The Ugyen Wangchuck Institute for Forestry Research and Training convened a data sorting and analysis workshop from January 13th and will complete by the 24th at the Gadhen Hotel, Gelephu. 

A significant portion of the workshop was dedicated to data cleaning and sorting (30,378 initial entries), including species identification and confirmation, utilising the FLORA OF BHUTAN, local names, attached photos, and online digital platforms such as WFO, POWO, IPNI, and GBIF. The participants also carried out the complex task of disintegrating multiple uses of resources to segregate them into independent categories, into Medicinal and Aromatic Plants (MAPs), and Dye, Ornament, Food and Fibre (DOFF).

This foundational work enabled the calculation of key ethnobotanical metrics, including Relative Importance (RI) and Relative Frequency of Citation (RFC), to quantify the cultural significance of a plant to the community, providing insights into the plant use knowledge distribution in the country, and prioritisation of species for conservation and identification of plants of economic potential.

Additionally, other activities involved standardising specific elements, such as medicinal plant uses, to calculate Fidelity Level (FI), which helps identify a species' primary use and assess knowledge depth, as well as Informant Consensus Factor (ICF) to determine the cultural significance of use categories and understand knowledge patterns. The workshop concluded with participants compiling and analysing MAPs and DOFFs data and drafting a preliminary report. The findings of the activity will support the conservation, sustainable use, and management of MAPs and DOFFs, thereby enhancing economic development opportunities. 

The workshop, supported by Bhutan for Life as an activity of the Natural Resource Management: Enhancing Forest-Based Natural Resource Management for Community Resilience project was attended by the core team members, including the principal investigation team from UWIFoRT.