Mountain Partnership

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Mountain Partnership

Mountain products – improving livelihoods at high altitudes

Asia case study

Abstract

Seabuckthorn is an extremely versatile and highly adaptable plant. The properties of this plant have long been known to the Chinese and Tibetans and are currently being researched by scientists around the world. The plant’s highly nutritious berries and leaves can be processed to make a wide variety of medicinal, health care and cosmetic products, as well as food stuffs and beverages. Nowadays, scientists around the world are exploring the applications of seabuckthorn in the treatment of cancer and cardiovascular diseases, among other applications.

For those living in mountainous areas and in need of additional or alternative incomes, the advantages of cultivating seabuckthorn are many. The plant adapts readily to high elevations, and flourishes in arid and semi-arid environments and fragile mountain areas. Indeed, it has proved invaluable in reclaiming degraded slopes: seabuckthorn helps to increase vegetation cover, prevent erosion, restores fertility to depleted soils and provides a natural habitat for wildlife. In addition, the products derived from seabuckthorn can generate much needed income for impoverished mountain people, with only minimal investment and maintenance of plantations. The fruit and its products also provide important nutrients to these households, especially in the winter months when vitamins are hard to come by.

In China, there are now around 1.33 million hectares of seabuckthorn plantations in addition to the naturally occuring forests, and over 200 seabuckthorn processing factories. A series of laws and regulations have been devised to encourage the development of seabuckthorn enterprises. In many areas of the country this single product has already had a significant impact on livelihoods, to the extent that migration to the lowlands has been reduced, and in some cases even reversed. Inspired by the example of China, other Asian countries in the 1990s (Nepal, Bhutan, India and Pakistan) began their own seabuckthorn development programmes, with the help of government agencies and NGOs.

Given the adaptability of the plant to a broad range of elevations and climates, seabuckthorn could be developed in numerous other countries around the world, especially in highland areas, and have both ecological and economic benefits. This paper stresses the need to raise awareness of its important properties and to stimulate governments and organizations to promote and encourage the development of seabuckthorn.

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