Ringal and Lichens are two products that have been traditionally harvested from the oak forests basically on a subsistence basis. Ringal is fabricated by local craftsmen, mainly from the Schedule Castes into a number of useful household products including, mats (chettai), a variety of baskets for carrying fodder and fuelwood and compost, storing household goods, and religious purposes.

Sustainable harvest of lichens (moss) from oak forests.

Amount of diversity: The Himalayan region harbours roughly 983 species of lichens (235 genera), which comprise nearly 50% of the species occurring in the Indian sub-continent. Oak forests are known for their rich lichen flora and this is one of the reasons for their exploitation. In a recent study of lichens of Himalaya, Upreti and Negi (2000) reported that the Chopta-Tungnath hills of Ukhimath alone have 92 species of lichens. Of these 58 species are epiphytic, 28 rock- inhabiting>(saxicolous) and 16 soil inhabiting (terricolous). They remarked that the lichen flora of Chopta is still in pristine form. The presence of three major oaks and remains of trees of old-growth forest make these forests particularly suitable as a habitat of epiphytic macro-lichens. Among the three oaks, Quercus semecarpifolia supports the richest lichen flora, followed by Quercus floribunda and Quercus leucotrichophora (Upreti and Chatterjee, 2000).

Contribution to overall biodiversity: Lichens are important to ecosystem functioning as food, shelter, and nesting material for a variety of birds, deer, goats, sheep, moles, mice, bats and flying squirrel. Invertebrates like bristletails, grasshoppers, butterflies, moths, mites, spiders and slugs live on, mimic or eat lichens (Mc Cune and Geiser 1997) Uses: Lichens are being harvested and collected from the forests of Himalaya as they are used as spice, appetizer, aromatic and medicinal plants, and for acids and dye derived from them. The list of most harvested lichens includes : Parmellia (104 species in Himalaya), Usnea - commonly known as ‘jhula’ (35 species), Heterodermia (25 species), Citraria (22 species), Lobaria, (9 species).Peltiglra. Lichen collection: The lichen collection is highly unscientific, irregular and uncontrolled. Generally, they get easily over-harvested. Being stress-tolerant organisms (resulting from symbiosis of algae and fungi, the latter giving protection from environmental stress to the former preparing food for the composite organism ) they find difficult to revive once unduly damaged. The poor villagers who collect lichens get only wages for their labour; most of profit goes to contractors, and traders. Activities proposed: We propose to undertake following activities with the objectives of

(i) realising sustainable use of lichens of the oak forests of the study area, and (ii) help local people to generate more income. (i) Assessment of lichen biodiversity and size of standing crops. (ii) Developing an understanding of lichen biology. (iii) Analysis of the ongoing practice of harvest, parts actually put to use, transport and marketing. (iv) Working-out a suitable harvest package based on lichen biology, seasonality of growth, parts actually used, rate of harvest, and others. (v) Enabling the people to have more control over the resource use, to market it with efficiency, and conserve the lichen diversity.

Lichens are collected by locals under informal contract to traders who ship them out of the region with no local value addition. Both ringal and lichens are common property resources that have gone relatively unnoticed by the forest department. This has lead to an over exploitation of lichens through unsustainable harvesting controlled by traders whose sole motivation is profit-making. The proposal here is to lift ringal processing from a subsistence level to a commercial one by exploring and developing markets while improving processing technologies and developing plantations and natural regeneration strategies and to intervene in the lichen trade by putting it back in the control of the local villagers training them in value addition types of processing, identifying markets, and training in sustainable harvesting methods.

The temperate oak tasar silk project | The honey and beekeeping project | Self Help Groups and microfinance

Conservation and plantation | Dairy development – business development services | Ringal and Lichens

Village based Ecotourism | Interpretation Centers