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RESEARCH PROPOSAL

DIVERSITY, ETHNOBOTANICAL STUDY AND CONSERVATION

ISSUES OF TREE SPECIES IN ABBOTTABAD, PAKISTAN

SUBMITTED BY SEHRISH SAJAWAL

M. Phil. SCHOLAR

RESEARCH SUPERVISOR DR. ASAD ULLAH

GRADUATE STUDIES COMMITTEE

Dr. Asad Ullah

(Convener)

Prof. Dr. Siraj-Ud-Din Prof. Dr. Akram Shah

(Member) (Member)

Dr. Zahir Muhammad Prof. Dr. Sardar Khan

(Member) (Member)

CENTRE OF PLANT BIODIVERSITY

UNIVERSITY OF PESHAWAR
SESSION 2015-2016
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Diversity, Ethnobotanical Study and Conservation Issues of Tree Species

in Abbottabad, Pakistan
Introduction

The beautiful city of Abbottabad is given its name after James Abbott,

Hazara’s first Deputy Commissioner (1849-1853). The research area can be located

from 330 50/ to 340 23/ N latitudes and 720 35/ to 730 31/ E longitudes covering an area

of 1967 km2. The Abbotabad is bounded on the east by district Muzaffarabad (AJK)

and district Rawalpindi, on the west by Haripur, on south by Rawalpindi and Haripur

and North by Mansehra districts. Geologically the land of the research area is part of

Eurasian land plate and Iranian plateau presenting metamorphic rocks. The soil is

dark yellowish brown to dark greyish brown, somewhat gravely, thin layered, silty

loams and reasonably deep (GoP, 1998). The area is famous for dry and moist

temperate forest (Champion, 1965). The mean maximum temperature is recorded

32.41 0C in June and minimum i.e. 1.7 0C in January. The annual rainfall recorded is

47 inches with infrequent snow fall. Due to its topographic and altitudinal variation

the area is floristically rich presenting thick vegetation and plant diversity attracting

national and international tourists (Hussain et al., 2010).

Biodiversity is the variation among living organisms and the ecosystem

providing free of cost services (GoP, 2000). Since inception the livelihood of human

being is totally dependent upon plant biodiversity. Plants are used for varioupurposes

by the human around the world i.e. food, shelter and local medicines and 70% of

world population relies on plants for medicine (Shinwari et al., 2003). Local uses of

plants are studied under the field of ethnobotany and it is a multi-disciplinary science

encompassing botany, anthropology, economics, and linguistics, which studies the

ways in which a
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society relates to its environment. These relationships can be social, economic,

symbolic, religious, commercial, and artistic (Thomas and Shengji, 2003). In our

country the local communities use plants and plants products for fulfilling their daily

needs in the far flung areas. They also depend upon plants for traditional health care

by using various remedies and recipes (Ali and Qaiser, 2009; Ullah et al., 2009, Ullah

and Rashid, 2011; Ullah and Hussain, 2012).

Indigenous trees play an important role in landscaping and beautification of

cities along with conserving local flora. Tress has a key role in providing better urban

environment and trees are widely used around the world for shade and ornamental

purposes (Jim, 1999; Kuruneri and Shackleton, 2011; Li et al., 2011; Deb et al.,

2013). To highlight the importance of tree research work has been carried out by

various researchers on trees, their role in environmental improvement and associated

conservation issues.

These studies revealed that the native tree flora is facing invasion problems

due to introduction of some ornamental and exotic trees, which are also causing

environmental and health issues (Raza and Ullah, 2014; Jamshed et al., 2014).

Urbanization has affected the natural ecosystems and the natural areas are converted

into man made habitats, which has ultimately changed the composition of the local

flora (Honu et al., 2009). Many exotic species have been introduced in Pakistan which

are causing severe damage to the local ecosystem (Khatoon and Ali, 1999).

The city of Abbotabad is very old and it has a great diversity of native trees.

Due to severe anthropogenic activities, industrialization, urbanization, township

schemes, construction of highways and infrastructure the indigenous tree flora is

disappearing. Further, due to the establishment of Sino Pakistan Economic Corridor

(CPEC) many indigenous tree species are under severe threat due to loss of its natural
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habitat. Sensing the importance of trees and its role in supporting healthy environment

and reducing the environmental pollution the present study is planned to document the

diversity of tree species, their local uses, conservation status and related issues. It has

been noticed that no such attempt has been previously made for documentation of tree

flora in the research area. It is presumed that the present research will help to fill the

academic gap and will also provide information regarding the diversity, conservation

issues, status and its utilization by the local communities.

