1.0    Food and Medicinal Plants of the Dzhango Community Native Forest: Problems and Prospects of Use
2.0    Catastrophic fires, biodiversity, bioresource, indigenous peoples, ecological tragedy
3.0    Article 3
4.0    Article 4
5.0    Article 5
6.0    Article 6

Traditional nature use, ethnobotany, food and medicinal plant, impact of the timber industry, forest ecosystems.

The Dzhango Community territories are located in the central part of Sikhote-Alin, in the Khor River watershed. This territory is attributed to the Far East broad-leafed-coniferous area, manchzhuria province, ussuri-amur district, which are characterized by high biodiversity. 800 species of vascular plants can be met here, that make 40 % of all Far East flora. The uniqueness of natural complexes manifests itself in a complete set of various forest products, which have freat economic value and easy access for the indigenous people of Udege.

It is possible to single out 90 food and 94 medicinal species of plants, the most valuable as for their biological and economic potential, availability and traditional use. It is difficult to find the analogues in the world for such soecies as Schizandra chinensis, Vitis amurensis, Actinidia kolomikta, Eleutherrococcus senticosus, Aralia elata, Gastrodia elata etc, if we take their food and medicinal properties.

However only small part of them is used in real economic practices according to the tradition, set during the last decades. There are a lot of for this: difficulties with gathering and processing, remoteness from the basic markets, low purchasing power of the majority of consumers in the territory. But the main reason is that the Khabarovsk Territory Administration prefer to use more favorable for using more expensive forest timber resources. The timber industry activity has the negative impact on the territory: inevitable destruction of forest ecosystems and deterioration of ecological condition, final fall of the ethnobotany, destruction of the ethnic economic complex and traditional way of living for indigenous people.

The decision of these problems lies in the traditional economy intensification, which has not yet opened its opportunities to the full extent. It includes the involving in economic activity of "non-traditional" kinds of raw material and resources: medicinal grasses, tea preparations, plant seeds and seedlings, tree juices, etc.