Kenyan woodcarver A craftsman in the Malindi market preparing to saw a log of Brachylaena huillensis (Asteraceae).

Videos The seven People and Plants videos demonstrate practical methodologies in applied ethnobotany. They are available from: Natural History Book Service Ltd 2-3 Wills Road, Totnes Devon TQ9 5XN, UK Tel: +44(0)1803 865913 Fax: +44(0)1803 865280 NHBS email sales NHBS website People, gorillas and forests: ethnobotanical methods and multiple-use management in Uganda A.B. Cunningham; 27 minutes. Saving the wooden rhino: ethnobotanical methods and Kenya’s woodcarving industry A.B. Cunningham; 25 minutes. Carvers, conservation and consumers A.B. Cunningham; 11 minutes. Medicinal plants in the hidden land of Dolpo: working with Himalayan healers at Shey Phoksundo National Park Duration: 26 minutes. Camera, script and direction: Yildiz Aumeeruddy-Thomas People and Plants in practice 25 minutes. Scripted and edited: Tony Cunningham Filmed: Tony Cunningham, Yildiz Aumeeruddy and Gary Martin Tree Skin: methods for studying people's use of bark 26 minutes. Camera, script and direction: Tony Cunningham Editing: Nic Zimmermann & Pippa Hetherington Carving a Future: 10 lessons for sustainable woodcarving enterprises 24 minutes. Camera, script and direction: Tony Cunningham Editing: Gary Burke, Production Function Music: Mpingi Drummers Narration: Michael Loney

A note on People and Plants videos
by AB Cunningham, producer

As a regional co-ordinator for Africa of the People and Plants Initiative, I started to produce low-budget videos to illustrate particular problems related to the conservation and local use of plants. The videos describe methods used to resolve these problems. Videos, as a "visual and verbal" means of communication, offer a stimulating introduction to ethnobotanical methods, especially for young researchers in developing countries. In addition, they raise the awareness of people who use plant resources. 

The first two videos People, Gorillas and Forests and Saving the Wooden Rhino are intended for young researchers, foresters or protected area managers in Africa. However, the issues faced and methods illustrated are relevant to other parts of the world.

The third video, Carvings, Consumers and Conservation is primarily directed at the tourists, importers and exporters who buy Kenyan woodcarvings. It is designed for use as an in-flight video on aircraft travelling to East Africa and in retail outlets selling East African carvings.

Two recent videos extend the coverage of People & Plants work. Medicinal plants in the hidden land of Dolpo gives details of important fieldwork in the beautiful landscape of the high Himalaya of the Dolpo region of Nepal, where medicinal plants are used for traditional local medicine. People and Plants in practice is a general introduction to the aims and scope of People & Plants, with examples of projects from around the world.

The sixth and seventh videos, Tree Skin, and Carving a Future, look at two different ways in which trees are used. The first is an introduction to methods of studying bark use, emphasizing practical field methods, blending forestry and ethnobotany to link sustainable harvest and people's livelihoods. The latest video looks at the woodcarving trade in different parts of the world and suggests 10 lessons, based on extensive research, which can be applied as "wise practice" to promote a sustainable woodcarving trade.

1. People, Gorillas and Forests: Ethnobotanical Methods and Multiple-use Management in Uganda.
A B Cunningham; editing by Nick Chevalier Productions.

Maud Kamatenesi studying the medicinal plant Rytigynia in Bwindi-Impenetrable National Park, Uganda assisted by Robert Hoeft. © AB Cunningham

Unlike the tropical forests of the Amazon or the Zaire river basin, which have very low human population densities (around 1 person/km2), Afromontane forests in the Great Lakes region of equatorial Africa are surrounded by dense populations of rural farmers (150 – 400 people/km2). As a result, forest reserves and conservation areas proclaimed over 50 years ago have become "islands" in a sea of rural farmland, all that remains of much larger forests which existed in the past. As these forests are located along the politically unstable border areas of Rwanda, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo, their conservation needs to take local peoples’ needs and views into account.

Bwindi-Impenetrable National Park in south-western Uganda, where this video was taken, illustrates the process and methods leading to multiple-use zoning. Certain plant uses and beekeeping by local people have been taken into account within the park, which is renowned as the home of half the world’s mountain gorillas and as an area of high biological diversity. This video will be of interest to people working in tropical forests where there is a high demand for forest products or conflict between local people and protected areas.
   

2. Saving the wooden rhino: ethnobotanical methods and Kenya’s woodcarving industry.
A B Cunningham; editing by Nick Chevalier Productions.

