Page 435

Endangered Plants, Vanishing Cultures:
Ethnobotany and Conservation

Paul Alan Cox
National Tropical Botanical Garden, P.O. Box 340, Lawai, Hawaii 96765

Endangered Plants

We live in a time of mass extinction of biological species. Although there is a public outcry over the demise of well-known species, such as whales or condors, the relentless extinction of species affects all taxonomic groups. May and others (1995) reported that 485 animal species and 585 plant species are known to have become extinct since 1600. Although this is an extremely high level of extinction—for plants, the average rate of extinction is 0.5% of all species per century—what is more alarming is the increase in these rates—half of all those extinctions occurred within the last century. As a result, the period from inception to demise of a bird or mammal species has been reduced from 5–10 million years to about 10,000 years (May and others 1995).

The creation and extinction of biological species is, of course, a natural process that occurs over evolutionary time. Those few living relics of earlier geological periods, be they coelacanths deep in the oceans or ancient conifers hidden in Australian valleys, are quite properly regarded as objects of curiosity. It is not the fact of extinction, but the acceleration of extinction that concerns conservation biologists. If present trends continue, future generations will inherit a planet of greatly reduced biological diversity. Although this is not the first mass extinction caused by people—one need think only of extinctions of birds in Hawaii or Pleistocene extinctions of mastodons in North America (Martin and Wright 1967; Pimm and others 1995)—ours is the first known human-induced mass extinction of plants. Botanists are particularly troubled about the extinction of plant species,

Page 436

because, with only a few exceptions, plants form the foundation of all known ecosystems. Plants also constitute the major sources of food, medicine, and building materials throughout the world and have strongly influenced the trajectory of human civilization (Balick and Cox 1997).

The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) currently lists 12% of the world's plant species as threatened with extinction. This figure is almost certainly an underestimate, in that the IUCN lists only species known to science. With the rapid destruction of tropical rain forests, ecosystems in which roughly one new plant species is discovered for every hundred collected, many unknown plant species are disappearing. If current rates of extinction continue, nearly half of all plant species worldwide will disappear in 3,000 years (May and others 1995).

What has driven this high rate of extinction? The oft-cited ultimate causes are deforestation, pollution, and growth of the human population, but little is known about the proximal processes that lead to extinctions of plants. Sometimes the fate of an entire species can hinge on small things. We are just beginning to understand how the loss of small insects, birds, flying mammals, and other pollinators and seed dispersers can lead in turn to extinctions of plants (Bond 1995; Buchmann and Nabhan 1996). Temple (1977), for example, argued that the extinction of dodos (Raphus spp.) in the Mascarene Islands led to a lack of dispersal and germination of seeds for Sideroxylon trees. At this point, no new seedlings of Sideroxylon are being produced in nature.

In oceanic islands that have limited guilds of pollinators, loss of pollinators can affect plant assemblages dramatically, affecting major structural components of the rain forest and creating cascades of linked extinctions. In Samoa, more than half of all canopy-level trees depend on flying foxes of the genus Pteropus for pollination (Banack 1998). When the flying foxes began to disappear because of commercial hunting and destruction of habitat, biologists became concerned that their loss could lead ultimately to loss of the Samoan rain forest (Cox and others 1991). An urgent appeal was made to the 108 signatory nations of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, who responded by banning international traffic in Samoan flying foxes (Pteropus samoensis). The US Congress also used the finding about the importance of flying foxes as pollinators as a justification for granting national-park status to several areas in American Samoa, a US territory (Cox 1997a).

Many extinctions of pollinators occurred before protective legislation had been envisioned. In Hawaii, the native Hawaiian birds that had pollinated the flowering vine Freycinetia arborea became extinct in the late 19th century, but pollination was continued by the Japanese white-eye, Zosterops japonica, an introduced species (Cox 1983).

