Ethnobotany of the Sierra Nevada del Cocuy-Güicán: climate change and conservation strategies in the Colombian Andes

Abstract

BackgroundThe Sierra Nevada del Cocuy-Güicán in the Colombian Andes is protected as a National Natural Park since 1977 because of its fragile páramo ecosystems, extraordinary biodiversity, high plant endemism, and function as water reservoir. The vegetation on this mountain is threatened by expanding agriculture, deforestation, tourism, and climate change. We present an ethnobotanical inventory among local farmer communities and discuss the effects of vegetation change on the availability of useful plants.MethodsWe used 76 semi-structured, 4 in-depth interviews, and 247 botanical collections to record the ethnoflora of the farmers and surveyed from the high Andean forest to the super-páramo, including native and introduced species. We organized 3 participative workshops with local children, high school students, and campesinos’ women to share the data we acquired in the field and empower local plant conservation awareness.ResultsWe encountered 174 useful plants, most of them native to the area (68%) and almost one third introduced (32%). The Compositae was the most species-rich family, followed by Lamiaceae, Poaceae, and Rosaceae. The majority of plant species were used as medicine, followed by food, firewood, and domestic tools. Local farmers reported declining numbers of páramo species, which were now only found at higher altitudes than before. Although our informants were worried about the preservation of their natural resources and noticed the effects of climate change, for several commercial species, unsustainable land use and overharvesting seemed to be the direct cause of declining medicinal plant resources rather than climate change.ConclusionsWe recommend conservation plans that include vegetation monitoring, people’s perceptions on climate change, and participative actions with the communities of the Sierra Nevada del Cocuy-Güicán.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1186/s13002-018-0227-6) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Scientistsʼ Warning on Climate Change and Medicinal Plants

“…In North America, the extinction risk for a population of American ginseng of median size over 70 years was estimated to be 8 % over 70 years with harvesting alone, 6 % with climate change alone, but 65 % with the two combined [28]. Inhabitants of the Colombian Andes reported that the herb Draba litamo L. Uribe, endemic to the high-altitude páramo vegetation and a revitalizing tonic traditionally claimed to convey eternal youth, was increasingly scarce due to the combination of climate change and commercial harvesting [79]. In Africa, Pterocarpus angolensis DC.…”

The climatic challenge: Which plants will people use in the next century?

“…The tropics may be at higher risk due to their expected higher turnover in climatic conditions, and their extremely high concentration of endemic plant species, narrowlydistributed human cultures, and therefore plant uses (Pironon et al, in review). Some of the detrimental effects of climate change on useful plants have already been perceived by local communities, such as in the Sierra Nevada del Cocuy-Güicán of Colombia, where climate change, together with unsustainable land use and overharvesting are causing a decline in medicinal plant resources (Rodríguez, Angueyra, Cleef, & Van Andel, 2018). Moreover, narrow-ranged species and tropical areas might be even more vulnerable because they are also expected to be particularly impacted by other global change drivers such as land use change or biotic invasions.…”

“…For the majority of useful plants that are not cultivated, cultural choices are crucial to enable conservation of wild populations. Conservation may also be key to enabling discovery of currently unknown or undocumented useful plants (Dempewolf et al, 2014;Garnett et al, 2018;Rodríguez et al, 2018). In the medium-term, plant breeding and genomic prediction tools are likely to enable faster development of resilience traits (for example; breeding of dieback resilient Fraxinus in the UK).…”

Plantas útiles del páramo y su potencial en la sostenibilidad ambiental: caracterización etnobotánica, Sumapaz Colombia.

“…Estos datos coinciden con los estudios realizados por Galvis y Torres (2017) en comunidades rurales de Sogamoso; y de Rodríguez et al (2018) en el ecosistema de páramo en la Sierra Nevada del Cocuy, donde la Asteraceae es la familia más importante, debido al uso medicinal que se da por parte de la comunidad, lo cual demuestra la relevancia de esta familia para las comunidades rurales que habitan las zonas de amortiguación del páramo. Igualmente, en cuanto a la representatividad por género, se destacan Diplostephium, Hypericum y Miconia, situación que coincide con el patrón de riqueza de este ecosistema…”

“…Sobre esta problemática se han realizado estudios desde la etnobotánica en las zonas de páramo de Colombia, tales como los desarrollados por Pérez y Matiz-Guerra (2017), en comunidades campesinas de Bogotá, y los de Rodríguez et al (2018), llevado a cabo en la Sierra Nevada del Cocuy; ambos con la intención de registrar el conocimiento tradicional relacionado con la vegetación de esas áreas.…”