Ethnobotany in a coastal environmental protected area: shifts in plant use in two communities in southern Brazil

Abstract

BackgroundWe investigated local knowledge of plants in terms of plant use shifts and losses, in two coastal communities within a protected area in southern Brazil. Our hypothesis is that people’s livelihoods are associated with different ethnobotanical knowledge, and changes in these activities can reflect shifts in ethnobotanical knowledge such as stopping using some plants.MethodsWe interviewed 125 inhabitants after prior informed consent, asking her/him about their socioeconomic profile and to free list the plants they know. The free lists were analyzed by frequency of cited plants. To compare averages of cited plants and age in both communities, we used the Wilcoxon test with a significance of 5%. Spearman correlation was tested with number of plants cited in the past and the interviewees’ age. Permanence and change in economic activities in each community were represented using a graph and compared through a chi-squared test with a significance of 5%. Qualitative analyses of the interviews and a field diary were used to analyze driving forces for the abandonment of used plants.ResultsWe identified 231 plant species that were currently used mainly for food and medicine. Despite being in a protected area, most of the cited plants were exotic and cultivated in home gardens. We do not confirm the hypothesis that changes in livelihoods are reflected in the plants used; however, qualitative analyses showed potential drivers for shifts and losses of plant use. “Environmental law” and “protected area” were the drivers most related to the abandonment of plant use.ConclusionsWhile recognizing the importance of the protected area to maintain local people and their traditions, we documented a shift in plant use that is mainly correlated to construction activities that disappeared from daily practices.

Plant knowledge richness in the Sundanese upland village: A case study in Sindangsari, West Java, Indonesia

“…However, some studies show that regional development and environmental changes often lead to the loss of local plants use (Wiryono et al 2017;Aswani et al 2018;Hopping et al 2018;Ludwinsky and Hanazaki 2018;Suryana et al 2018;. In Colombia, unsustainable land use, overharvesting, and climate change are the direct causes of declining availability of medicinal plants (Rodríguez et al 2018).…”

“…Transformation, segmentation, and heterogeneity of ethnobotanical knowledge are also influenced by demographic, geographic, and communication factors (Mathez-Stiefel and Vandebroek 2012;Pirker et al 2012;Hopkins et al 2015;Caneva et al 2017;Weckmüller et al 2019). Levi-Strauss (Levi-Strauss 1966) argues that traditional knowledge is rooted in day-to-day curiosity to solve problems and fulfill the needs. Thus, it differentiates knowledge as a concept of know and a practice of knowhow.…”

What interferes with conducting free lists? A comparative ethnobotanical experiment

“…Items' order in lists, together with the number of times the item is cited, serves to calculate the Salience Index [9,10] that determines the cultural relevance of a term or element. However, some studies use the free list without taking the Salience Index into account in their analyses and only draw items based on the cross-list frequency of the item's mentions [11][12][13][14].…”

What interferes with conducting free lists? A comparative ethnobotanical experiment

“…Items's order in lists, together with the number of times the item is cited, serves to calculate the Salience Index [9,10] that determines the cultural relevance of a term or element. However, some studies use the free list without taking the Salience Index into account in their analyzes and only draw items based on the cross-list frequency of the item's mentions [11,12,13,14].…”