Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
Their decline will adversely affect the current usage for
health care and treatment of disease conditions. The extinction
of such plant species will be an irreparable loss of the wild gene
pool that has evolved over several millennia. Once lost, these
species will not be reproducible through any synthetic means.
It will be a huge loss for our future generations.
9.5
Are these losses because of climate change or
because of over-extraction?
The decline and loss of wild populations of valuable wild Indian
medicinal plants is due to the combined impact of habitat loss
and degradation as well as over-exploitation. Climate change is
also cited as a reason but there are no serious studies that have
exposed this relationship. A few recent studies, outside India,
have speculated about the fragmentation and decline of wild
populations of some plant species in the mountains ecosystems
due to climate change.
Medicinal plants constitute around 40% of the known diver-
sity of vascular plant species of India. Conservation of Indian
flora merits high priority. A national agenda for conservation of
medicinal plants should be made.
9.6
Climate change
Although the terms 'global warming' and 'climate change' are
often used interchangeably, 'climate change' is often the pre-
ferred term of many environmental organisations and govern-
ment agencies. Climate change refers to any significant change
in measures of climate (such as temperature, precipitation or
wind) over an extended period of time (decades or longer).
Global warming refers to an increase in the temperature of the
atmosphere that can contribute to change in global climate pat-
terns. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change consid-
ers 'climate change' to mean any change in climate over time,
whether due to natural variability or as a result of human activ-
ity. The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate
Change defines 'climate change' as a change in climate that is
attributable directly or indirectly to human activity that alters
atmospheric composition.
The success of mankind's ability to meet the challenges of
climate change will depend on how well it conserves the world's
plants. Governments must act now, if plants are to continue to
