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One of the most important drivers of global
biodiversity change is the unsustainable harvesting of natural
resources (UNEP, 2002). Not only does the over utilisation of
natural resources impact on species level biodiversity, but it can
also result in the degradation of ecosystems structure and
function. It is estimated that in South Africa there are 27 million
consumers of indigenous medicine and households are spending
between 4 and 8 %of their annual income on traditional medicine
services (Lotter & Krynauw, 2002).
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| Assessment of
Data |
This indicator measures the distribution of
medicinal plants in the province according to their conservation
status (IUCN, 2000) and popularity as medicinal plants in trade. A
list of important medicinal plants was compiled by Mpumalanga Parks
Board and as very little accurate distribution data exists for
medicinal plants in the province, predictive species modelling was
conducted to generate distribution maps illustrating areas of
importance for medicinal plant conservation and management.
Twenty-six priority medicinal plants were
selected for modelling the predictive species distribution maps
based primarily on availability of data and information on habitat /
environmental variables relevant to each species. Eight species were
assessed as "top & scarce", three species as "high & medium"
and five species as Critically Endangered (CR) and three species as
Endangered (EN). |
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