ETHNOBOTANY PEOPLE AND PLANTS' CONSERVATION MANUALS Manual Series Editor: Martin Walters Manual Series Originator: Alan Hamilton Plants Conservation Officer WWF International 'People and Plants' is a joint initiative of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) and the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, UK. Partial funding has been provided by the Darwin Initiative for the Survival of Species (Department of the Environment, UK). Titles in this series Ethnobotany: A methods manual Gary J. Martin Plant Invaders: The threat to natural ecosystems Quentin Cronk and Janice Fuller People and Wild Plant Use Anthony B. Cunningham Botanical Surveys for Conservation and Land Management Peggy Stern and Peter Ashton Botanical Databases for Conservation and Development The cover illustration shows German Cayti, a Chimane indigenous person, and Quico Vaca, a park ranger, participating in an ethnobotany training workshop in the Beni Biological Station in Bolivia. They are preparing to dig roots of the palm Scheela princeps (used as a remedy for intestinal parasites) and demonstrating how to dry them for phytochemical analysis. Photo: G.J. Martin. ETHNOBOTANY A methods manual GARY]. MARTIN WWF International (World Wide Fund for Nature) UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organisation) Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, UK SPRINGER-SCIENCE+BUSINESS MEDIA, B.V. First edition 1995 © 1995 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht Originally published by Chapman & Hall in 1995 Typeset in Goudy 10/13 by ROM-Data Corporation Ltd., Falmouth, Cornwall ISBN 978-0-412-48370-7 ISBN 978-1-4615-2496-0 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-1-4615-2496-0 Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of research or private study, or criticism or review, as permitted under the UK Copyright Designs and Patents Act, 1988, this publication may not be reproduced, stored, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of the publishers, or in the case of reprographic reproduction only in accordance with the terms of the licences issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency in the UK, or in accordance with the terms of licences issued by the appropriate Reproduction Rights Organization outside the UK. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside the terms stated here should be sent to the publishers at the London address printed on this page. The publisher makes no representation, express or implied, with regard to the accuracy of the information contained in this book and cannot accept any legal responsibility or liability for any errors or omissions that may be made. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 94-72447 Printed on permanent acid-free text paper, manufactured in accordance with ANSI/NISO Z39.484992 and ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1984 (Permanence of Paper). ROYAL BOTANIC GARDENS KEW WWF The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), founded in 1961, is the world's largest private nature conservation organization. It consists of 29 national organizations and associates, and works in more than 100 countries. The coordinating headquarters are in Gland, Switzerland. The WWF mission is to conserve biodiversity, to ensure that the use of renewable natural resources is sustainable and to promote actions to reduce pollution and wasteful consumption. UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organisation is the only UN agency with a mandate spanning the fields of science (including social sciences), education, culture and communication. UNESCO has over 40 years of experience in testing interdisciplinary approaches to solving environment and development problems, in programs such as that on Man and the Biosphere (MAB). An interna­ tional network of biosphere reserves provide sites for conservation of biological diversity, long-term ecological research, and testing and demonstrating approaches to the sustainable use of natural resources. The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew has 150 professional staff and associated researchers and works with partners in over 42 countries. Research focuses on taxonomy, preparation of floras, economic botany, plant biochemistry and many other special­ ized fields. The Royal Botanic Gardens has one of the largest herbaria in the world and an excellent botanic library. Darwin Initiative for the Survival of Species At the Earth Summit in June 1992, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom announced the Darwin Initiative as a demonstration of the UK's commitment to the aims of the Biodiversity Convention. The Initiative will build on Britain's scientific, educational and commercial strengths in the field of biodiversity to assist in the conservation of the world's biodiversity and natural habitats, particularly in those countries rich in biodiversity but poor in resources. International Society for Ethnobiology The ISE is the largest professional organization dedicated to sustainable use of natural resources and community development, and has endorsed the compilation of this manual. DISCLAIMER While the organizations concerned with the production of this manual firmly believe that its subject is of great importance for conservation, they are not responsible for the detailed opinions expressed. Contents The 'People and Plants' Initiative Alan Hamilton x International Panel of Advisers xii Internal Panel of Advisers xiv Foreword Professor G. T. Prance xvi Preface xvii Introduction xx 1 Data collection and hypothesis testing 1 1.1 Choosing an approach 2 1.2 Six disciplines which contribute to an ethnobotanical study 3 1.3 Rapid ethnobotanical appraisal 3 1.4 Planning a long-term project 7 1.5 Describing the field site 8 1.6 Ethnobotanical data 10 1. 