (Chen and Pipoly, 1996) However, because A silvestris have been used for diverse needs such as sources of food and medicine so the great quantities of A silvestris decreased rapidly, especially in Yen Son village, Ba Vi commune According to surveys from local people, the number of A silvestris currently is very low Although the planting A silvestris in house hold gardens was considered as a measure to help maintain a decline in tree species, the number of A silvestris in the wild was still significantly reduced In this paper, I conducted the research topic “Research on conservation of Ardisia silvestris Pitard in Yen Son village, Ba Vi commune” to describe the status of protecting A silvestris with the desired contribution that these rare genetic resources will be conserved not only in this region, but also in Vietnam and in the world 10 4.3.3.3 Lack of funds The Dao ethnic in the village have many years of cultivating A silvestris, however, they have little interest in growth of planting A silvestris This species in the garden are usually grown spontaneously The growing of A silvestris with a large scale requires a lot of investment in breed, fertilizer and substrate for plants 4.4 The role of local people in species conservation According to the survey results, the exploitation and usage of A silvestris as well as other medicinal plants in Yen Son village are extremely large With the purpose of exploiting them as both for use in households and as drugs for sale in the market to earn incomes, the amount of materials from A silvestris will increase as the demand of local people and consumers And local people contribute greatly to the exploitation of medicinal plants in Yen Son village in general and A silvestris in particular According to the survey, currently, the number of medicinal plants has decreased rapidly, some species have not been able to continue to exploit In which, the remaining numbers of A silvestris trees in Yen Son village is extremely low Local people reviewed that the number of A silvestris in the nature has been exhausted, A silvestris is only grown in the garden of the local people, especially the households doing medicine Table 4.6 Criteria for assessment of the role of local people in species conservation 48 Criteria Score 1–3 in ascending order of importance Location Activities in harvesting A silvestris Awareness about the status of exploiting A silvestris Awareness about the importance of A silvestris Awareness about the importance of planting A silvestris Awareness about importance of using techniques in planting A silvestris Activities in protecting A silvestri Where: = less important: activities have a bit influences to species conservation = important: activities have influences to species conservation = very important: activities have more influences to species conservation As can be seen from table 4.8, local people in Yen Son village play an extremely important role in protecting A silvestris And it is the fact that A silvestris has been protecting by citizens, rangers, authorities in the commune 4.5 Pros and cons in protecting A silvestris and solutions proposed to develop A silvestris species in Yen Son village Activities of local communities in protecting A silvestris have got a lot of difficulties The following criteria aim to evaluate bad or good points that local people has made when conserving this species 49 Table 4.7 Criteria for assessment of pros and cons in protecting A silvestris Criteria Score 1-2 in ascending order of positivity Location Experience in using A silvestris Devastated vegetation Nomadic farming Overexploitation The demand for medicinal plants increased Knowledge of using medicinal herbs Income, household economic conditions Where: = negative: bad actions affect to conservation of A silvestris = positive: good actions impact on conservation of A silvestris After summary about data that are collected from the research area, general evaluations can be drawn: advantages and disadvantages 4.5.1 Advantages After the investigation process, it can be observed that Yen Son village is a place having characteristics favorable factors for the conservation and development of A silvestris 50 First, location is one of advantages in protecting A silvestris Local people have many advantages in preserving A silvestris when they live at the foot of Ba Vi mountain In the past, they can get breeds from Ba Vi mountain or Ba Vi National Park But now, although A silvestris has not existed in the wild and the project of biodiversity conservation in 1996 has ended, local people have a rich and diverse resource to protect and develop A silvestris as well as medicinal plants Second, the majority of people living in the locality are Dao ethnic They have a lot of experience in using medicinal plants to cure many different diseases Some households use medicinal plants to drink daily to prevent disease and maintain health So the exploitation of A silvestris is almost implemented by local people To protect A silvestris, it is necessary for them to understand clearly about the importance of A silvestris in biodiversity human life Because of local scope, it is easier to improve their knowledge about A silvestris and its importance in human life as well as biodiversity of Vietnam 4.5.2 Disadvantages A silvestris resources in recent years declined in quantity and quality due to the following main causes: Devastated vegetation Forest vegetation is destroyed due to increasing population pressure and logging activities, expansion of cultivated area and so on (Forest area in 1943 was 14.3ha; in 1993 it was 9.3ha) Overexploitation Most parts of A silvestris can be used to make medicine, so the situation of being fully exploited is very high While the practice of growing medicinal plants is forgotten, people not have a sense of sustainable exploitation because they are used to exploiting it all 51 The demand for medicinal