Traditional Botanical Gardens as a Tool for Preserving Plant Diversity, Indigenous Knowledge and Last Threatened Relic Forest in Northern Benin

Abstract

"In most West African regions, phytodiversity is under a great threat due to the increasing human impact and changing climatic conditions. In Benin and especially in Pehunco, Sinende and Kouande commune, we notice that desertification phenomena is become more and more important and vegetation is mainly composed of savannahs with trees of small size. The widespread savannah ecosystems are subjected to an increasingly intensive land use (rising cultivation of cash crops, especially cotton, general extension of agricultural areas, stronger pasture pressure on the remaining areas). In this changing environment, numerous plant species are becoming noticeably rare, and this shortage of species used in traditional medicine may jeopardize the local health systems. Considering all those threats, botanical gardens were created to serve as tool for preserving threatened plant species and habitat and indigenous knowledge on a local scale. A project conducted by the CERGET-NGO and the Laboratory of Applied Ecology establish conservation measures for the safeguard of the last remaining forest area and its biodiversity (plants and animals), contribute to the re- introduction of threatened, rare and locally extinct plants species, create a source of provision in plant based medicine for healers, use the garden as a tool for awareness and environmental education for school, children, teachers, students, NGO and establish permanent site for research on monitoring reintroduced threatened species. This project was initiated by local communities who were strongly involved in the project implementation."