Census of NTFPs species for food security

Checklist
Latest version published by Bindura University Of Science Education on Jun 7, 2018 Bindura University Of Science Education
Publication date:
7 June 2018
License:
CC-BY-NC 4.0

Download the latest version of this resource data as a Darwin Core Archive (DwC-A) or the resource metadata as EML or RTF:

Data as a DwC-A file download 89 records in English (9 KB) - Update frequency: as needed
Metadata as an EML file download in English (24 KB)
Metadata as an RTF file download in English (19 KB)

Description

The data in this resource has been published as a Darwin Core Archive (DwC-A), which is a standardized format for sharing biodiversity data as a set of one or more data tables. The core data table contains checklist records. The date on medicinal plants is published by Bindura University of Science Education (BUSE), Department of Natural Resources, which is the national node for GBIF (Global Biodiversity Information Facility) in Zimbabwe. The national Herbarium and Botanic garden is in charge of the maintenance and the updating plant biodiversity data, together with BUSE.

The data that is documented in this resource are wild plants that are important for provision of food to rural communities in and around biodiversity hotspot areas in Zimbabwe. The biodiversity hotspots included in this resource are scattered around the country especially in areas that are protected, including national parks and a gazetted forest. Specific study areas were Chimanimani, Chipinge and Nyanga in the Eastern Highlands, Mutorashanga in the Great Dyke and Hwange in the west. The resource is a checklist of food plants, including trees, shrubs, herbs and grasses.

Data Records

The data in this checklist resource has been published as a Darwin Core Archive (DwC-A), which is a standardized format for sharing biodiversity data as a set of one or more data tables. The core data table contains 89 records.

This IPT archives the data and thus serves as the data repository. The data and resource metadata are available for download in the downloads section. The versions table lists other versions of the resource that have been made publicly available and allows tracking changes made to the resource over time.

Versions

The table below shows only published versions of the resource that are publicly accessible.

How to cite

Researchers should cite this work as follows:

Mujuru L, Jimu L, Muvengwi J, Mapaura A, Mureva A (2018): Census of NTFPs species for food security. v1.5. Bindura University Of Science Education. Dataset/Checklist. https://cloud.gbif.org/bid/resource?r=wild_food_plant_species&v=1.5

Rights

Researchers should respect the following rights statement:

The publisher and rights holder of this work is Bindura University Of Science Education. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC-BY-NC 4.0) License.

GBIF Registration

This resource has been registered with GBIF, and assigned the following GBIF UUID: 4df785bf-4428-4364-a7ab-b417543d089a.  Bindura University Of Science Education publishes this resource, and is itself registered in GBIF as a data publisher endorsed by Participant Node Managers Committee.

Keywords

Checklist; Plant Biodiversity; Policy; Wild food plants

Contacts

Lizzie Mujuru
  • Metadata Provider
  • Originator
  • Point Of Contact
  • Principal Investigator
Senior Lecturer
Bindura University of Science Education
P. Bag 1020
263 Bindura
Mashonaland Central
ZW
+263735302279
Luke Jimu
  • Metadata Provider
  • Originator
Senior Lecturer
Bindura University of Science Education
P. Bag 1020
263 Bindura
Mashonaland Central
ZW
+263779866624
Justice Muvengwi
  • Metadata Provider
  • Originator
Senior Lecturer
Bindura University of Science Education
P. Bag 1020
263 Bindura
Mashonaland Central
ZW
+263779702922
Anthony Mapaura
  • Metadata Provider
  • Originator
Section Head
National Herbarium and Botanic Garden
P. O. Box A889, Avondale
263 Harare
Harare
ZW
+263772806649
Admore Mureva
  • Metadata Provider
Lecturer
Bindura University of Science Education
P.O Box 1020, Bindura
263 Bindura
Mashonaland Central
ZW
+2637735123149
Admore Mureva
  • Metadata Provider
Senior Lecturer
Bindura University of Science Education
P. Bag 1020
263 Bindura
Mashonaland Central
+263735123149
Christopher Chapano
  • Point Of Contact
Head of Department
National Herbarium and Botanic Garden
P. O. Box A889, Avondale
263 Harare
Harare
ZW
+263773209095

