important plant areas in central and eastern europe - Plantlife

Habitats and land uses
Sustainable plant use
The main uses of wild plants and fungi in Europe are herbal medicines, decorative plants,
berries and mushrooms for food, forestry products, timber, and peat for horticulture.
The scale of collection of these wild plant products ranges from small amounts for
household use and local markets to large scale collection for international corporations.
Medicinal plant collection for household and market economies is most widespread in
south eastern Europe. In many cases the use of wild plants is of positive benefit to local
economies and biodiversity but there are risks of over-exploitation and sustainable
collection practices need to be established.The extraction of peat for horticulture is still
a widespread practice. However as legislation in EU countries tightens there is a danger
that peat exploitation will move beyond the boundaries of the EU.
IPAs and wild plant use
Wild plant gathering is recorded as a land use on 103 IPAs (13%)
Unsustainable plant gathering is recorded as a threat at 81 IPAs (10%), although this is
mainly assessed as a low level threat.
Peat extraction is recorded as a threat at 31 IPAs (4%)
Protection of wild plants from unsustainable collection
Many of these plants, especially decorative flowers, berries, mushrooms and some
medicinal plants, are perceived to be common, however this makes them more
vulnerable to over-exploitation.There are several legal provisions for the protection of
wild plants. CITES, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species
prohibits the collection and sale of many plant species.Annex V of the EU Habitats
Directive obliges EU member governments to safeguard resources of many plant
species. Many national governments also have wildlife protection legislation, e.g. in
Bulgaria, where particular species are legally protected and specific sites have annual
collection quotas.
References
Annex V of the EU Habitats Directives,
1992, Animal and Plant Species of
Community Interest whose taking in the wild
and exploitation may be subject to
management measures.
(www.europa.eu.int)
Convention on International Trade in
Endangered Species (CITES) website
(www.cites.org)
Kathe W., Honnef S., & Heym A., 2003
Medicinal and Aromatic Plants in
Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia
and Romania. WWF
Deutschland and TRAFFIC Europe-
Germany (www.bfn.de)
TRAFFIC website (www.traffic.org)
Vines, G., 2003 Herbal Harvests with a
Future:Towards sustainable sources for
medicinal plants. Plantlife International
Organisations such as TRAFFIC trace the route of medicinal plants from collectors to
the herbal medicine market and work to establish sustainable collection strategies.
Information on peat free growing media is available from several sources including
organisations such as the Royal Horticultural Society.
NEJC JOGAN
Local women collecting wild plants in
Slovenia.
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