Medicinal plants in Kenya

The sustainable use and protection of medicinal plants is of high social interest. In order to evaluate the status of this natural resource and changes due to global change during the next decades as well as to develop informed management strategies, knowledge of the drivers of medicinal plant diversity and distribution needs to be increased (Gafna et al. 2017). This poses a challenge due to the interplay of large-scale and long-term influences such as soil and climate, and smaller scale and temporally variable influences such as natural and anthropogenic disturbances. Within the project “Medical plants in Samburu, Kenya” we aim to establish the impact of natural and anthropogenic drivers on medicinal plants distribution and diversity. Our work will also seek to model medicinal plant species richness and evenness based on climate, soil and land use. Thereafter, we will apply these models to provide maps of medicinal plant species richness and distribution.