Another cause of extinctions of plants, particularly in oceanic islands, is the introduction of exotic species. Introductions of beneficial plants to islands seem to be the exception rather than the rule, so it should be no surprise that half the plants (263 of 553) on the endangered species list in the United States are from Hawaii. Recent exotic plant introductions to Hawaii, such as Clidemia, pose grave threats to native plants, particularly in the aftermath of hurricanes or forest fires,

Page 437

a pattern that occurs throughout Oceania. In Samoa, introduced weeds, such as Mikania micrantha, have slowed dramatically the regeneration of native forests from hurricanes (Elmqvist and others 1994). This vulnerability of island flora to foreign weeds long has been known.

From the extraordinary manner in which European productions have recently spread over New Zealand and have seized on places which must have been previously occupied, we may believe, if all the animals and plants of Great Britain were set free in New Zealand, that in the course of time a multitude of British forms would become thoroughly naturalized there, and would exterminate many of the natives. Yet the most skilful naturalist from an examination of the species of the two countries could not have foreseen this result [Darwin 1859].

Although a skillful naturalist might not have foreseen the extirpation of native New Zealand's species as a result of the introduction of exotic competitors, Darwin learned in New Zealand that native Maoris predicted not only biological extinctions but also cultural extirpations. “As the white man's rat has driven away the native rat, so the European fly drives away our own, and the clover kills our fern, so will the Maoris disappear before the white man himself” (Crosby 1986). Clearly, the Maoris foresaw early the link between biological extinction and cultural loss.

Vanishing Cultures

A variety of animal species ranging from social insects to chimpanzees can be said to have societal structures complete with communication systems, but human cultures are distinguished by the complexity of the languages used. The ability to use language, symbolic systems of vocalization that have sophisticated grammar and syntax, is one of the characteristics of our species. As a species, we have used language for at least 40,000 years and perhaps far longer.

Just like biological species and populations, languages vary in range and size. Some, like Mandarin, are spoken by millions and even billions of people, while others, such as the Eyak language of Alaska, are limited to one or two living individuals (Krauss 1992). Just like species, languages originate in different ways but eventually become extinct or significantly altered. Within the last century, Bishlama, a pidgin language spoken in Vanuatu, has arisen, whereas Dalmatian, a Romance language, ended when the last native speaker died. The current lingua franca of international commerce and scholarship is English, like Latin, Arabic, and Greek before it; but if the historical pattern of change continues, this role in the future likely will be accorded to some other tongue, such as Mandarin, Hindi, or Japanese.

Many parallels exist between languages and species. Just as museums catalog Tasmanian tigers or passenger pigeons, so do linguists attempt to classify and display extinct languages. Hattic, Sumerian, and Etruscan once were spoken widely among flourishing populations in Anatolia, Mesopotamia, and Northwestern Italy, respectively, but these languages now survive only in clay tablets, stone inscriptions, and ancient scrolls. Like European bison, which are extinct in the wild but

Page 438

protected in zoos, Latin, Sanskrit, and other “dead” languages are cared for lovingly by scholars.

The analogy between endangered species and endangered languages is not perfect—unlike biological species, languages once extinct can still be revived—but the correspondence is closer than might be thought. As the number of species is an indicator of the planet's ecological health, so is the number of languages a manifestation of the world's cultural diversity. As the declining number of species alarms biologists, so does the vanishing number of languages dismay linguists. Krauss has estimated that of the 6,000 languages present at the beginning of our century, half have disappeared. By considering languages to be “endangered” if they are no longer being learned by small children, Krauss (1992) believes that the coming century “will see either the death or doom of 90% of mankind's languages.”

As the rate of extinction of species is but a crude index to the actual loss of the world's genetic diversity, so is the rate of disappearance of languages only a rough estimate of the world's vanishing cultural diversity. If we accept that both the biological and cultural diversity of the world are imperiled, then it seems that ethnobiology, the study of the interaction between human culture and biodiversity, will assume increasing importance in the future.

Ethnobotany.