plants increased Nowadays, there is a tendency to take care of health by traditional methods In addition, sources of medicinal material are bought to process medicine to cure diseases Knowledge of using medicinal herbs is not documented and lost Recently, the youths are not much interested in using medicinal plants as well as A silvestris to cure diseases of their ethnic community Because of exploitation for many years, little attention about protecting tree regeneration and the above reasons, sources of medicinal plants in Vietnam has dropped extremely Income, household economic conditions This is a big problem in protecting A silvestris To reduce overexploitation of A silvestris, income of each household in Yen Son village must be stable Because of low income, they have to exploit A silvestris to make drug to sell or sell directly for traders 4.5.3 Solutions A silvestris is mainly distributed in the natural environment Since 1996, A silvestris has started to be planted in household gardens However, due to small garden land area, the number of trees planted in the garden is not much A silvestris is grown by most households For those who work as a healer and have a garden to grow medicinal plants, the number of A silvestris is grown more but only 20–30 trees It can be seen that the situation of A silvestris resource in Yen Son village is limited They can only become long-term potential if they are properly maintained and exploited The demand for the use of stomach medicines is increasing in the residential community That leads to an increasing demand for medicinal materials and affects medicinal plant resources People exploit A silvestris all year round They not harvest 52 seasonally, they only that according to demand Overexploitation that affects the growth and development of species is derived from experiences in harvesting of human Processing and preservation still takes place in a rudimentary form, without specialized machinery Drying is mainly based on weather The experience of treatment with A silvestris of local people in Yen Son village has existed for a long time and cured many diseases related to the stomach The experience of cultivating A silvestris by local people is very rich With each situation, the household will have appropriate cultivation methods However, cultivation is also spontaneous and small As far we know, forest resources of our country are seriously threatened Both species composition and distribution area are narrowed significantly In addition to timber resources, medicinal plant resources in general also suffer from the same common effects Therefore, the management of medicinal resources in general and A silvestris resources in particular is also the management of forest resources and diversity protection of plant species In Ba Vi commune, medicinal plant resources used by villagers are also being seriously threatened to decline in quantity So, there should be solutions for the management and conservation of local medicinal resources - Improving awareness of local people in exploiting A silvestris - Opening village meetings, distributing leaflets, going on propaganda about protecting resources of medicinal plants, especially A silvestris - Preparing slicers and electric ovens to avoid being dependent on the weather during processing That helps to avoid moldy phenomenon due to insufficient sun exposure (because the drug used when dried is preferred) 53 - In order to enhance the value of traditional medicine remedies, the organization of Ba Vi drug association needs to focus on building the brand and promoting the image of the traditional drug of Ba Vi - Villagers need to actively participate in activities in associations, unions and exchange experiences on making medicine, unionizing, preserving the traditional medicine career - Developing to grow A silvestris on a large scale: Building central and large-scale seedling nurseries aims to supply seedlings for households to plant medicinal plants Making use of excess land, wild land and forested land areas to develop cultivation of A silvestris Investing capital to build medicinal gardens and creating ecological conditions that are the best suited to medicinal plants 54 CONCLUSIONS, LIMITATION AND RECOMMENDATIONS Conclusions From the research results, some following conclusions are drawn The use-value and the experience of Dao minorities about A silvestris are very extremely diverse with several following reasons First of all, A silvestris has a high use-value with many functions, especially preventing and treating diseases 26 households out of 30 ones have used A silvestris to cure stomachs, making up 87% of the total Besides, indigenous communities also have a lot of experiences in using A silvestris with traditional remedies They often use parts of trees to make medicine such as leave and branch Sometimes, they use whole tree to this The experience in using A silvestris is rich and diverse Therefore, a considerable drop can be observed in the number of this species because local people have harvested too much without any specific method They harvest trees for not only using themselves but also they exploit them for trading But in recent years, some of them have started planting A silvestris in their gardens from regenerated seedlings, roots, or by using asexual breeding method Using regenerated seedlings is the most popular method with 21 households in total of 30 (accounting for 80.67% of the total) However, the number of trees planted in household gardens is not too much when reaching from 2–30 trees in each garden and the size of tree is smaller than ever before when growing in the wild In fact, local residents have 55 also a lot of experiences to improve this issue with aspects such as soil quality, planting season, seed quality, sex of grower, and cultivation and care process There are a lot of difficulties in planting A silvestris including lack of