اعظم خسروی مشیزی

The purpose of this study was to gather ethnopharmacological information on plants used by the pastorals of southeastern Iran. The relationships between ecological value of the plant species and ethnobotanical indices were investigated. The loss of medicinal plants and its effective factors were also determined under nomadism and sedentary pastoralism. Ethnopharmacological information of plants was collected through interviews with 85 local people including nomads (43%) and sedentary pastorals (57%). Ethnobotanical indices including relative frequency of citation (RFC), relative importance (RI), cultural value (CV), and use value (UV) were estimated. Canopy cover and density of plant species were measured at 60 sampling plots in the exclosure, nomadic rangelands and sedentary pastorals rangelands. The Importance Value Index (IVI) and Relative Loss Index (RL) were estimated for both nomadic and sedentary pastoral rangelands. Pearson correlation coefficient was used to investigate the relationship between ethnobotanical indices and IVI of plant species. The Bayesian networks was used to investigate the relationship between ethnobotanical indices and plant species loss. In total, 156 medicinal plant species of 50 families were identified in the region by locals. Positive correlation was observed between ethnobotanical indices (RFC and RI) and ecological index (IVI). The mean decline of the ecological importance of medicinal species in sedentary pastoral rangelands was approximately three times higher than in nomadic rangelands. Bayesian networks showed that cultural value, seed exploitation and aerial parts exploitation had direct relationships with species loss in both nomadic and sedentary pastoral rangelands. Bunium persicum, an ecologically and socially important species, had been extensively harvested (more than 60%) in the both nomadic and sedentary pastoral rangelands, making it a priority species in future conservation programs. Medicinal plants had high ecolog