Given the reliance of human cultures on biodiversity, it should not be surprising that the individual who invented the binomial system of nomenclature that underlies modern assessments of biodiversity also invented the field of ethnobotany, which provides the intellectual foundation for assessing interactions between cultural and biological diversity. In 1732, a young botanist in Uppsala, Sweden, became consumed with wanderlust. Unlike other students of his time, he decided to travel not to the academic centers of Europe, but to learn directly from indigenous peoples. “I set out alone from the city of Uppsala on Friday, May 12, 1732, at eleven o'clock,” Carl Linnaeus wrote in his journal with characteristic precision, “being at that time within half a day of twenty-five years of age.” Equipped with only 400 copper dalers from the Swedish Royal Society, a plant press, a hand lens, a fowling piece, and a change of clothes, Linnaeus began a 5,000-kilometer, 5-month-long journey to the land of the midnight sun. As the Galapagos were well surveyed before Darwin's arrival, so had Lapland been well mapped and explored before Linnaeus commenced his journey. The scientific significance of the travels of both Darwin and Linnaeus stemmed not from the novelty of the itineraries, but from the originality of the questions that they pursued.

The complete record of Linnaeus's journey to Lapland can be found only in his foolscap diary, which is carefully protected in the vault of the Linnaean Society in London. Written in Swedish and Latin, filled with sketches and notes, the handwritten travel diary of Linnaeus was never intended for publication. An abridgment of his diary was not published until 33 years after his death, first in

Page 439

English, then, 78 years later, in Swedish. The diary is of enormous historical importance. “I here made the following observations relative to the remedies used by the Laplanders,” Linnaeus penned on July 4, 1732, at the beginning of the first recorded interview of an indigenous healer by a trained botanist.

Previous botanists, such as Rauwolf and Rumphius, had returned from distant lands with accounts of the use of plants by local peoples, but Linnaeus's journey to Lapland in 1732 was the first time that a trained botanist had traveled to another land with the express purpose of interviewing indigenous people about their use and perceptions of plants. Although the term ethnobotany was not coined until a century and a half later by Harshberger (Balick and Cox 1997), the ethnobotanical field techniques pioneered by Linnaeus continue to provide evidence of the biological sophistication of indigenous peoples. Although it waned in the 1970s, ethnobotany has become reinvigorated and popularized. Ethnobotanical research methods vary (Martin 1995), but on one point nearly all modern ethnobotanists agree: indigenous knowledge about plants and animals is vanishing throughout the world.

The historical importance of ethnobotany in drug-discovery programs, coupled with new screening techniques, has generated an explosion of interest not only in the ethnobotanical approach to drug discovery, but also in related issues of indigenous intellectual-property rights (Cox 1990, 1995, 1997b; Cox and Balick 1994; Greaves 1994; Reid and others 1993). The potential importance of using indigenous knowledge to unlock the benefits of biological diversity is what led the international community to include preservation of traditional knowledge in the Convention on Biological Diversity drafted in Rio de Janeiro.

Conservation

Linnaeus not only invented modern botanical nomenclature and ethnobotany; he also served as a pioneer of conservation. “I do not know how the world could persist gracefully if but a single animal species were to vanish from it,” Linnaeus wrote in his journal. Today many people around the world share Linnaeus's view of the importance of conservation. Perhaps one of the most important manifestations of that sentiment in recent years was the Convention on Biological Diversity, commonly known as the Rio Treaty, which now has been signed by 161 different nations.

Although this convention emphasizes international responsibilities to protect the environment, its article 8j discusses the need to conserve traditional knowledge. This article mandates that, subject to national legislation, each signatory nation will “respect, preserve, and maintain knowledge, innovations, and practices of indigenous and local communities embodying traditional lifestyles relevant for the conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity and promote their wider application with the approval and involvement of the holders of such knowledge, innovations, and practices and encourage the equitable sharing of the benefits arising from the utilization of such knowledge, innovations, and practices.” The parties to the convention thus commit to three major obligations:

Page 440

• to respect, preserve, and maintain traditional knowledge;

• to promote wide application of traditional knowledge, with the approval and the involvement of the holders of such knowledge; and

• to encourage equitable sharing of benefits from traditional knowledge.

Properly implemented, article 8j of the convention can be a powerful tool in protecting both biological and cultural diversity. Although as some have pointed out (Glowka and others 1994), a narrow reading of article 8j could suggest that these obligations can be obviated through national legislation, but originally this provision sought to avoid inadvertent conflict with national laws that were in place before the convention was signed, such as proscriptions against administration of traditional ordeal poisons.