breed, lack of land and lack of funds After all, it is necessary for people to process and preserve trees For fresh leaves, they have to wash leaves with clean water and then drain For fried fresh, they just only add one more step to finish, desiccation And they use transparent plastic bags to preserve A silvestris from moist Local people play a crucial role in species conservation The explanation for this statement is that some human activities have key effects on species conservation Harvesting, exploiting, planting and applying techniques in planting A silvestris are all able to impact directly on protecting and maintaining this species In spite of their roles, they still create negative influences to A silvestris such as overexploitation, intensification in demand of using medicinal plants, experience in using A silvestris and devastated vegetation Household economic condition and knowledge of using medicinal herbs also contribute to reducing the number of this species However, up to now, this species has been protecting in the research area Limitation The remedies have not exploited completely due to esoteric problems Knowledge about A silvestris: Collecting secondary data and processing data are limited so the results obtained are not comprehensive and full of information that needs investigating Skills used in interview method are limited so data collection has many shortcomings This thesis has not specifically implemented its contents and objectives 56 Recommendations In the future, research should have more topics that research further and more specific about the characteristics, distribution and measures to develop A silvestris Besides, we also had better to spend more time to completely investigate the information (use, experience) to serve the management of this resource Local people should be encouraged to cultivate A silvestris more It can contribute to the needs of local economic development Technical support, breeds, necessary information should be provided to people to have the best conditions for planting Management of use and exploitation of natural medicinal resources in nature should be advanced This thesis can not only be the first step to assess the status of protecting A silvestris in other area but it also is considered as a basis to improve the studies of A silvestris on many respects such as characteristics, economic value and chemical compounds found in A silvestris 57 REFERENCES An Duong (2019), Technique of growing Ardisia silvestris Pitard, Vietnam National University of Forestry Do Tat Loi (1995), Medicinal plants and medicine in Viet Nam, Medical Publishing House Do Thi Mai Huong (2017), Study on the experiences of the usage of sharp medicinal plants by people in Yen Son village, Ba Vi commune, Ba Vi district, Ha Noi capita, Vietnam National University of Forestry Hideka Kobayashi, Elvira de Mej a (2005), The genus Ardisia: a novel source of health-promoting compounds and phytopharmaceuticals, Journal of Ethnopharmacology 96, 347–354 Hoang Van Sam (2012), Indigenous knowledge of medicinal plants among Dao and Muong ethnic minority groups in Ba Vi National Park Ha Noi, Biology magazine, 34, 82–87 Khoury (2019), Comprehensiveness of conservation of useful wild plants: An operational indicator for biodiversity and sustainable development targets, Ecological Indicators, Volume 98, 420–429 Nguyen Duc Giang (2017), Study on distribution characteristics of A silvestris in Bai Tu Long National Park, Quang Ninh province, Vietnam National University of Forestry Nguyen Tap (2007), Handbook of medicinal plants needs to be protected in Vietnam, Medical Publishing House Nguyen Thanh Do, Pham Thanh Binh, Pham Thanh Ky (2001), the status of development of World traditional medicine, Pharmacy magazine No 10 (2001), page 6, 58 10 Nguyen Thi Thanh An (2002), Participatory rural appraisal, Asia Forest Network Santa Barbara, California USA 11 Pham Hoang Ho (1999), Vietnamese herbs, Medical Publishing House 12 Pham Tran Can (2001), Medicinal plants of Vietnamese human, News VietnamNet 13 Tran Van On, Do Quyen, Le Dinh Bich, Bill Jones, Josette Wunder (2001), A survey of medicinal plants in Ba Vi National Park, Vietnam: methodology and implications for conservation and sustainable use, Biological Conservation 97, 295 –304 14 Tran Xuan Tung (2005), Research on characteristics of Ardisia silvestris Pitard to develop the planting of this species in Ba Vi, Thesi of Vietnam National University of Forestry 15 Vo Van Chi (1995), Vietnamese medicinal plant dictionary, Medical Publishing House 59 APPENDIX Appendix List of interviewed households No Name 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 Trieu Huu Tuan Trieu Huu Kiem Trieu Tien Huong Trieu Sinh Hop Trieu Van Vuong Ly Sinh Quan Trieu Phu Duc Duong Kim Lien Trieu Phu Vuong Trieu Tien Phieu Ly Huu Khoa Trieu Thi Mai Ly Sinh Nguyen Lang Van Ha Trieu Phu Thanh Trieu Van Hoa Trieu Sinh Nguyen Do Thi Suu Trieu Sinh Duc Ly Van Phu Trieu Van Hao Duong Kim Nghiem Duong Thi Hoa Ly Van Quan Duong Kim Vien Ly Van Tien Trieu Huu Bay Ly Van Vo Duong Kim Nhan Trieu Huu Lich Job Address Farmer Farmer Farmer Farmer Farmer Farmer Farmer Farmer Farmer Farmer Farmer Farmer Farmer Farmer Farmer Farmer Farmer Farmer Farmer Farmer Farmer Farmer Farmer Farmer Farmer Farmer Farmer Farmer Farmer Farmer Sam village Sam village Sam village Sam village Sam village Sam village Sam village Sam village Sam village Sam village Giua village Giua village Giua village Giua village Giua village Giua village Giua village Giua village Giua village Giua village Trung Yen village Trung Yen village Trung Yen village Trung Yen village Trung Yen village Trung Yen village Trung Yen village Trung Yen village Trung Yen village Trung Yen village 60 Appendix Morphological characteristics of A silvestris Appendix A silvestris before and after collecting and drying processes Appendix A silvestris in household gardens 61 62