Research in recent years has increasingly shifted away from purely academic research, and into applied aspects of the discipline, including climate change research, conservation, and sustainable development. It has by now widely been recognized that “traditional” knowledge is always in flux and adapting to a quickly changing environment. Trends of globalization, especially the globalization of plant markets, have greatly influenced how plant resources are managed nowadays. While ethnobotanical studies are now available from many regions of the world, no comprehensive encyclopedic series focusing on the worlds mountain regions is available in the market. Scholars in plant sciences worldwide will be interested in this website and its dynamic content.

The field (and thus the market) of ethnobotany and ethnopharmacology has grown considerably in recent years. Student interest is on the rise, attendance at professional conferences has grown steadily, and the number of professionals calling themselves ethnobotanists has increased significantly (the various societies, like the Society for Economic Botany, the International Society of Ethnopharmacology, the Society of Ethnobiology, and the International Society for Ethnobiology currently have thousands of members). Growth has been most robust in BRIC countries.


This new MRW on Ethnobotany of the Himalayas takes advantage of the increasing international interest and scholarship in the field of mountain research. It includes the best and latest research on a full range of descriptive, methodological, theoretical, and applied research on the most important plants in the Himalayas. Each contribution is scientifically rigorous and contributes to the overall field of study.

Dr. Ripu M. Kunwar is a medicinal plant expert and ethnobotanist who has conducted several researches on plant-people interactions in the Nepal Himalaya for two decades. He completed his M.Sc. (botany) at Tribhuvan University, Nepal, in 2000. He was an outstanding student and received a gold medal in MPhil in Forest Management in 2002 at IIFM, India. After completing his two master’s courses, he worked at many institutions in various capacities, including doing research on medicinal plants, indigenous knowledge, ethnobotany, biodiversity, and climate change impacts. He completed his M.A. in geography in August 2015 and Ph.D. in geosciences (cultural and spatial ecology) in August 2018 from Florida Atlantic University (FAU). He was advised by Prof. Dr. Maria Fadiman, Prof. Dr. Mary Cameron, Prof. Dr. Rainer Bussmann, and Dr. Tobin Hindle for his PhD. Currently, he affiliates to Ilia State University, Georgia, as a postdoctoral research associate. Dr. Kunwar is a fellowof ITTO, Japan (2006), a recipient of the Missouri Botanical Garden–ASC fellowship, USA (2012), and a grantee of Rufford Foundation Grant, UK (2014, 2015, 2017), National Geographic Society Early Career Grant, USA (2018), FAU-GRIP Grant (2015), and FAU-Science Student Grant (2018). He has been awarded the Young Scientist of Developing Country 2009 by TWAS, Italy, and NAST, Nepal. He received several travel awards for attending international conferences in Austria, China, Germany, India, Italy, and the USA. He is a member of the Ethnobotanical Society of Nepal (ESON) and the Society of Economic Botany, USA, since 2007 and 2012, respectively. Dr. Kunwar has authored over xxxi 70 publications including over 40 peer-reviewed articles, 15 book chapters, 10 review papers, and 1 book. His research articles featured in the journals PLOS One, Ecological Indicators, Ecosystem Services, Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine (JEE), Journal of Ethnopharmacology, Journal of Ethnobotany Researchand Applications (JERA), and Global Ecology and Conservation. Currently, he works as an associate editor for JERA and is an editorial board member of JEE. Dr. Kunwar has bagged over 1400 citations and H Index 19. Detail is available at GoogleScholar https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl¼en&user¼0hJp XUEAAAAJ&view_op¼list_works&sortby¼pubdate.



