1. 1. INTRODUCTION
According to Judd et al. (2002), herbarium (pl. herbaria) is a place where plant collections are
stored, typically as pressed and dried plants mounted to sheets of paper, identified, and provided
with locality and habitat data, so that they can be further studied. These locality and habitat data
provide us with good sources of information about the individual plant as well as any plant
community types to identify key species for conservation prioritization. The plants are also
arranged in such a way that either alphabetically or systematically according to an acceptable
system of classification thereby serving as a reference room in a library. Moreover, herbaria are
good sources of information for researchers, say chemists or pharmacists, who are going to work
on any pyhtochemical analysis about the general knowhow of the particular species of interest.
1.1. ETHNO-ECOLOGY
The field of ethno-ecology focuses on the ways people conceptualize elements of the natural environment
and human activity within it and investigates how these concepts vary culturally as well as reveal
universal aspects of human cognition (http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/1074051/ethno-
ecology). Ethno-ecological investigations are among the key elements employed, in this respect, for
ecosystem restoration and resilience where herbaria can contribute a lot to applied aspects of ethnobotany
in conservation and management of resources in our surrounding.
1.2. ETHNOBOTANY
According to Cotton (1996), ethnobotany is simply considered to encompass all studies which
concern the mutual relationships between plants and traditional peoples. Moreover, it was
elaborated (http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/194285/ethnobotany), thatethnobotany
is systematic study of the botanical knowledge of a social group and its use of locally available
plants in foods, medicines, clothing, or religious rituals. Rudimentary drugs derived from plants
used in folk medicines have been found to be beneficial in the treatment of many illnesses, both
physical and mental. The ethnobotany of prehistoric cultures is discovered through examination
of ancient writings, pictures, pottery, and plant remains in jars or maiden heaps (garbage dumps)
excavated at archaeological sites. From this information, the agricultural practices and cultural
development of a people can be determined. Ethnobotanists often live for periods of time in the
society they are studying, to observe all phases of their lives, including mythology, religious
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2. practices, and language, in order to determine the specific plants used and the methods involved
in their preparation. Travelers’ journals, the field notes of early botanists, and other writings
serve as sources of information about agricultural methods and folk remedies of the past.
Hence, Martin (1995) summarized that where as ethnoecology studies the interactions of local
peoples with the natural environment, ethnobotany is the part that studies the interactions of local
people with plants. Therefore etnobotany tries to get a holistic understanding of local knowledge
on plants.
Richard Evans Schultes (An American Botanist): (born Jan. 12, 1915, Boston, Mass.—died April
10, 2001, Boston), American scientist who, pioneered the field of ethnobotany, the study of
indigenous peoples and their uses of hallucinogenic and medicinal plants. Schultes spent
extensive time among native tribes in South America and collected more than 24,000 plant
specimens from the Amazon region. Although his books on hallucinogenic plants were widely
read by drug experimenters during the 1960s, he dismissed the notion of “mind expansion”
espoused by counterculture figures such as Timothy Leary and maintained that such plants
should be studied for their medicinal value. Schultes had a long association with Harvard
University, where he earned a Ph.D. in biology in 1941 and worked as a curator, lecturer, and
professor from 1954 to 1985. Among Schulte’s numerous awards were the Tyler Prize for
Environmental Achievement in 1987 and the Linnaean Society Gold Medal in 1992.
(http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/761765/Richard-Evans-Schultes).
Modern Ethnobotany: Beginning in the 20th century, the field of ethnobotany experienced a
shift from the raw compilation of data to a greater methodological and conceptual reorientation.
This is also the beginning of academic ethnobotany. The so-called "father" of this discipline is
Richard Evans Schultes even though he did not actually coin the term "Ethnobotany". Today the
field of ethnobotany requires a variety of skills: botanical training for the identification and
preservation of plant specimens; anthropological training to understand the cultural concepts
around the perception of plants; linguistic training, at least enough to transcribe local terms and
understand native morphology, syntax, and semantics ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethnobotany).
Hence, the objectives of herbaria even could not be achieved without proper applications of the modern
concepts of ethnobotany.
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3. The main objective of this review paper is to give an in-depth critics (both strong and weak side criticism)
on the paper entitled; “Linking Ethnobotany, Herbaria and Flora to Conservation: The Case of Four
Angiosperm Families at the National Herbarium of Ethiopia” .It is believed that such engagement in
reading and criticism practice can scale up the knowledge and practice of beginners who engage in their
first hand research endeavor.