Different nations can point to different ways that they are implementing article 8j. In Japan, skilled practitioners of traditional knowledge are considered “living treasures,” a rather explicit demonstration of the respect for traditional knowledge required under article 8j. This concept could be expanded in other countries to include weavers, healers, shipwrights, or others who serve as custodians of traditional knowledge. Sweden has sought to preserve and maintain traditional knowledge by launching a national survey of folk knowledge about Swedish plants and animals. The resulting multivolume work will be published by the Swedish Biodiversity Centre in Uppsala and a consortium of Swedish museums and universities. Regional museums in particular have demonstrated an important ability to involve Swedish citizens beyond the confines of traditional academe. Thailand has sought to promote wide application of traditional knowledge by educating its citizens about traditional Thai medicine. Mahidol University has produced a series of informative books and a filmstrip designed to be shown in schools and to community groups. Belize seeks to encourage equitable sharing of benefits from traditional knowledge by granting oversight of a rain-forest preserve to an organization of traditional healers. Proceeds from a book on traditional medicine and from a line of “rain-forest remedies” are used to provide pensions to healers (Balick and Cox 1997).

Although the US Congress has yet to ratify the Convention on Biological Diversity, indications are clear that it supports the provisions of article 8j. Congress required that a new national park in American Samoa be managed with the input of an advisory council of village chiefs. Nominees to the council convened in 1998 at the National Tropical Botanical Garden in Hawaii to discuss rules for the park. In addition, the US House of Representatives recently passed the Tropical Forest Conservation Act of 1998 (HR 2870), which not only facilitates the exchange of international debts for conservation of rain forests, but also requires consultation with indigenous peoples in the use of funds for conservation.

The Role of Botanical Gardens in Ethnobotany

Clearly, all these efforts depend on the ability to document traditional and indigenous knowledge and to identify the custodians of such knowledge. This

Page 441

in turn highlights the need to provide far broader opportunities for ethnobotanical training in the future. Yet, with the exception of a few institutions, such as the Autonomous National University of Mexico, universities have been slow to fill the breach. Although interest in ethnobotany has expanded rapidly among students, universities have been slow to present ethnobotany among the traditional academic disciplines. Pharmacognosy courses, which can provide a stepping stone to ethnobotany, long since have disappeared from most pharmacy schools, and chairs in ethnobotany are rare in liberal-arts institutions. As a result, meetings of the Society for Economic Botany or the International Society for Ethnopharmacology are often attended by students of anthropology, botany, and chemistry who lack mentors in ethnobotany at their institutions. The minimal requirements for a program in ethnobotany include access to a well-curated herbarium and a good library, which is why attempts by the private sector (such as those by firms that produce herbal supplements or pharmaceutical firms) to launch research programs in ethnobotany so often fail.

Universities are not the only public institutions that have significant herbaria and libraries, however. Botanical gardens, particularly those with significant living collections, offer an untapped but potentially important resource for training ethnobotanists. In the summer of 1998, a pilot course in tropical botany and ethnobotany was cosponsored by the National Tropical Botanical Garden and the Swedish Biodiversity Centre. Students from Canada, Estonia, Ethiopia, Korea, Russia, Singapore, Sweden, and Tanzania were offered the opportunity to be trained by ethnobotanists, plant systematists, and resident Polynesian weavers and healers in a large species-diverse garden and its associated preserves. The course is expected to be offered annually to students from around the world, in addition to a specialist course in ethnobotany begun in 1999.

Conclusion

Both plant species and indigenous knowledge are disappearing at an alarming rate. The loss of plant species is particularly acute in oceanic islands, where as much as 50% of island flora is endangered. Folklore about plants might be disappearing even faster than the species themselves, as suggested by the loss of indigenous languages: half have disappeared in this century, and, of the remaining languages, 80% are endangered. Ethnobotany, which deals with the relationship between biological and cultural diversity, can play a crucial role in helping nations meet the obligations under article 8j of the Convention on Biodiversity to respect, maintain, and preserve traditional knowledge. Although universities have been slow to meet the demand for ethnobotanical training, botanical gardens offer a unique setting for students and custodians of traditional knowledge to meet and discuss strategies for protecting both species and cultural biodiversity. Most countries of the world have botanical gardens, and those gardens should work now to fill the breach in ethnobotanical training, emphasizing the relationship between endangered plants and vanishing cultures.

