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Scientists exploring the pollination of fig species that form living root bridges in Meghalaya have identified a fig wasp, Platyscapa clavigera, from rubber fig trees in the state.
This is the first record of the species in the region, which is the westernmost portion of the fig’s range restricted to South and Southeast Asia. The study shows that the pollination system of the fig species and its unique pollinator Platyscapa clavigera is still intact in Meghalaya.
The Meghalaya government has initiated several site-specific conservation measures based on science-based approaches in consultation with experts and policymakers. The steps are underpinned by community efforts galvanised through village co-operatives derived from living root bridge villages.
For hundreds of years, aerial roots of the rubber fig tree (Ficus elastica), patiently coaxed by human hands guided by traditional knowledge, have created sturdy lattice-works, forming living bridges across Meghalaya’s gushing streams and canyons.
In a recent study, scientists document the identification of a pollinating fig wasp (Platyscapa clavigera) from rubber fig trees in Meghalaya, northeast India. This is the first record of the species in the region, which is the westernmost portion of the fig’s range restricted to South and Southeast Asia.
The pollinating fig wasp species was first described from F. elastica in Bogor in 1885 and from Singapore in 2017. The scientists also reported a non-pollinating fig wasp from the syconia (fleshy, fruiting bodies) of the fig species in Meghalaya.
The living root bridges face a lack of repair and maintenance and unchecked tourism pressures among many other threats to their sustainability.
Within the broader priorities of biodiversity conservation, preserving the riverine vegetation and the ecosystems that flourish in link with the bridges (called Jingkieng Jri locally) helps conserve the environment in which pollinators and seed dispersal agents can thrive, explains the study’s corresponding author Renee Borges, professor at the Centre for Ecological Sciences, Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru.
“Without the pollinator, you will not have the Ficus tree; without the Ficus tree you will not have the pollinator,” botanist Lucy Nongbri who trekked across the state to unravel the mystery behind the pollinators, told Mongabay-India, emphasising the Ficus trees’ keystone role in nature: they hold the ecosystem together and promote biodiversity around them.
The identification of Ficus pollinators and seed dispersers is one of the many site-specific conservation objectives and landscape/ecosystem-based habitat conservation being discussed by the Meghalaya government as it works towards finalising the draft Guidelines for Protection of Living Root Bridge Ecosystems that it drew up in 2018 consulting scientists (including Borges and Nongbri), conservation experts, and policymakers. The draft guidelines, the government says, are underpinned by science-based approaches and community participation.
Fig tree populations are mainly distributed in East Khasi Hills and West Jaintia Hills. The study, which involved trekking to remote terrains in 2017, was restricted to a few trees in the East Khasi Hill district.
In its natural habitat, F. elastica is a strangling fig. It germinates and grows on the branches of an existing non-Ficus tree and this sapling grows upwards and downwards and sends out aerial roots and later terrestrial roots when it reaches the ground.
“In this process, the F. elastica plant strangles the existing tree,” points out Borges.
The scientists also conducted a two-day workshop on Ficus elastica biology at Nowhet village in 2017, where attending local communities showed a keen interest to learn and to cooperate in discovering new facts about the bridge trees and their biology. The workshop was supported by the government and the National Geographic Society Expedition Grant.
“While the local communities did not have an understanding of the pollinators and dispersers but they said they collect the F. elastica seedlings from top of other plants and they start planting in suitable locations to form the bridge,” said Nongbri, who attributed the presence of the saplings on other trees to the movement of birds and bats who deposit them on the other trees. Many locals have lost their indigenous knowledge, observed Borges.
MorningStar Khongthaw, the founder of the Living Bridge Foundation (LBF) working to preserve living root bridges and encourage ecotourism with the participation of living root bridge communities, says the organisation is also trying to raise awareness levels among tourists and students about the root bridges.
“There is an uptick in concrete infrastructure including concrete walkways and bridges while older root bridges are often found in a state of disrepair; children’s habits have changed in the formal education system…they go from school to tuitions and back home, without knowing how valuable these structures are,” Khongthaw who hails from Rangthylliang in Pynursla, Meghalaya, told Mongabay-India.
For example, the proposed Zone I suggests declaring at least approximately 30 meters from the core LRB structure as a protected area to ensure ecosystem services provided by LRBs remain intact.
The guidelines also emphasise forming Village Cooperative Societies for inclusion of all stakeholders, ensuring an equitable profit-sharing model, and nurturing sustainable livelihoods; precise evaluation of each jingkieng jri with a specific focus on ecosystem health and growth; establishing ‘ecosystem carrying capacity’ and ‘load-bearing capacity’ of LRBs to inform future development.
The ongoing Community-Led Landscape Management Project (CLLMP) of the state government is field-testing the draft guidelines with the primary stakeholders (communities). The final guidelines will incorporate the lessons from this process, the government said.
She is in the process of designing data collection sheets for a participatory data collection effort involving the villages that have signed up for the cooperatives to generate baseline data on the organisms and features associated with the living root bridges.
“The communities understand co-operation and their activities are underpinned by strong principles of local governance which come into play in the co-operative structure. Local groups are also working with villages that haven’t signed up for the co-operatives to understand their reluctance and their issues which are crucial to scale up conservation efforts,” she said.
MorningStar Khongthaw says the benefits of the conservation and management actions must trickle down to the local communities who remain at the core of the bridge building, maintenance, and repair, for long-term benefits to biodiversity and climate action. Biodiversity loss and ecosystem degradation undermine the supply of ecosystem services vital for mitigation and adaptation, states the UNEP-WCMC.
The Zoological Survey of India (ZSI) also plans to engage local communities in monitoring the biodiversity in the LRB ecosystem.
Research on the living root bridge ecosystem will help support the upgradation of LRBs to UNESCO World Heritage Sites, contributing to conservation and responsible development of all stakeholder villages added, ZSI Director Dhriti Banerjee.
(The article was first published in Mongabay India. It has been republished here with permission.)
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