Aim and Objectives

1. To prepare a checklist of the tree flora of the area and to study their
conservation issues and ethnobotanical uses.

2. To make possible recommendations for sustainable utilization and role of

tree species in environmental improvement.

Plan of Work

S# Activity 2016-2017 2017-2018

1stSem. 2nd Sem. 3rd Sem. 4th Sem.
1. Study of literature 50% 50% - -
Trees diversity data collection
2. - 50% 50% -
in the field/visits/collection
3. Conservation status and - 50% 50% -
ethnobotanical data collection
4. Data processing - 25% 50% 50%
Thesis write up sorting
5. - - 50% 50%
compilation and submission

Methodology

a. Plant collection, identification and preparation of checklist

Field visits will be arranged throughout the research area in blooming period

and plant specimens will be collected along with their floral and vegetative parts and

will be pressed and preserved. Locality, sublocality and other related data will be
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noted in field note book on the spot. The plants will be grouped into families, genera

and species alphabetically. Plants specimens will be identified with the help of fiscals

of Flora of Pakistan and other related literature e.g. (Ali and Nasir, 1989-1991; Nasir

and Ali, 1970-1989; Stewart, 1972; Polunin and Stainton, 1990; Ali and Qaiser, 1993-

2017; Nasir and Rafiq, 1995) by using stereoscopic microscope. The identified

specimens will be mounted on herbarium sheets and will be deposited in the

herbarium of University of Peshawar Botanical Garden (UPBG).

b. Conservation studies

Conservation status of the tree species will be determined by using the

standard categories of IUCN (2010) Version 8.1 and the plants will be divided into

various groups.

c. Ethnobotanical studies

Questionaire method will be adopted after Ali and Qaiser (2009) and Ullah

(2014) for ethnobotanical and conservation data (Annex-1). One questionaire per

interviewer will be used and the informants will be divided in to various age groups

ranging from 20 to 60 years and above. The following procedure will be adopted for

data retrieval.

i. Selection of informants

To obtain maximum and authentic information, the informants will be

selected from diverse groups of the community.

ii. Data sampling

The standard procedure of Stijfhoorn (1997) and Thomas and Shengji

(2003) will be adopted for data sampling. For this purpose ex-situ sampling

(Artifact method) will be used and data regarding uses of the plants will be
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collected from the local inhabitants. While in-situ sampling (Inventory method)

will be used and the informants will be accompanied to the field for authentication

of the data obtained during ex-situ sampling.

d. Statistical analysis

Families, genera and species indices and percentage (%) will be

determined through MS Excel sheet by using computer program.

Expected Outcome

1. The present research will provide basic information regarding the tree flora

growing in the research area. This will also provide information regarding

important indigenous trees, its conservation status and related conservation issues.

2. This research will also help in documentation of utilization and indigenous

knowledge of tree species.

3. It will provide baseline information for future research endeavors in the field of

plant conservation, ethnobotany and planning of environmental improvement and

assessment of exotic species.

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References

Ali, S. I.; Nasir, Y. J. Flora of Pakistan; Department of Botany, Karachi of

University: Karachi, 1989-1991; 191-193.

Ali, H.; Qaiser, M. The ethnobotany of Chitral Valley, Pakistan with particular
reference to Medicinal plants. Pak. J. Bot., 2009, 41 (4), 2009-2041.

Ali, S. I.; Qaiser, M. Flora of Pakistan; Department of Botany, Karachi of University:

Karachi, 1993-2017; 194-222.

Champion, S. H. G.; Seth, S. K.; Khattak, G. M. Forest Types of Pakistan; Pakistan

Forest Institute: Peshawar, 1965.

Deb, J. C.; Halim, M. A.; Rahman, H. T.; Al-Ahmed, R.; Al-Ahmed, R. Density,
diversity, composition and distribution of street trees in Sylhet Metropolitan city of
Bangladesh. Arb. J., 2013, 1-14.

GoP. Biodiversity Action Plan for Pakistan; Imprint (Pvt.) Ltd.: Rawalpindi, 2000; pp
1-62.

GoP. District Census Report of Abbotabad; Population Censes Organization Static

Division Government of Pakistan: Islamabad, 1998; No. 32, pp 1-28.

Honu, Y. A. K.; Chandy, S.; Gibson, D. J. Occurrence of non-native species deep in

natural areas of the Shawnee Natural Forest, Southern Illinois, USA. Nat. Are. J.,
2009, 29 (2), 177-187.