Sale of woodcarvings from slow growing indigenous species has had a devastating effect on these species in coastal forests of Kenya ©AB Cunningham

Commercial wood carving is widespread in many parts of the world. In many cases, this has led to localized depletion of favored wood species such as Polyscias fulva in Cameroon, Dalbergia melanoxylon (ebony) in Malawi, Santalum (sandalwood) in India or Intsia bijuga and Cordia subcordata in Vanuatu and other Pacific islands. This video illustrates the history of the woodcarving trade in Kenya and the current challenges which woodcarvers face if this highly successful economic enterprise is to be sustained. With 60,000 woodcarvers involved and an annual export value of about US$20 million per year, the massive trade in high quality woodcarvings has led to depletion of favored wood stocks.

The video illustrates methods used by Kenyan researchers in collaboration with woodcarvers to understand the problem and work towards solutions to the decreasing supply of favored hardwoods. A key theme running through the video is the remarkable story of this trade told by Mzee James Mukula in his own words (Kikamba) with sub-titles in English. Mr. Mukula points the way to a more sustainable future for the Kenyan woodcarving industry.

3. Carvings, Consumers and Conservation.
A B Cunningham; editing by Nick Chevalier Productions.

Woodcarvers at a nursery funded by the Mennonite "10 000 villages programme" who have placed a "green levy" on exported hardwood carvings © AB Cunningham

Solutions to conservation problems do not only rest in the hands of people living near or directly using resources. Where commercial trade is concerned, conservation and sustainable resource use are firmly in the hands of exporters, importers and tourists buying local products. These may be people living many thousands of kilometers away, unaware of the harm that their well-intentioned buying is doing to the environment.

This video gives an introduction to the Kenyan woodcarving industry, and the conservation and development issues surrounding it. It suggest three actions that tourists, exporters and importers can take to help both woodcarvers and conservation.

4. Medicinal plants in the hidden land of Dolpo: working with Himalayan healers at Shey Phoksundo National Park. Camera, script and direction: Yildiz Aumeeruddy-Thomas.

Tibetan health-care traditions and their links to landscape and culture are central to the medicinal plants conservation programme supported in Shey Phoksundo National Park in the alpine meadows of the Eastern Himalaya, Nepal. With the cultural perception that the peoples health is linked to that of the environment, medicinal plants conservation and health care are closely interrelated in the Dolpo region. In addition, local traditional healers, or amchis, are not only responsible for provision of health care but also for environmental management, such as the regulation of grazing in alpine pastures. The new challenge being faced is a large-scale commercial trade of medicinal plants from this area of Nepal to India and elsewhere, with at least 40 tonnes of medicinal plants exported from the Shey Phoksundo National Park area in 1996/97. An example given in this video is the reduction of local self-sufficiency in popular and effective herbal medicines such as Nardostachys grandiflora and Picrorhiza scrophulariifolia. The video portrays the work of P&P which since 1997 has been studying systems of management used for medicinal plants by local amchis and investigating how they can be strengthened. It has been shown on television in Nepal and has also been used by conservation and development agencies.

5. People and Plants in practice.
Scripted and edited by Tony Cunningham.
Filmed by Tony Cunningham, Yildiz Aumeeruddy and Gary Martin.

This video shows some of the practical outcomes of the global "People and Plants Initiative" for field conservation, starting with botanical inventory, as one of the most basic, yet most necessary steps for conservation and resource management. It then illustrates the types of approaches taken in combining training and research on solutions to field conservation problems. It covers P&P projects in Africa, Asia and the South Pacific where applied ethnobotanical work takes places in key sites representing 8 of the Global 200 priority ecoregions, five of which are critically endangered. Because the link between people and plants is so fundamental to the conservation of both biological and cultural diversity, it concentrates on the core of our capacity building : training in applied ethnobotany, providing people with cross-disciplinary skills highly relevant to conservation action. The video ends with an answer to the question : what happens when the "People and Plants Initiative" ends?

6. Tree Skin: methods for studying people's use of bark.
Camera, script and direction: Tony Cunningham.
Editing: Nic Zimmermann & Pippa Hetherington.

Bark is like a tree's skin, protecting plants against insect attack, fungi or fire, and is as essential to the life of the tree -- and to timber production -- as skin is to any mammal. This video introduces the study of bark, emphasizing practical field methods.

7. Carving a Future: 10 lessons for sustainable woodcarving enterprises (24 mins).
Camera, script and direction: Tony Cunningham.
Editing: Gary Burke, Production Function.

Woodcarving adds more value to wood than the timber industry, and often creates more jobs and income. Carving, culture and creativity are intertwined. Only by maintaining carving skills with their deep cultural roots - and favoured wood resources - will these carving traditions survive. Based on extensive research, this video suggests 10 lessons which can be applied as "wise practice" for a sustainable woodcarving trade.

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