Thanks for your message. I am hoping that group members will come
forward with their ideas on Third International Conference on
Parthenium.

As you know I am documenting traditional medicinal knowledge about
herbs and insects. At present I am compiling traditional knowledge
about Diabetes. This long report will be over up to April, 2009.
Please visit this link to see list of weekly schedules for Diabetic
patients that are important part of this report. http://ecoport.org/ep?SearchType=interactiveTableList&Title=diabetes&TitleWild=CO

(If unable to open this link, please copy and paste this url. It
will take 5-7 minutes to open even in fastest net connection). Keep
visiting this link, if you are interested, as new schedules are
added daily.

For this reason it seems difficult to organise the conference at
Raipur this time but I will give my full support to the organisers.

regards
Pankaj Oudhia

--- In IPRNG@yahoogroups.co.in, "Dr. M. Mahadevappa"
<mahadevrice@...> wrote:
>
> Dear Pankaj,
>
> Thanks. It is useful.
>
> Will you please inform all our group members if any organization
is willing to hold the #rd International Conference on Parthenium? I
can myself organize it in Karnataka but it should not confine only
to Karnataka. If some organization comes forward, I can help support
from various sources like DBT. etc. Why not in Raipur?
> Please explore. If none comes forth, we will have it in Mysore.
Now, in Mysore & Chamarajanagar districts, Cassia has taken over
where ever there was some effort made by some local bodies.
>
> Regs,
> M Mahadevappa
>
> Pankaj Oudhia <pankajoudhia@...> wrote:
> From Enviroweeds mailing list
>
> WEED THREAT TO BIODIVERSITY BEING IGNORED
>
> Cooperative Research Centre for Australian Weed Management
> Media Release
>
> 11 July 2007
>
> WEED THREAT TO BIODIVERSITY BEING IGNORED
>
> One of the best laws in the Western world on ecological
protection,
> Australia's Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation
Act
> (1999), is not being used when it comes to the widespread threat
> posed to the environment by foreign plants, according to Dr Rachel
> McFadyen, CEO of the Cooperative Research Centre for Australian
Weed
> Management.
>
> Speaking at the Biodiversity Extinction Crisis Conference in
Sydney
> today, Dr McFadyen said that the EPBC Act allowed action once
a 'key
> threatening process' had been identified and declared. Examples of
> official recognition so far included the rabbit, fox, goat, feral
> cats, the root rot-fungus phytophthera, long-line fishing, climate
> change and cane toads.
>
> However, not a single invasive plant had been listed as posing a
> significant threat, Dr McFadyen said.
>
> 'Yet we have plants from Central America forming one-species
stands
> over thousands of hectares, totally displacing the native flora
and
> fauna. Mimosa even prevents indigenous people from accessing their
> country, and Kakadu National Park spends $0.5 million every year
> just to keep it out, they see it as such a threat', she said.
>
> Mesquite, olive hymenachne, lantana, blackberry and bitou bush are
> all recognised as Weeds of National Significance under other
federal
> measures. All are very clearly rampant invaders of valuable
natural
> ecosystems, but none are listed under the EPBC Act, Dr McFadyen
> said.
>
> 'One of the worst offenders is the African gamba grass, still
being
> promoted and planted as pasture for cattle in the north', Dr
> McFadyen said.
>
> 'This is a monster of a grass that can grow over four metres high.
> It seeds prolifically and invades surrounding woodland savannah
> country - and when it burns the heat is just too much for the
> eucalypts, which die.'
>
> 'The result is goodbye eucalypt woodland with its complex of
> associated plants, birds and other animals, and hello African
> grassland which allows very few of these species a look in', she
> said.
>
> 'It does make me wonder what a foreign plant has to do to get
> attention from conservationists. I sometimes think we are up
against
> a prevailing misinformed mindset that sees all green plants as
> essentially the same - as passive, friendly and just part of
> nature.'
>
> 'Try telling that to a landowner or park manager battling rubber
> vine, cat's claw creeper, gorse, broom, boneseed, bridal creeper
or
> any of the dozens of highly invasive foreign plants that chew up
> huge amounts of time and money on a daily basis around Australia.'
>
> Dr McFadyen said that recent research was beginning to paint a
> picture of how threatening weeds were to native plants and
animals.
>
> 'There has been a serious underinvestment in this ecological
impact
> research for many years, but we are now starting to get a better
> handle on it. We now know, for example, that weeds are a
significant
> threat to over one third of endangered species nationally,
including
> within 13 World Heritage Areas - and our international
> responsibilities to protect them are very clear', she said.
>
> 'In NSW, where the Weeds CRC commissioned work in 2006, weeds are
> known to be a direct threat to almost half of the threatened
species
> listed for that state. We know, for example, that the habitat of
the
> northern corroboree frog is directly threatened by blackberry
> invasion, and the native rice flower by bitou bush and lantana.'
>
> The lack of research and data for individual species makes it
> difficult to pin-point specific threats with the precision that
> scientists would like, Dr McFadyen said. But we do understand the
> sorts of changes that weeds cause, and how these tend to affect
> local flora and fauna.
>
> 'We know, for example, that nectar-feeding birds such as lorikeets
> will abandon bushland when their food source is displaced by weeds
> that do not produce nectar.'
>
> That's something that's obvious, but there's a lot more going on.'
>
> The reality is that such displacement of native plants, birds and
> other animals is happening quietly on a vast scale across the
> continent, as weeds gradually make their environment less
attractive
> and less supportive, Dr McFadyen said. Climate change will also
add
> real pressure.
>
> 'The really big weakness we have as custodians of this natural
> heritage', Dr McFadyen said, 'is that too often we only address
the
> biodiversity issue at points or times of crisis, when certain
> species are threatened with imminent extinction. That is reflected
> in the language we use', she said.
>
> In the meantime, Dr McFadyen said, we seem to be largely unaware
of
> the immense changes we have caused to this heritage, and which
> continues to degrade wherever weeds get the upper hand.
>
> 'In fact, now that wholesale land clearing has largely stopped,
> weeds constitute the number one threat to biodiversity. This is a
> widely observed phenomenon around the world.'
>
> The end point of this very long-term process of weed invasion is
> hard to predict, but it is not likely to be good news for our
native
> flora and fauna, Dr McFadyen said.
>
> 'We need to understand this much better and plan and act
> accordingly, not carry on as if all green plants are equal. The
> nation is not a Peter Andrews production system.'
>
> Contacts
> Dr Rachel McFadyen, CEO, Weeds CRC, 0409 263
>
> Images and further information
> High resolution weed photos can be downloaded directly from
> www.weeds.crc.org.au/publications/media.html
> Most of the photos on the Weeds CRC's new image gallery are also
> available in high resolution
> www.weeds.crc.org.au/main/image_gallery_index.html Contact Jenny
> Barker - 08 8303 7250 or jennifer.barker@...
>
>
>
>
>
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------
---------------
> Dr. M. Mahadevappa
> Advisor, JSS Rural Dev. Foundation. Mysore - 570 004
> Ex-Chairman, ASRB, Ex-Vice Chancellor UAS, Dharwad
> # 1576, 1st Cross, Chandra Layout
> Bangalore - 560 040 , Karnataka, INDIA
> Phone: (080) 23216040
> Email: mahadevrice@...
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> ---------------------------------
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