7 Visual aids 18 1.8 The law of diminishing returns 19 1.9 Hypothesis testing and theory 23 2 Botany 27 2.1 Collecting and identifying plants 28 2.2 Preparing an ethnobotanical reference collection 59 2.3 Herbaria and the curation of plant specimens 59 2.4 Judging the completeness of a plant survey 61 3 Ethnopharmacology and related fields 67 3.1 Proceeding with a phytochemical analysis 68 3.2 Screening 77 vii CONTENTS 3.3 Collecting plants for phytochemical analysis 81 3.4 The ethics of searching for new plant products 89 3.5 Bringing phytochemistry back home 91 4 Anthropology 95 4.1 Talking with local people 96 4.2 Searching for ethnobotanical information in folklore 112 4.3 Surveys and analytical tools 116 5 Ecology 137 5.1 Describing microenvironments and quantifying their plant resources 138 5.2 Qualitative approaches 138 5.3 Bridging the gap between qualitative and quantitative approaches 155 5.4 Quantitative approaches 155 6 Economics 171 6.1 Economics and ethnobotany 172 6.2 The value of the environment 172 6.3 The value of forest products 173 6.4 Surveys of community and household economy 183 6.5 Local markets 191 7 Linguistics 201 7.1 Learning a local language 202 7.2 Collaborating with linguists 202 7.3 Where there is no linguist 203 7.4 Transcribing the local language 204 7.5 Linguistic analysis in ethnobotany 205 7.6 Free listing 213 7.7 Systematic surveys of local plant knowledge 215 7.8 Categories of ethnobiological classification 215 7.9 The correspondence between folk and scientific classification 218 viii CONTENTS 8 Ethnobotany, conservation and community development 223 8.1 Applying traditional ecological knowledge 224 8.2 Ethnobotanical research and community development 224 8.3 Forests 225 8.4 Conservation of wild crop relatives and endangered useful plants 228 8.5 Education 231 8.6 Use of protected areas 234 8.7 The local perspective on ethnobotanical research 239 8.8 The path ahead 251 References 253 Further reading 261 Index 263 ix The 'People and Plants'Initiative This manual is one of a series, forming a contribution to the People and Plants Initiative of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) and the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (UK). The Initiative has received financial support from the Darwin Initiative for the Survival of Species (Department of the Environment, UK) and the Tropical Forestry Program (US Department of Agriculture). The main objective of the People and Plants Initiative is to build up the capacity for work with local communities on botanical aspects of conservation, especially in countries with tropical forests. The principal intention in the manual series is to provide information which will assist botanists and others to undertake such practical conservation work. Other components of the People and Plants Initiative include demonstration projects in Malaysia, Madagascar, Uganda, Mexico, Brazil and Bolivia, as well as support for workshops and publication of working papers. This manual on ethnobotany is central to the People and Plants Initiative. It contains descriptions of methods useful for working with local communities to learn about their knowledge and uses of the plant world, for example to determine which social groups within a village use which species of plants in what quantities and for what purposes. Ethnobotanical studies can help identify conservation issues, such as cases where rates of harvest of plants exceed rates of regrowth. The fact that ethnobotany is, or should be, a collaborative venture between people in local communities, including various specialists, and scientists means that a start can be made to explore solutions to conservation and development issues, even as information on plant uses is being collected. Many people, especially in poorer countries, rely on wild-collected plants for food, construction materials, fuelwood, medicine and many other purposes. Today, there is often a decrease in the availability of wild plant resources, related to increased human populations and the effects of competition with other forms of land use. Ethnobotanical surveys can help local communities define their needs for plant resources more clearly, thus assisting them to state their cases for continuing access to certain areas of land or for provision of alternatives to wild gathering, should this be necessary.