Inventory of Taxus walliciana and Swertia chirayita : as a part of the The SLU/KU Greenhouse-project for biodiversity and social justice in Nepal

Abstract: To prevent loss of biological diversity and medical plant resources in Nepal, The Swedish University of Agriculture (SLU) and Kathmandu University (KU) have started a project with the combined aim of nature conservation and social justice where endangered medical plants have been harvested from naturally growing populations in order to cultivate them in greenhouses to help them recover in their natural habitat. The purpose of my study was to see if the project was fulfilling the intended aim, or not. I limited my study to include two endangered plants; Swertia chirayita (herb) and Taxus wallichiana (tree). I established 2 non-harvest-areas and 2 harvest-areas for Taxus wallichiana and 2 non-harvest-areas and one harvest-area for Swertia chirayita. The density of the non-harvest- and harvest-areas did not show a significant difference in both cases, most probably due to too few replicates combined with too high variation. The results for Taxus wallichiana did not show that there is a significant difference between the non-harvest-areas and the harvest-areas, in favor of the intended aim of the project (p > 0,05). Nor did the results for Swertia chirayita show that there is a significant difference between the non-harvest-areas and the harvest-area (too few replicates to make a statistic calculation). The results call for further research with more replicas since there seemingly was a distinguished difference in density between the two types of areas in the field.