Conservation is about maintaining the biosphere, taking action to avoid species decline and extinctions
and permanent change to the environment which requires public and governmental support (Taylor, et al.,
2003). Biological conservation aims at maintaining the diversity of living organisms, their habitats and
the interrelationships between organisms and their environment (Spellerberg et al., 1995). Ethnobotanists
play a catalytic role in suggesting which wild or semi-cultivated species can be incorporated into
agroforestry or agro-ecosystems as well as through proposing alternatives to environmentally destructive
practices (Martin, 1995).
2. OVERVIEW ON HERBARIA OF THE WORLD AND INDEX HERBARIORUM
According to Biorepositories.org (2008), scientists have documented the earth’s plant and fungal diversity
through dried reference specimens maintained in collections known as herbaria for the past three
centuries. Index Herbarium: A Global Directory of Public Herbaria and Associated Staff under the above
website reported that there are approximately 3, 400 herbaria in the world today, with approximately
10, 000 associated curators and biodiversity specialists. Hence, collectively, the world herbaria contain
an estimated 350, 000,000 specimens that documented the earth’s vegetation for the past 400 years
(http://sciweb.nybg.org/science2/IndexHerbariorum.asp). Therefore, Index Herbariorum is a guide to
the crucial source for biodiversity science and conservation.
It was said that the Index Herbarium (IH) entry for herbarium includes its physical location, web address,
contents representing number and types of specimens, history and names, contact information and areas
of expertise of associated staff. The New York Bbotanical Ggarden, Iinternational Plant Sscience
Centerer (http://sciweb.nybg.org/science2/IndexHerbariorum.asp) also noted that only those
collections that are permanent scientific repositories are included in IH. Hence new registrants
must demonstrate that their collection is large usually 5,000 specimens minimum, accessible to
scientists , and actively managed where each institution is assigned a permanent unique identifier
in the form of a four to eight letter code, as practiced and dates from the founding of IH in 1935
(http://www.biorepositories.org).
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4. 3. MAJOR HERBARIA OF THE WORLD
According to http://www.mnhn.fr/museum/foffice/transverse/transverse/accueil.xsp?cl=en, the
continent Europe is the leading in harboring the largest (9,500,000) specimen collections of
herbarium specimens in France followed by USA, Asia, Australasia and Oceania, Africa and
South America respectively (Table 1 below). In case of African continent, South Africa is the
leading followed by Kenya at the continental level although compared to the other continents
except South America, it is with lesser collections of specimens. The East African Herbarium of
Kenya is the second largest in African continent but the first largest in the Horn of Africa with its
1,000,000 specimen collections (http://www.museums.or.ke/content/view/116/83/).
A B C
Fig. 1 Herbarium preparations (Herbarium specimens of various Nepenthes at the Museum
National d'Histoire Naturelle in Paris, France (A), Preparing a plant for mounting (B), A large
herbarium may have hundreds of cases filled with specimens (C))
(Source: http://www.encyclopedia.com)
(I) (II)
Fig 2 (I) The Swedish Museum of Natural History (Herbarium building) (II) Herbaria soap and
tools for field tour (Source: http://linnaeus.nrm.se/botany/fbo/beskrivn.html.en)
Table: 1. Herbaria Profile by Continent (See Appendix 9 for more details)
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5. Continent Name Number Location Source
of herbaria of
specimens
Europe Musum France;
National Paris http://www.mnhn.fr/museum/foffice/tr
9,500,000
d'Histoire ansverse/transverse/accueil.xsp?cl=en
Naturelle
USA New York USA; The http://sciweb.nybg.org/science2/Steere
Bronx, Herbarium.asp
Botanical 7,200,000
New York
Garden
City, New
York
Asia Chinese People's http://pe.ibcas.ac.cn/
National Republic of
2,470,000
Herbarium, China;
Xiangshan,
Beijing
Australasia Australian Australia; http://www.anbg.gov.au/cpbr/herbariu
National Canberra, m/index.html
And Oceania 1,328,000
Herbarium A. C. T.
Africa South African South http://www.sanbi.org/frames/nationalh
National Africa; erbfram.htm
1,200,000
Botanical Pretoria,
Institute Gauteng
Province
South America Fundacin Argentina; http://lillo.org.ar/content/blogcatego
Miguel Lillo 700, 000 Tucum n ry/10/36/
3.1. HERBARIA IN EAST AFRICA AND ETHIOPIA
According to http://www.kew.org/science-research-data/directory/projects/E-African-Virtual-
Herbarium.htm, East Africa is one of the worlds Biodiversity Hotspots with nearly 7,600 plant
species, of which a third are found nowhere else on the planet. It is also one of the most densely
populated places on Earth. The rapid expansion of agriculture and urbanization to service this
rising population places the habitats of East Africa’s plants under threat.