Geographic Coverage

Zimbabwe

Bounding Coordinates South West [-22.35, 25.356], North East [-15.454, 33.223]

Temporal Coverage

Start Date / End Date 2017-10-01 / 2018-11-30

Project Data

The world is facing a major challenge of the changing climate, which is causing severe droughts and stochastic weather conditions, leaving the human population especially in the developing world more reliant on natural resources. Humans are known to appropriate fruits and vegetables from the natural forests. The sustainability of the harvesting of such resources from nature has often gone unchecked due to lack of baseline information. This resource presents wild plant species that are important for providing food in and around biodiversity hotspots in Zimbabwe. To achieve this, we held community meetings in Chimanimani, Chipinge and Nyanga in the Eastern Highlands, Mutorashanga in the Great Dyke and Hwange in the west. In these meetings, species of food importance were identified and later prioritised at a multi-stakeholder meeting. The checklist on wild plant species that are important in providing food to communities in biodiversity hotspots will be important for evidence-based policy formulation, management plans and decision-making for sustainable utilization of resources in line with the sustainable development goal (SDG) 15.

Title Mobilization of data on non- timber forest products’ species in Zimbabwe’s five biodiversity hotspots: towards the enhancement of food security and human health
Identifier BID-AF2017-0237-NAC
Funding European Union through GBIF (Main Funder), Bindura University of Science Education, National Herbarium and Botanic Garden and Forestry Commission
Study Area Description The project is located in five biodiversity hotspots of Zimbabwe, Nyanga, Chimanimani, Chipinge, Mutorashanga and Hwange. Nyanga, Chipinge and Chimanimani are located in the eastern highlands of Zimbabwe and are part of the Afro-montane region. The vegetation of this region is typically sub-montane with interspersed grasslands (Jimu and Ngoroyemoto, 2011). The mountain range comprises a complex mosaic of vegetation types including forests, woodlands, and grasslands. The geology is mainly the Precambrian Umkondo system, which consists of flat-lying shales, quartzites and intrusive dolerites. The soils are highly leached paraferallitic (Jimu and Ngoroyemoto, 2011). The drainage pattern is characterised by deeply cut valleys. The region falls in agro-ecological regions I and II with annual rainfall ranging 1741 to 2997 mm. Chipinge has an intact forest, the Chirinda Forest with unique trees such as Chrysophyllum gorungosanum, Ficus chirindensis, Khaya anthotheca, Argomuellera macrophylla, Celtis mildbraedii, Strychnos ellodora and Strychnos mitis. These trees are either only found in Chirinda Forest or are very rare in other parts of the country. The Nyanga site has communities in and around Nyanga National Park that has some of the most important species such Prunus africana. The Chimanimani area is one of the important biodiversity conservation areas in Zimbabwe. The Great Dyke of Zimbabwe presents a geological phenomenon, holding various high value metallurgical ores that include Chrome, Platinum and Nickel (Wild, 1965). Serpentine soils are well known to have an abnormally high ex changeable magnesium to exchangeable calcium ratio (Anderson and Talbot, 1965). The Great Dyke is dominated by the miombo vegetation dominated by Julbernardia globiflora, Brachystegia spiciformis, Brachystegia boehmii and Brachystegia allenii. The Hwange biodiversity hotspot is located in the western section of the country. Communities at this site are located adjacent to Hwange National Park, which is the largest conservation area in Zimbabwe. The area is typical dystrophic savanna with nutrient poor soils comprising of sandier soils that are well drained and of variable depth but often shallow, medium grained sands or loamy sands over strong brown gravelly loamy sands or sandy loams. The common tree species in the area include Acacia sp, Sclerocarya birrea, Lonchocarpus bussei, Vangueria infausta, Ziziphus mucronata, Combretum imberbe, C. apiculatum, Dichrostachys cinerea and Colophospermum mopane.
Design Description The goal of this project was to collect data on wild plant species that provide food to rural communities in and surrounding biodiversity hotspots of Zimbabwe. Forest ecosystems in Zimbabwe include afromontane, savannah and wooded grasslands. Among these are nationally and internationally recognised biodiversity hotspots containing endemic, rare, threatened and endangered plant species. To achieve the goal of this project, five of these biodiversity hotspots were purposively selected to cover the major vegetation types in the country. These areas were Chimanimani, Chipinge and Nyanga in the afromontane/ miombo vegetation zone, Mutorashanga in the miombo zone and Hwange in the dry savannah.

