Species ethnobotanical values rather than regional species pool determine plant diversity in agroforestry systems

Abstract

The conversion of natural systems into farms and agroecosystems is the main cause of biodiversity loss. In human-dominated landscapes, understanding the interactions between agroforestry systems and adjacent natural vegetation is fundamental to developing sustainable agricultural systems. Species can move between these two systems with natural systems providing the regional pool of species that shape the agricultural values and conservation value of the agroforestry systems. We investigated the influence of neighboring natural habitats on traditional agroforestry systems in the buffer zone of Pendjari Biosphere Reserve in Benin to understand the contribution of regional processes on the quality of agroforestry systems. We expected that agroforestry parklands adjacent to natural vegetation with high species diversity will also have higher plant species diversity. We found no similarity in plant species composition between agroforestry systems and adjacent natural habitats. A small proportion of species in adjacent natural habitats were found in agroforestry systems. The proportion of shared species was not significantly influenced by plant diversity in adjacent natural habitats or the distance from the agroforestry systems to the natural adjacent habitat. However, plant diversity in agroforestry systems was strongly associated with site ethnobotanical values indicating that farmers act as a supplemental but severe environmental filter of the regional species pool. Our study suggests that promoting the plantation of plants with high ethnobotanical use-value is a potentially viable strategy for sustainable agriculture and ecological restoration in Biosphere reserves.

Assessing Plant Resource Utilization across Wet and Dry Landscapes in Northeast Brazil

“…Siddique et al [17], for instance, demonstrated that environments with higher species richness exhibit greater rates of ecological functions and that richness has a positive effect on the availability and versatility of plants useful to people. Conversely, in less rich environments, individuals might possess a less diverse repertoire, leading them to utilize the same resource for multiple functions, as observed in agroforestry systems in Benin [18].…”

Bridging the generational gap: Exploring youth understanding on ethnobotanical knowledge and its integration in higher education curricula

“…The accumulated traditional knowledge in the community about sustainable use of the environment and natural resources might fade out due to decreased ethnobotany knowledge (Dapar and Alejandro 2020;Mattalia et al 2021;Alves et al 2022). Losing traditional knowledge also has a significant impact on biodiversity loss (Ali 2021), as well as a lack of alternative livelihood for villagers (Kumar et al 2021;N'Woueni and Gaoue 2021;Kusumawati et al 2022).…”