Biodiversity for forests, ecology and economic development of Manipur
- Part 1 -

Akham Bonbirdhwaja Singh *

Introduction

The variety of plant and animal life in the world or in a particular habitat is important, a high level of which is usually considered to be important and desirable. In Webster’sDictionary, biodiversity is described as “biological diversity in an environment as indicated by numbers of different species of plants and animals”. So by broad meaning, the term includes the plant diversity, diversity of higher and lower animals, insects and microorganisms. Even the bacteria and fungi which plays important roles in food habits are under the term biodiversity.

Manipur is famous for its wide diversity of species both plant and animals. The place is located in such a location geographically which is responsible for its biological diversity. Two biodiversity hotspots share the territory of Manipur, on the Western and Northern parts, there is an extension of Himalayan Biodiversity Hotspot and on the Central Southern and Eastern Parts, and there is an extension of Indo Burma Biodiversity Hotspot. The place is also not far off from the most biodiverse spots of the world, the cradle of angiosperms in the South East Asia.

A section of intellectuals feel that we have rather too many too handle, yes it is true. When we have too many and not able to handle them properly than it become a curse, like we are feeling now. The Scandinavian countries have very little biodiversity of forest herbs and shrubs, just a few. The central and western India have some but not much. The extent of biodiversity of ten square metre of forest here shall be equal to that of hundred hectares there.

But once, we find properties of all and find out their respective uses, they will become our vital resource, a few good ones as food or drugs shall change the economic scene of the rural Manipur. It has more prospect than the mainstream forestry sector in terms of the potentials of economic returns.

Floral Biodiversity of Manipur

Flowering plants (angiosperms) represent one of the greatest terrestrial radiations in recent geological times, with over 250,000 species growing in all types of ecosystems across the globe (Buerki Sven, 2014). The Botanical Survey of India, has identified 249 species of Orchids, 200 species of Grasses and 168 species of Leguminosae in addition to many others accounting to 2380 species belonging to 1052 Genera spread over 205 families.

Besides, the state displays a high degree of endemism with many species of the genera Aconitum, Berberis, Artabotrys, Hedychium, Mahonia, Piper, Pyrus, Iris, Zanthoxylum etc. The BSI listed a few of them in the Flora of Manipur (75), but there are many more as the region being famous for high degree of endemism. The Eastern Himalayas and North East India is believed to have 3169 endemic species(Chauhan A.S.,2000). There are 1200 medicinal plants of which uses of 430 plants have been documented (Sinha, Dr. S.C., 1996).

Inspite of such huge biodiversity resource, the utilisation of the biodiversity for economic upliftment of the rural poor is minimal. One reason for the same could be the strict protection regime and second one may be the lack of research and popularisation of the utility of the biodiversity. Once a plant product is confirmed to possess certain qualities either as a potential drug or as food supplement, it can do a lot for the economy of the people.

There has been plants which have the potential to change the economy of the people such Trichopuszeylanicus ssp. travancoricus (Jeevani of Kani tribe of Kerala) and Panax ginseng (Ginseng of Korea), Cinchona pubescens (Cinchona) etc. Here, we also have species of Panax and Paris which may have the same potential. The biodiversity of food plants is enormous. Due to large diversity of ethnicity and their traditional knowledge, a number of food plants are known to the people of the state. Hence, a large number of local preparations are known to them. The state also has a large number of Mushrooms, Wild Fruits, Wild Vegetables, Gingiberacea, Wetland Products etc.

Faunal Biodiversity

The faunal diversity of Manipur is documented in 2601 species belonging to various categories in 1261 genera, 368 families, of which 5 are new to science, 509 species are new records to the state and 28 are new records to the country. I attended the last meeting of the Manipur Biodiversity Board (3rd Oct, 2018) and in the meeting the board approved the publication of the works of noted wild life activists Dr.Shamungou to publish the works on the Guide book on Reptiles and amphibians of the state and it is expected that much more number of species than what has been listed by ZSI shall come up.

Among these faunal groups insects dominate the number with 1220 species followed by birds with 586 species, fishes 141 species and molluscs 127 species. The state of Manipur is now represented by 64 genera and 141 species of freshwater fishes, representing 15.16 per cent of the total Indian freshwater fishes of the country.

The state of Manipur is well represented as far as the Aves are concerned, out of total 1232 species and subspecies of birds known from the subcontinent (Alfred et.al. 2005), as many as 586 are represented in the state, which accounts nearly 48 percent of the total record. Among them 32 of 138 species are under threat as per IUCN guidelines. Regarding mammals 75 species and subspecies under 55 genera and 22 families are recorded from the state out of 397 species in the country4. The report of ZSI is regarded as understatement by many and further exploration is required.

