PlantWise, a new interactive web tool, has been launched to help ecologists, restoration practitioners, and forest managers identify native evergreen tree species best suited for ecological restoration in the Western Ghats, one of the world’s eight “hottest” biodiversity hotspots.

Developed by researchers from the Nature Conservation Foundation (NCF), BITS Pilani – Hyderabad campus, and Thackeray Wildlife Foundation, in partnership with the Ecological Restoration Alliance, the tool uses species distribution models based on curated plant occurrence data and environmental variables to predict plant distributions. It suggests a list of appropriate evergreen tree species for a particular site based on its climatic and elevational profile.

The initiative aims to support ecological restoration practitioners in choosing the right tree species for planting. The tool focuses on the evergreen tree species, as more than 60% of evergreen tree species found in the Western Ghats are endemic to the region. 

Addressing knowledge gap

“Given that primary evergreen forest patches that extended initially across most of the Western Ghats are now highly fragmented and scattered, planting appropriate tree species in suitable habitats is essential. Scientifically guided recovery of degraded forests is critical towards conserving flora and fauna in the Western Ghats and creating a climate-resilient ecosystem,” said a statement from NCF.

“A lack of accurate and spatially explicit distribution maps of species is one of the big challenges in the field of conservation and ecological restoration. For plants, without this information, it is difficult to determine if a species is native to a region or not, knowing which is fundamental to the process of ecological restoration. PlantWise is developed precisely to address this knowledge gap,” explained Navendu Page, plant ecologist with Thackeray Wildlife Foundation with tremendous experience with studying plants in the Western Ghats. 

Clubbing sciences

The tool integrates publicly available datasets of Mr. Page and French Institute of Pondicherry and data collected by NCF and R. Krishnamani from fieldwork in the Western Ghats.

“PlantWise shows how data science and ecological understanding can come together to serve biodiversity conservation,” said Viswesh Suri, BTech student from Bits Pilani – Hyderabad campus, who led the development of the tool as part of his project with Akanksha Rathore, professor at BITS Pilani – Hyderabad campus.

Ms. Rathore pointed out that PlantWise is an example of how tools from computer science and ecological knowledge can come together to address urgent biodiversity challenges.

According to Rohit Naniwadekar, scientist at NCF, the tool has been designed to reflect biogeographic patterns and to minimise commission errors, so that species are not recommended for habitats where they don’t naturally belong.

The team hopes to add more tree, shrub, and liana species from the Western Ghats and expand the tool for other regions in India. Users can access PlantWise at www.plantwise-india.org and write to plantwise30@gmail.com with comments or queries.