Earthly matters: Harvesting a magical plant

I  first heard about sea buckthorn from my friend, Helga Ahmed, who is one of the most committed environmentalists I know in Pakistan. Helga grew up in Bavaria during World War II and when things got very bad in terms of food shortages, her family would forage in the forest for edible berries, mushrooms and other plants. Helga is thus familiar with all sorts of herbs and medicinal plants. Many years later she married a Pakistani and moved here, and today she shares her knowledge with all whom she meets, here in Islamabad and in the high mountains of Pakistan, a region she visits regularly. It was during one of her visits to Gilgit several years ago, that she noticed that the local people were chopping down sea buckthorn, a plant that grows naturally in these high mountains, for fuel. Helga knows the value of sea buckthorn. These magical plants have several medicinal and nutritional properties and are used commercially in cosmetics. They grow in the wild in the Gilgit-Baltistan region and across the border,   in China, they have had great success in growing sea buckthorn on a vast scale to prevent land sliding. Sea buckthorn plants control landslides as they have deep roots, which seek water before sprouting. They are nitrogen-fixing plants and help to revive mountain springs. Helga urged the locals of Chaprote village near Gilgit town, which she was visiting at the time, not to cut the sea buckthorn but to make use of it. "My translator, Mohammad Shafa, was listening to what I was saying and several years later I ran into him in Gilgit. He showed me photos of his family collecting sea buckthorn berries. They would mix them in their flour and make bread with them. He told me that he also followed my advice and extracted sea buckthorn berry juice to give to his children. I had told them that it would prevent coughs and cold. He told me that he gave his eight children three teaspoons every day, as I had prescribed and that winter, none of them fell sick!" The sea buckthorn berries provided free medicine to Mohammad Shafa's family and they even made a rough juice press with the help of a local welder to extract the berry juice. Mohammad Shafa told others about it and soon other villagers also began to harvest the berries and selling the sea buckthorn juice and jams locally. "It really is amazing medicine, even cancer patients are taking it as it strengthens the immune system," explains Helga. Thanks to Pakistan Television who did a short segment on it, more people living in Gilgit Baltistan found out about it and soon Mohammad Shafa was overwhelmed with enquiries. He is now training people in the area, accepting payment in the form of a barter trade. "I am happy to learn that the local people have started valuing the sea buckthorn. Before, they were cutting it down to plant potatoe fields, but that resulted in widespread land sliding so they have learnt their lesson. They are beginning to value its remarkable qualities", says Helga. Now the government's Mountain Areas Research Centre has taken it up for research and large projects like the Pakistan Wetlands Programme are also investing in it. Sea buckthorn covers a large patch in Broghil Valley in Chitral where the Pakistan Wetlands Programme is working. Community representatives of Broghil were recently trained in sea buckthorn collection, processing and marketing by the programme. During a follow-up meeting, one of the trainees, Mirza Khan, said "these magical plants are all around us but we were ignorant about how to make the best use of them. We mainly used this plant for in-house burning and as barbwire to protect agricultural fields. Now this training has enabled us to make the best use of this precious resource". However, the villagers still need better equipment for the collection and processing of the berries so they don't harm the plants. There is also a need to develop better linkages with potential markets and dealers to augment the income of the local communities through trade in sea buckthorn products. Thanks to Helga Ahmed's passionate encouragement, sea buckthorn is becoming famous in the Gilgit-Baltistan region. As more people appreciate its value, the hope is that they will not cut it down indiscriminately and let it grow freely as nature intended, taking only as much as they need in the form of the berries for their health and well being. Ideally, Helga would like to see it being planted by the government all along the Karakoram Highway to prevent land sliding. "We have to protect our mountain slopes. The debris from the mountain slides ends up in the Indus River. That is why Tarbela Dam is silting up so fast. It is estimated that there is 6 lakh tonnes of sedimentation per month in the river! These mountains are our only watershed so we must create more environmental awareness in this region".