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The purpose of this study was to gather ethnopharmacological information on plants used by the pastorals of southeastern Iran. The relationships between ecological value of the plant species and ethnobotanical indices were investigated. The loss of medicinal plants and its effective factors were also determined under nomadism and sedentary pastoralism. Ethnopharmacological information of plants was collected through interviews with 85 local people including nomads (43%) and sedentary pastorals (57%). Ethnobotanical indices including relative frequency of citation (RFC), relative importance (RI), cultural value (CV), and use value (UV) were estimated. Canopy cover and density of plant species were measured at 60 sampling plots in the exclosure, nomadic rangelands and sedentary pastorals rangelands. The Importance Value Index (IVI) and Relative Loss Index (RL) were estimated for both nomadic and sedentary pastoral rangelands. Pearson correlation coefficient was used to investigate the relationship between ethnobotanical indices and IVI of plant species. The Bayesian networks was used to investigate the relationship between ethnobotanical indices and plant species loss. In total, 156 medicinal plant species of 50 families were identified in the region by locals. Positive correlation was observed between ethnobotanical indices (RFC and RI) and ecological index (IVI). The mean decline of the ecological importance of medicinal species in sedentary pastoral rangelands was approximately three times higher than in nomadic rangelands. Bayesian networks showed that cultural value, seed exploitation and aerial parts exploitation had direct relationships with species loss in both nomadic and sedentary pastoral rangelands. Bunium persicum, an ecologically and socially important species, had been extensively harvested (more than 60%) in the both nomadic and sedentary pastoral rangelands, making it a priority species in future conservation programs. Medicinal plants had high ecological value and were severely exploited, threatening sustainability of arid and semiarid ecosystems. Local pastorals not only use medicinal plants as herbal remedies but also consider them as a source of income. Popular plants with multiple medicinal uses were more susceptible to loss. Higher medicinal knowledge of pastorals did not help to mitigate medicinal plant loss, requesting new plans to aware them to the circumstances that often leads to species removal from community. Given the importance, abundance and widespread use of medicinal plants, further studies can provide a basis for their conservation and for identifying new therapeutic effects of plants in the region.

Snakebite envenoming is an important public health problem in Iran, despite its risk not being quantified. This study aims to use venomous snakes' habitat suitability as an indicator of snakebite risk, to identify high-priority areas for snakebite management across the country. Thus, an ensemble approach using five distribution modelling methods: Generalized Boosted Models, Generalized Additive Models, Maximum Entropy Modelling, Generalized Linear Models, and Random Forest was applied to produce a spatial snakebite risk model for Iran. To achieve this, four venomous snakes' habitat suitability (Macrovipera lebetinus, Echis carinatus, Pseudocerastes persicus and Naja oxiana) were modelled and then multiplied. These medically important snakes are responsible for the most snakebite incidents in Iran. Multiplying habitat suitability models of the four snakes showed that the northeast of Iran (west of Khorasan-e-Razavi province) has the highest snakebite risk in the country. In addition, villages that were at risk of envenoming from the four snakes were identified. Results revealed that 51,112 villages are at risk of envenoming from M. lebetinus, 30,339 from E. carinatus, 51,657 from P. persicus and 12,124 from N. oxiana. Precipitation seasonality was identified as the most important variable influencing distribution of the P. persicus, E. carinatus and M. lebetinus in Iran. Precipitation of the driest quarter was the most important predictor of suitable habitats of the N. oxiana. Since climatic variables play an important role in shaping the distribution of the four venomous snakes in Iran, thus their distribution may alter with changing climate. This paper demonstrates application of species distribution modelling in public health research and identified potential snakebite risk areas in Iran by using venomous snakes' habitat suitability models as an indicating factor. Results of this study can be used in snakebite and human-snake conflict management in Iran. We recommend increasing public awareness of snakebite envenoming and education of local people in areas which identified with the highest snakebite risk.