Conservation Assessment of Plants Used for Respiratory Diseases by Using Ethnobotanical Criteria: Case of Lake Victoria Region, Tanzania

Lake Victoria region has the highest HIV prevalence in East Africa due to concentration of commercial
farms, fishing and mining that escalate social dynamic interactions. High rates of HIV transmission
and poor working conditions further amplify the risk of TB in the region. Local populations in the area
have opted different alternatives among which medicinal plants are popular for managing health
conditions related to the respiratory diseases. Consequently, selective consumerism of plants for
managing respiratory diseases profoundly affects diversity of priority medicinal plants. Detection of the
effect of selective consumerism to the preferred plants in-situ is not instantaneous unless much
focused approach is employed. In this study, an ethnobotanical assessment criterion was used to
assess and identify conservation status for most useful plants. To achieve this, open ended
questionnaires and focus group discussions were used for collecting ethnobotanical information from
37 traditional health practitioners on the use of herbal remedies against various respiratory diseases.
Guideline by the international union for conservation of nature (IUCN) medicinal plant specialist group
was used to assess qualitative distribution of indicator species through ethnographic methods. A
protocol for conservation assessment management plan was used to prioritize limited number of
species for ex-situ conservation. Ethnobotanical parameters, value–index and legislation-index were
used for scoring in two-dimensional manner. Scoring analysis highly prioritized non-timber plants
including Rubia cordifolia, Crassocephalum manii and Pavetta crassipes for conservation over timber
species. From the findings, an ethnobotanical assessment criterion is recommended for total
conservation of all plant categories in the wild including the often neglected non timber plant species.