Prof. Dr. Hassan Sher was born in Swat District of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. He is associated with teaching and research for the last 23 years. Dr. Sher obtained his M.Sc. (botany, 1995) and M.Phil. (botany, specialization in plant ecology, 1998) from the Department of Botany, Peshawar University, and Ph.D. (botany, specialization in plant ecology, 2006) from GC University, Lahore. His work is focusing on traditional knowledge system, ethnobotany, ecology, in situ and ex situ conservation of valuable endangered plant species with IUCN, WWF, SDC/IC, FAO and UNDP, with rich experience in the restoration/rehabilitation of degraded habitats and recovery of rare/threatened plant species. Dr. Sher published more than 150 original research articles and is a member of 7 national and international scientific societies and organizations. He has supervised and examined/evaluated many postgraduate and M.Phil. theses and Ph.D. dissertations. He is also the reviewer of internationally reputed scientific journals. A total of five research projects have been successfully completed by Dr. Sher, funded by both international and national donors, whereas one research project is ongoing. Dr. Sher has supervised 15 M.Sc. students and 1 M.Phil. research scholar, and 8 M.Phil. research scholars and 6 Ph.D. research scholars are currently under his guidance. A total of four books and one book chapter have been published. Dr. Sher’s contributions toward preservation and innovation in the field of medicinal plants conservation xxxii About the Editors and management were recognized jointly by the Government of Pakistan and SAARC countries by awarding him the prestigious SAARC Gold Medal and SAARC Award in Dhaka, Bangladesh, during the Summit in 2003 on the theme “Invention in the Field of Traditional Medicines.” Dr. Sher is professor and director of the Centre for Plant Sciences and Biodiversity, and also dean of the Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Swat, Pakistan, since May 21, 2019. Dr. Sher was the registrar of the University of Swat from June 11, 2011, to January 24, 2012, and then from March 17, 2016, to February 28, 2018. Furthermore, he was a focal person for Himalaya University Consortium of ICIMOD for Biodiversity and Natural Resource Management, and focal person of the Higher Education Commission, Islamabad, for establishment of the women’s campus at the University of Swat from June 15, 2017, to September 2019. Dr. Sher is member of NCRC of HEC for the disciplines of botany, environmental sciences, and plant protection.




Dr. RainerW. Bussmann earned his M.Sc. (diploma) in biology from Universität Tübingen, Germany, in 1993 and his doctorate from Universität Bayreuth, Germany, in 1994. He is an ethnobotanist and vegetation ecologist, and co-director of Saving Knowledge, La Paz, Bolivia, as well as Head of the Department of Ethnobotany, Institute of Botany, Ilia State University, both of which he co-founded. Before retiring from Missouri Botanical Garden, Dr. Bussmann was director of the William L. Brown Center at Missouri Botanical Garden, William L. Brown curator of economic botany, and senior curator. Before accepting the directorship of WLBC, he held academic appointments as research fellow in geography and the environment at the University of Texas at Austin from 2006 to 2007, as associate professor of botany and scientific director of Harold Lyon Arboretum at the University of Hawaii from 2003 to 2006, and as assistant professor at the University of Bayreuth from 1997 to 2003, following a postdoc at thesame institution from 1994 to 1997. He holds affiliate faculty appointments at Washington University St. Louis, USA; University of Missouri St. Louis, USA; About the Editors xxxiii Florida Atlantic University Boca Raton, USA; Universidade Federal da Paraíba, Brazil; Universidád Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, Perú; and at Ilia State University, Republic of Georgia, and serves as external thesis advisor at multiple other universities worldwide. His work focuses on ethnobotanical research and the preservation of traditional knowledge in Bolivia, Peru, Madagascar, the Caucasus, and the Himalayas. To date, Dr. Bussmann has authored over 290 peer-reviewed papers, over 1200 book chapters, and authored or edited 38 books. Dr. Bussmann is a past president of the Society for Economic Botany and has served as board/council member of the International Society for Ethnopharmacology, Society of Ethnobiology, Botanical Society of America, and International Society of Ethnobiology. See more of his work on his website (https://www. cejaandina.org/rainer-w-bussmann/) and download publications from ResearchGate (https://www.researchgate. net/profile/Rainer_Bussmann).