As the year draws to a close, People and Plants has many initiatives and developments to report. Below are some of the highlights.

Feedback
We urgently require your feedback about our programme. Please and look at the simple questionnaire, which may also be reached via the 'Feedback' button on the website. Then either copy the form and send it in by post, or answer as many questions as you can by email to Martin Walters. This will help us gauge the practical value of our products and adapt our outputs, as well as judge the effectiveness of our methods of distribution. We are all most grateful for your help.

New Publications
Tapping the Green Market
management and certification of non-timber forest products
Edited by:
Patricia Shanley, Alan Pierce, Sarah Laird and Abraham Guillén
This book has just been published in the People and Plants series, and is available from our publishers Earthscan.
People and Plants Handbook: Issue 8
The latest Handbook issue is now available on this website in pdf format, and will soon be uploaded in an html version as well.
The Handbook now functions as the main printed newsletter of People and Plants, and is a source of information on applying ethnobotany to conservation and community development, as well as highlighting the range of materials produced.
The Purposes and Teaching of Applied Ethnobotany
By: Alan Hamilton, Pei Shengji, John Kessy, Ashiq Ahmad Khan, Sonia Lagos-Witte and Zabta Khan Shinwari
This working paper will soon be published, and a version is already available online. One of the main aims of People and Plants is to inspire future generations of ethnobotanists and to produce guidelines as to how the subject should be taught. This paper promises to be a major contribution to curriculum development in this field, and is destined to become a key reference.

Darwin Initiative: 2nd Phase Launched
Our Kenyan project promoting the use of Good Woods instead of threatened hardwoods, reported on in previous newletters, has received further funding from the Darwin Initiative, a grant scheme for projects in countries rich in biodiversity but poor in resources.
At the recent launch of the 2nd phase of the Darwin Initiative the 'Good Wood' project was particularly highlighted as a very good example of a scheme that tries to find a win-win solution to the benefit both of people and the environment. In this instance the project tries to conserve threatened Kenyan forest through certification of farm-produced wood that gives the carvers a sustainable future, and poor farmers additional income from selling trees.
For more information visit: Darwin Initiative and its Kenya Project page.

Ethnobotany in China
First National Symposium on Ethnobotany and Enterprise Development of China
This important meeting was organized jointly by: Nanjing Academy for Comprehensive Utilization of Wild Plants; Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences; and the Chinese Journal of Biomedical Scientific Application. It took place in Hangzhou from 14th to 17th October 2002, and involved participants from all over China, and also representatives from People and Plants.
Chinese Homepage
Our website now has a replica homepage in Chinese, in order to make it more accessible for the growing number of people concerned, directly or indirectly, with ethnobotany in China.

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The newsletter, reflecting a selection of the many activities of People and Plants, is compiled by:
Martin Walters
People & Plants Editor and Web-manager