Examines the problem of disappearing species and analyzes the causes of the accelerated rate of extinction and what can be done to halt the trend.

Research in recent years has increasingly shifted away from purely academic research, and into applied aspects of the discipline, including climate change research, conservation, and sustainable development. It has by now widely been recognized that “traditional” knowledge is always in flux and adapting to a quickly changing environment. Trends of globalization, especially the globalization of plant markets, have greatly influenced how plant resources are managed nowadays. While ethnobotanical studies are now available from many regions of the world, no comprehensive encyclopedic series focusing on the worlds mountain regions is available in the market. Scholars in plant sciences worldwide will be interested in this website and its dynamic content. The field (and thus the market) of ethnobotany and ethnopharmacology has grown considerably in recent years. Student interest is on the rise, attendance at professional conferences has grown steadily, and the number of professionals calling themselves ethnobotanists has increased significantly (the various societies, like the Society for Economic Botany, the International Society of Ethnopharmacology, the Society of Ethnobiology, and the International Society for Ethnobiology currently have thousands of members). Growth has been most robust in BRIC countries. This new MRW on Ethnobotany of the Himalayas takes advantage of the increasing international interest and scholarship in the field of mountain research. It includes the best and latest research on a full range of descriptive, methodological, theoretical, and applied research on the most important plants in the Himalayas. Each contribution is scientifically rigorous and contributes to the overall field of study.

A detailed discussion of the need to conserve medicinal plants and their environments.

Serious concerns exist in Pakistan about threats to the state from a subset of its Islamist militants, but the military's preoccupation with using jihadist proxies to achieve geopolitical aims remains. Although this is the greatest barrier to dismantling the militant infrastructure in Pakistan, it is not the only one. Numerous barriers reinforce the status quo when it comes to action against militancy and inform the segmented approach Pakistani elites -- both civilian and military -- take as they approach various militant groups.