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6. Table 2: The Eastern African Virtual Herbarium project (Source: http://www.Bioscience.org)
Country Name of Herbaria Location Approx.
Size of Specimens
Kenya National Museums of Kenya, Nairobi, Kenya
East African Herbarium
1,000,000
Tanzania National Herbarium of University of
Tanzania
Dar es Salaam 125,000
Uganda University of Makerere ? ?
Herbarium
Ethiopia Ethiopian Addis Ababa 80,000
University
National Herbarium
Ababa
3.2. HERBARIA IN ETHIOPIA:THE ETHIOPIAN NATIONAL HERBARIUM
Ethiopia is a land of great ecosystem diversity. The great ecosystem diversity is attributed to the
numerous floristic diversity of the country. However, compared to the available Flora and land
mass of the country, the available herbaria is not sufficient to host all plant species both from
both the vicinity and remote areas. Experiences from other countries around the world are good
indicators of the need to design herbaria expansion projects at least in each higher learning
institutions of the country.
The National Herbarium of Ethiopia (ETH) was founded in 1959 (Friis, 2001 quoted in Ermias
Lulekal et al., 2011). The Ethiopian Flora Project was launched in 1980 and it is currently the
source of information for many researchers, academic as well as nonacademic institutions both in
Ethiopia and abroad (Edberg and Edwards, 1989). The Ethiopian National Herbarium which is
the result of the Ethiopian Flora Project and it is currently harbored approximately 80,000
specimens representing 450,000 species and the Ethiopian Flora contains approximately 6,000
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7. The Kew website also noted that Preserved plant specimens are a vital resource for
conservationists, forming the foundation of plant research and conservation projects. Specimens
are used to identify, name and classify plants, and to document a population’s spread or decline.
This historical record of plant distribution and vegetation change is fundamental to our
understanding of the implications of climate change and human impact. It informs conservation
priorities, drives land management policies and encourages sustainable use practices
(http://www.kew.org/science-research-data/directory/projects/E-African-Virtual-Herbarium).
Hence, the Virtual Herbarium is a web-based collection of digital images of preserved plant
specimens and associated information, which makes data on taxonomy, geographic distribution
and plant biodiversity available to conservationists throughout East Africa. Collaborative
Fieldwork and Vegetation Studies in Ethiopia indicated that Kew is working in collaboration with
herbaria at Addis Ababa University (ETH) and the University of Copenhagen (C), to carry out
and document detailed studies on the woody plants of Ethiopia. Plant specimens are housed in
herbaria and it was stated that a good Flora as the foundation from which other work can come,
whether in the form of local floras and guides for specific areas and/or groups of plants, or
providing the basic information for research into new and economically or intellectually fruitful
fields (Edwards, et al., 2000). The five major herbaria in Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania
contain over 3 million plant specimens. Access to this data is severely limited - less than 5% is
available digitally. A virtual herbarium, a web-based collection of digital images of plant
specimens and supporting information, will enable conservationists throughout East Africa to
make use of this data in order to protect the region’s biodiversity from further degradation
(http://www.kew.org/science-research-data/directory/projects/E-African-Virtual-Herbarium).
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8. Continent Name Number Location Source
of herbaria of
specimens
Europe Musum France;
National Paris http://www.mnhn.fr/museum/foffice/tr
9,500,000
d'Histoire ansverse/transverse/accueil.xsp?cl=en
Naturelle
USA New York USA; The http://sciweb.nybg.org/science2/Steere
Bronx, Herbarium.asp
Botanical 7,200,000
New York
Garden
City, New
York
Asia Chinese People's http://pe.ibcas.ac.cn/
National Republic of
2,470,000
Herbarium, China;
Xiangshan,
Beijing
Australasia Australian Australia; http://www.anbg.gov.au/cpbr/herbariu
National Canberra, m/index.html
And Oceania 1,328,000
Herbarium A. C. T.
Africa South African South http://www.sanbi.org/frames/nationalh
National Africa; erbfram.htm
1,200,000
Botanical Pretoria,
Institute Gauteng
Province
South America Fundacin Argentina; http://lillo.org.ar/content/blogcatego
Miguel Lillo 700, 000 Tucum n ry/10/36/
3.1. HERBARIA IN EAST AFRICA AND ETHIOPIA
According to http://www.kew.org/science-research-data/directory/projects/E-African-Virtual-
Herbarium.htm, East Africa is one of the worlds Biodiversity Hotspots with nearly 7,600 plant
species, of which a third are found nowhere else on the planet. It is also one of the most densely
populated places on Earth. The rapid expansion of agriculture and urbanization to service this
rising population places the habitats of East Africa’s plants under threat.
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