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Options and priorities for biodiversity conservation have been discussed at length in different contexts in fora at different levels (Chauhan, 1993; Khoshoo, 1996). The same criteria also related to the medicinal plants.
The specimens in herbaria and musea serve only as a record of biodiversity, as they comprise of dead material.
The following options exist for the conservation of live material:
4 EX SITU CONSERVATION
a) Complete organisms are conserved in botanical gardens, arboreta, zoological parks, zoos, etc. It is impossible to conserve this consciously or unconsciously selected diversity permanently.
b) Genetic reserves in the form of single-use wild lands can be used to conserve the diversity of selected species.
c) Biobanks provide for the conservation of pollen, seeds, sperms, eggs, embryos, somatic cells, tissues, organs, etc., by various methods.
Ex situ conservation results in the cessation of biological evolution and so generally provides for the conservation of only the selected genotypes of a given time.
4 IN SITU CONSERVATION
a) Multi-use wild lands to conserve biodiversity in the form of biosphere reserves, national parks, sanctuaries, watersheds, protected landscape and ethno biological reserves.
b) Conserved lands for genetic diversity and man-made wilderness areas to provide for the conservation of diversity in selected areas.
In situ conservation allows continued biological evolution and may influence changes in the component of biodiversity from time to time and hence it is conservation of an uncertain status.