Page 442

References

Balick MJ, Cox PA. 1997. Plants, people, and culture. New York NY: WH Freeman.

Banack SA. 1998. Diet selection and resource use by flying foxes (Genus Pteropus). Ecology 79(6):1949–67

Bond WJ. 1995. Assessing the risk of plant extinction due to pollinator and disperser failure. In: Lawton JH, May RM (eds). Extinction rates. Oxford UK: Oxford Univ Pr. p 131–46.

Buchmann SL, Nabhan GP. 1996. The forgotten pollinators. Washington DC: Island Pr.

Cox PA. 1983. Extinction of the Hawaiian avifauna resulted in a change of pollinators for the ieie, Freycinetia arborea. Oikos 41:195–9.

Cox PA. 1990. Ethnophamacology and the search for new drugs. In: Chadwick DJ, Marsh J (eds) Bioactive compounds from plants. New York NY: J Wiley. p 4–55.

Cox PA. 1995. Shaman as scientist: indigenous knowledge systems in pharmacological research and conservation biology. In: Hostettmann K, Marston K, Maillard M, Hamburger M (eds). Phytochemistry of plants used in traditional medicine. Oxford UK: Clarendon Pr. p 1–15.

Cox PA. 1997a. Nafanua: saving the Samoan rain forest. New York NY: WH Freeman.

Cox PA. 1997b. Indigenous peoples and conservation. In: Grifo F, Rosenthal J (eds). Biodiversity and human health. Washington DC: Island Pr. p 207–20.

Cox PA, Balick MJ. 1994. The ethnobotanical approach to drug discovery. Sci Amer 270(6):82–7.

Cox PA, Elmqvist T, Pierson ED, Rainey ED. 1991. Flying foxes as strong interactors in South Pacific island ecosystems: a conservation hypothesis. Cons Biol 5:448–54.

Crosby AW. 1986. Ecological imperialism and the biological expansion of Europe 900–1900. Cambridge UK: Cambridge Univ Pr.

Darwin C. 1859. On the origin of the species by means of natural selection; or, the preservation of favoured races in the struggle for life. London UK: J Murray.

Elmqvist T, Rainey WE, Pierson ED, Cox PA. 1994. Effects of tropical cyclones Ofa and Val on the structure of a Samoan lowland rain forest. Biotropica 26:384–91.

Glowka L, Burhenne-Guilmin F, Synge H, McNeely JA, Gündling L. 1994. A guide to the Convention on Biological Diversity. Glan Switzerland: The World Conservation Union.

Greaves T (ed). 1994. Intellectual property rights for indigenous peoples, a source book. Oklahoma City OK: Society for Applied Anthropology.

Krauss M. 1992. The world's languages in crisis. Language 68:1–10.

Martin G S 1995. Ethnobotany: a method manual. London UK: Chapman & Hall.

Martin PS, Wright HE Jr (eds). 1967. Pleistocene extinctions: the search for a cause. New Haven CT: Yale Univ Pr.

May RM, Lawton JH, Stork NE. 1995. Assessing extinction rates. In: Lawton JH, May RM (eds). Extinction rates. Oxford UK: Oxford Univ Pr. p 1–24.

Reid EA, Laird SA, Meyer GA, Gámez R, Sittenfeld A, Janzen DH, Gollin MA, Juma C. 1993. Biodiversity prospecting: using genetic resources for sustainable development. Washington DC: World Resources Inst.

Pimm SL, Moulton MP, Justice JL. 1995. Bird extinctions in the Central Pacific. In: Lawton JH, May RM (eds). Extinction rates. Oxford UK: Oxford Univ Pr. p 75–87.

Temple SA. 1977. Plant animal mutualism: coevolution with dodo leads to near extinction of plant. Science 197:885–6.