Hussain, S. S.; Ahmad, M.; Siddiqui, M. F.; Wahab, M. Threatened and endangered
native plants of Karachi. Int. J. Biol. Biotech., 2010, 7 (3), 259-266.

IUCN. Species Survival Commission [Online] 2010, Version 8.1. Available from
http://intranet.iucn.org/webfiles/doc/SSC/RedList/RedListGuidelines.pdf (accessed
09/01/2018).

Jamshed, S.; Ullah, A.; Rashid, A. Tree species and their associated Conservation
issues at Hayatabad Township, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Peshawar, Pakistan. Int. J. Biol.
Biotech., 2014, 11 (2-3), 309-317.

Jim, C. Y. A planning strategy argument the diversity and road side trees in Urban
Hong Kong. Land. and Ur. Plan., 1999, 44 (1), 13-32.

Khatoon, S.; Ali, S. I. Alien Invasive Species in Pakistan; University of Karachi, Pers.
Comm., Pakistan: Karachi, 1999.
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Kuruneri, C. C.; Shackleton, C. M. The distribution, abundance and composition of

street trees in selected towns of the Eastern Cape, South Africa. Ur. For. & Ur. Gre.,
2011, 10 (3), 247-254.

Li, Y. Y.; Wang, X. R.; Huang, C. L. Key street tree species selection in urban areas.
Af. J. of Agri. Res., 2011, 6 (15), 3539-3550.

Nasir, E.; Ali, S. I. Flora of Pakistan; Pakistan Agriculture Research Council: 1970-
1989; 1-190.

Nasir, Y. J.; Rafiq, R. A. Wild flowers of Pakistan; Oxford University Press: London,
1995; pp 1-250.

Polunin, O.; Stainton, A. Flowers of the Himalaya; Oxford University Press: Bombay,
Calcutta & Madras, 1990; pp 1-500.

Raza, H.; Ullah, A. Diversity and Economic Importance of Tree Species in the Peshawar
Cantonment, Khyber Pukhtunkhwa, Pakistan. J. Sc. & Tech. Univ. Peshawar, 2014, 38
(1), 1-14.

Shinwari Z. K.; Khan, A. A.; Nakaike, T. Medicinal and other Useful Plants of
District Swat; Al-Aziz Communication: Peshawar, 2003; pp 1-146.

Stewart, R. R. An annotated catalogue of the vascular plants of West Pakistan and

Kashmir; Fakhri Printing Press: Karachi, 1972; pp 1-1000.

Stijhoorn, E. New timber forest products and Ethnobotany, concepts for management
and research; Department of Environment and Plant Biology, Ohio University: Ohio,
1997; pp 30-40.

Thomas, Y. A.; Shengji, P. Applied Ethnobotany, case study from the Himalayan
region (People and Plants working paper); WWF, Godalming: UK, 2003; No. 12, pp
3-5.

Ullah, A. Biodiversity and ethnobotanical study of vascular plants in Mankial valley,

Hindukush Range, Pakistan. Ph. D. Thesis, Department of Botany, University of
Peshawar, 2014.

Ullah, A.; Rashid, A.; Din, S. Ethnobotanical Studies of Vascular Biodiversity in

Jandool Valley, District Dir (L). Int. J. Biol. Biotech., 2009, 6 (3), 117-127.

Ullah, A.; Rashid, A. Medicinal Remedies Practiced by Torwal and Gujars

Communities of Mankial Valley, Hindukush Range, Pakistan. Int. J. Biol. Biotech.
2011, 8 (3), 423-426.

Ullah, A.; Hussain, F. Diversity and Utilization of Gymnosperms in Swat Kohistan

Hindukush Range, Pakistan. Int. J. Biol. Biotech., 2012, 8 (3), 63-67.
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Annexure-1
QUESTIONNAIRE

Questionnaire No.______________________ Date___________________________

Name______________________________ Male/Female ______________________
Occupation_________________________ Age ______________________________
Village _______________________ Elevation (m) ___________________________
Locality_______________________ Sub-Locality____________________________

The following questions will be asked.

1. For what purpose the trees grown?
_______________________________________________________________
2. Do the trees belongs to this area or brought from other areas?
_______________________________________________________________
3. Mention any economic, social or historical importance?
_______________________________________________________________
4. For which purpose the tress are grown?
_______________________________________________________________
5. Are these trees having any uses? (Yes or No). List some important uses.

_______________________________________________________________

S. No. Name of species Part used Uses Status Other utilization

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

6. Additional comments: ______________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________