The Need for a Botanic Garden to protect and educate on Bio-cultural Diversity
The Need for a Botanic Garden to protect and educate on Bio-cultural Diversity Many locations of the Malabar region of India turned out to be hot spots of biodiversity and local cultural traditions. Malabar region (the southern Western Ghats and coasts of the states of Kerala, Karnataka and Goa) is a historical global maritime destination known for its rich diversity of spices like black pepper, ginger, turmeric, and cardamom, and medicinal plants. The need for a Botanic Garden that goes beyond in achieving the conventional objectives like biodiversity conservation, education or recreation , to the holistic functioning of the natural and cultural heritage which benefit in multiple ways the local communities becomes significant to protect the heritage of this region. The focal interventions of such kind of a Garden need to be around “ Biocultural diversity” –the interface operation of the diversity of nature and culture i...