The diversity as well as endemism is highly regarded as unique. The collection of animals in our zoo was described as “treasure box” of rare species. According to the Protected Area Network published by the Forest Department(CWLW, 2015), the concentration of animals of Schedule I and Schedule II animals as per Wildlife Protection Act, 1972in the PAN areas is very high. However, most of the birds and animals are covered under WLPA and hence, their economic consideration is out of question other than their role in maintaining the ecosystem balance.

As per general estimation, the dependence on fauna for food is generally restricted to the fish and reared meat animals and not on wild biodiversity. However, there are wild sources of protein not covered by the WLPA such as Oysters, varieties of hill stream crabs, snails etc. and the recipesare quite unique and have wide scope of popularising.Nowadays, these items are exported outside the state in large quantities and finding good markets. In fact, the UN has been continuously encouraging the use of insects as a source of food (proteins) for quite some time (FAO). It is of course time that the world look for such non conventional food, already some insect based food brands are in the market.

Biodiversity for the People

The people have been using biodiversity in many ways, as food materials and food supplements, spices and condiments, aromatic plants, medicinal plants for direct use and for use as decoction and concoctions, for extraction of active principles for use in pharmaceuticals, for use as fungicides and pesticides etc. There are two schools of thought in the field of managing biodiversity, the commercial approach and conservationist approach. It is widely accepted that biodiversity loss and poverty are linked problems and that conservation and poverty reduction should be tackled together.

However, success with integrated strategies is elusive. There is sharp debate about the social impacts of conservation programs and the success of community-based approaches to conservation (Adams W. et al, 2004). The scientific harvesting for trading is now a good means of poverty alleviation without damaging the ecology as most of the biodiversity items are of lower plants, herbs and shrubs.The commercial approach is fast catching up and it is felt that unless people get monetary returns, chances of long term protection are dim as the villagers cannot hold on to the resource for eternity without utilizing it.

Absolute conservation and having a strict protective regime is going to hurt the economy of the people. In a study made on two contrasting alternatives: land sharing, which integrates both objectives on the same land; and land sparing, in which high-yield farming is combined with protecting natural habitats from conversion to agriculture in Southwest Ghana and northern India. It was found that land sparing is a more promising strategy for minimizing negative impacts of food production, at both current and anticipated future levels of production (Phalan, Dr. Ben, 2011).

But increasing population and increasing demand for food and other resources, land and biodiversity cannot be locked up and kept away from people.This is really a serious problem. So, the first issue that emerged was the sustainable utilization of biodiversity and converting our biodiversity in to bioresource and in terms of money. The utilization includes marketing of biodiversity in different forms. First form is of direct marketing like fish and aqua resources and local fresh water ornamental fishes. That is about faunal bio resources, which are highly possible for a state like Manipur.

Second form of marketing is of the plant products, timber and Non timber forest produces. Here, the principle of partnership with people and public and user agency has been mooted with sustainability safeguarding through forest certification. Importance of forest certification in sustainable management has been understood in most part of the world. The third way of marketing was the non-harvesting marketing like Carbon trading (under CDM of Kyoto Protocol), Ecotourism and Environmental tourism. Bio prospecting and marketing the traditional knowledge (TK) is also a possible way of marketing.

Sustainable Development Goals and Biodiversity

There has been a lot of thrust now on biodiversity for the world economy and biodiversity has been global agenda. In the Sustainable Development Goals finalised in paragraph 54 of United Nations Resolution dated the 25th September, 2015 at New York. In the said documents, there are 17 goals of which Goal No 15 about maintaining the ecosystem which deals with forest and biodiversity.

The biodiversity part is reproduced as below:
o Of the 8,300 animal breeds known, 8 per cent are extinct and 22 per cent are at risk of extinction
o Of the over 80,000 tree species, less than 1 per cent have been studied for potential use
o Fish provide 20 per cent of animal protein to about 3 billion people. Only ten species provide about 30 per cent of marine capture fisheries and ten species provide about 50 per cent of aquaculture production
o Over 80 per cent of the human diet is provided by plants. Only three cereal crops – rice, maize and wheat – provide 60 per cent of energy intake

Micro-organisms and invertebrates are key to ecosystem services, but their contributions are still poorly known and rarely acknowledged The UN document clearly highlights the importance of biodiversity in the development agenda of the world. There have been attempts by the UN to diversify the food base to other non-conventional sectors such as insects and wild plants. It is very important the biodiversity of every country is optimally used for welfare of the people (UN: Resolution dated the 25th September, 2015).

(To be continued)