The personnel involved in the project:

Lizzie Mujuru
  • Principal Investigator
Luke Jimu
  • Content Provider
Justice Muvengwi
  • Content Provider
Admore Mureva
  • Content Provider
Anthony Mapaura
  • Content Provider

Sampling Methods

Data concerning numbers of species used for food, along with use categories, were compiled from representatives drawn from 17 communities. A total of 102 informants who included men, women, youths and traditional healers participated in the surveys. Of the selected communities, utilisation by men, women and youths was studied using group discussions and key informant interviews. For each hotspot area, separate groups of men and women were used. Information was given using local plant names, part(s) used, methods of preparation and how they are used. Additional data were compiled from publications, books and herbarium specimens collected from the hotspot areas.

Study Extent Data on tree species of food and medicinal importance were collected from Chimanimani (19°48'S;32°52'E), Chipinge (20°24'S;32°41'E) and Nyanga (18°13'S;32°44'E) in the Eastern Highlands, Mutorashanga (17°25'S;30°35'E)in the Great Dyke and Hwange (19°07'S;26°35'E) in the west.
Quality Control Data were checked for quality using software and databases such Catalogue of Life, Flora of Zimbabwe, Excel data cleaning, ECAT name parser, OpenRefine and GEOLocate.

Method step description:

  1. Community meetings were held in Chimanimani, Chipinge, Nyanga, Mutorashanga and Hwange to identify species of food importance. Semi-structured and key-informant interviews and group discussions were used in each community. Data on species was collected using vernacular names. Plant species used by the local communities of the study area were authenticated by botanists and taxonomists.
  2. A multi-stakeholder meeting was held to consolidate the list of species. Groups were created basing on hotspot area. In each group, prioritisation of plant species was done by ranking them basing on importance and multiple uses.
  3. Review of literature was done to supplement the data gathered from community meetings.
  4. Prioritisation of plant species of food importance was done at a multi-stakeholder meeting.
  5. The data was prepared into a checklist. Data were checked for quality using databases and software such as Catalogue of Life, Flora of Zimbabwe, Excel, OpenRefine, and GEOLocate. After quality checks, the checklist was uploaded on the GBIF website.

Bibliographic Citations

  1. Anderson, G.D., Talbot, L.M., 1965. Soil Factors Affecting the Distribution of the Grassland Types and their Utilization by Wild Animals on the Serengeti Plains , Tanganyika. Journal of Ecology 53: 33–56. http://www.jstor.org/stable/2257564
  2. Catalogue of Life http://www.catalogueoflife.org/listmatching/list_matching_result.php
  3. ECAT Name Parser http://tools.gbif.org/nameparser/parser.do http://tools.gbif.org/nameparser/parser.do
  4. Flora of Zimbabwe https://www.zimbabweflora.co.zw/speciesdata/species.php?
  5. Jimu L, Ngoroyemoto N, 2011. Habitat characteristics and threat factors of the rare and endangered Prunus africana (Hook. f.) Kalkman in Nyanga National Park, Zimbabwe. International Journal of Biodiversity and Conservation 3: 230–236. www.academicjournals.org/.../article1380549865_Jimu%20and%20Ngoroyemoto.pdf
  6. TNRS http://tnrs.iplantcollaborative.org/index.html
  7. Wild, H. 1965. The Flora of the Great Dyke of Southern Rhodesia with special reference to the Serpentine soils. Kirkia 5: 81. http://www.jstor.org/stable/23501427

Additional Metadata

Alternative Identifiers 4df785bf-4428-4364-a7ab-b417543d089a
https://cloud.gbif.org/bid/resource?r=wild_food_plant_species