Vital roles for ethnobotany in conservation and sustainable development

The scientific discipline of ethnobotany-the study of human interactions with plants e has applications in many fields of current global concern,including food security,climate change,biodiversity conservation and human health.Ethnobotanical studies can provide insights into the ways that societies interact locally with their environmental resources.Ethnobotanical studies have the potential to bring together and integrate local and scientific knowledge to advance the cause of achieving biocultural conservation(Gaoue et al.,2017;Prance,2007).This Special Issue of Plant Diversity contains recent ethnobotanical studies that aim to contribute to determining the most useful ways ethnobotany can be used to confront human problems in the future.Specifically,this issue shows ways in which ethnobotany can contribute to the conservation of biodiversity,especially with regards to documentation and maintenance of indigenous and local knowledge of plants.The research in this issue also describes innovative practices communities have adopted to maintain their plant resources。