Rajindra K. Puri

Recognizing local people's priorities for tropical forest biodiversity.

Abstract Tropical forest people often suffer from the same processes that threaten biodiversity. An improved knowledge of what is important to local people could improve decision making. This article examines the usefulness of explicitly asking what is important to local people. Our examples draw on biodiversity surveys in East Kalimantan (Indonesian Borneo). With local communities we characterized locally valued habitats, species, and sites, and their significance. This process clarified various priorities and threats, suggested refinements and limits to management options, and indicated issues requiring specific actions, further investigation, or both. It also shows how biological evaluations are more efficient with local guidance, and reveals potential for collaborations between local communities and those concerned with conservation. Such evaluations are a first step in facilitating the incorporation of local concerns into higher-level decision making. Conservationists who engage with local views can benefit from an expanded constituency, and from new opportunities for pursuing effective conservation.

Tools and Methods for Data Collection in Ethnobotanical Studies of Homegardens

Owners and managers of homegardens have extensive knowledge of plants, their uses, and ecosystemic processes. This knowledge might be highly valuable for many purposes. To enhance ethnobotanical research on homegardens and encourage a discussion of proper methodology, this article presents tools and methods used to collect data in the multidisciplinary study of homegardens in Chiapas, Mexico; Eastern Tyrol, Austria; and Kalimantan, Indonesia. The article defines homegardens and gardeners and explains both the sampling process used in these studies and how contact and rapport was established. Also discussed are possible research questions and hypotheses, equipment used in the field, interviewing strategies, vegetation surveys, and data management. Interviews typically elicit information on preferred garden plants, plant management, homegarden management, and the history of gardening in the study area. It is concluded that homegardens present an excellent opportunity to use and experiment with both informal and formal techniques to collect qualitative as well as quantitative data.

Recommended standards for conducting and reporting ethnopharmacological field studies

ETHNOPHARMACOLOGICAL RELEVANCE What are the minimum methodological and conceptual requirements for an ethnopharmacological field study? How can the results of ethnopharmacological field studies be reported so that researchers with different backgrounds can draw on the results and develop new research questions and projects? And how should these field data be presented to get accepted in a scientific journal such as the Journal of Ethnopharmacology? The objective of this commentary is to create a reference that covers the basic standards necessary during planning, conducting and reporting of field research. MATERIALS AND METHODS We focus on conducting and reporting ethnopharmacological field studies on medicinal plants or materia medica and associated knowledge of a specific people or region. The article highlights the most frequent problems and pitfalls, and draws on published literature, fieldwork experience, and extensive insights from peer-review of field studies. RESULTS Research needs to be ethical and legal, and follow local and national regulations. Primary ethnopharmacological field data need to be collected and presented in a transparent and comprehensible way. In short this includes: 1) Relevant and concise research questions, 2) Thorough literature study encompassing all available information on the study site from different disciplines, 3) Appropriate methods to answer the research questions, 4) Proper plant use documentation, unambiguously linked to voucher specimens, and 5) Qualitative and quantitative analyses of the collected data, the latter relying on use-reports as basic units. CONCLUSION Although not exhaustive, we provide an overview of the necessary main issues to consider for field research and data reporting including a list of minimal standards and recommendations for best practices. For methodological details and how to correctly apply specific methods, we refer to further reading of suggested textbooks and methods manuals.

Ethics and Research Methodologies for the Study of Traditional Forest-Related Knowledge

This chapter examines some of the main research methodologies for studying traditional forest-related knowledge (TFRK). Initially, we address ethical issues, asking, for example, what constitutes proper handling of research results. The relationship between TFRK and modern science is then discussed from a methodological perspective, after which an account of some of the main methods used for studying such knowledge—including participant observation, interviews, cultural domain analysis, questionnaires, and workshops—is provided. Ethnographic approaches are recommended for documenting both verbal and tacit knowledge embedded in skills and practices, while the tools of cultural domain analysis allow for both quantitative and qualitative analysis of individual variation in knowledge. Finally, recurring elements of best practice are presented. If ethical and methodological questions are not addressed in a consistent and systematic manner from the outset of the research, the rights of TFRK owners may well be infringed, meaning that benefits will not accrue to the owners and that access to resources (such as genetic resources) may be suddenly curtailed. Thus, all parties must address the challenges raised by the maintenance, use, and protection of traditional forest-related knowledge when there is interaction between the holders and users of such knowledge.

Treating infants with frigg : linking disease aetiologies, medicinal plant use and care-seeking behaviour in southern Morocco

BackgroundAlthough most Moroccans rely to some extent on traditional medicine, the practice of frigg to treat paediatric ailments by elderly women traditional healers known as ferraggat, has not yet been documented. We describe the role of these specialist healers, document the medicinal plants they use, and evaluate how and why their practice is changing.MethodsEthnomedicinal and ethnobotanical data were collected using semi-structured interviews and observations of medical encounters. Information was collected from traditional healers, namely ferraggat, patients, herbalists and public health professionals. Patients’ and healers’ narratives about traditional medicine were analysed and medicinal plant lists were compiled from healers and herbalists. Plants used were collected, vouchered and deposited in herbaria.ResultsFerragat remain a key health resource to treat infant ailments in the rural High Atlas, because mothers believe only they can treat what are perceived to be illnesses with a supernatural cause. Ferragat possess baraka, or the gift of healing, and treat mainly three folk ailments, taqait, taumist and iqdi, which present symptoms similar to those of ear infections, tonsillitis and gastroenteritis. Seventy plant species were used to treat these ailments, but the emphasis on plants may be a recent substitute for treatments that used primarily wool and blood. This change in materia medica is a shift in the objects of cultural meaningfulness in response to the increasing influence of orthodox Islam and state-sponsored modernisation, including public healthcare and schooling.ConclusionsReligious and other sociocultural changes are impacting the ways in which ferraggat practice. Treatments based on no-longer accepted symbolic elements have been readily abandoned and substituted by licit remedies, namely medicinal plants, which play a legitimisation role for the practice of frigg. However, beliefs in supernatural ailment aetiologies, as well as lack or difficult access to biomedical alternatives, still underlie the need for specialist traditional healers.

Comprehensive dataset of the medicinal plants used by a Tashelhit speaking community in the High Atlas, Morocco

This dataset describes medicinal plants used in a poorly studied area of Morocco: the High Atlas mountains, inhabited by Ishelhin people, the southern Moroccan Amazigh (Berber) ethnic group, “An ethnomedicinal survey of a Tashelhit-speaking community in the High Atlas, Morocco” (Teixidor-Toneu et al., 2016) [1]. It includes a comprehensive list of the plants used in the commune, as well as details on the plant voucher specimens collected and a glossary of Tashelhit terminology relevant to the study. To collect the data, semi-structured and structured interviews were carried out, as well as focus group discussions. Free prior informed consent was obtained for all interactions. A hundred and six adults were interviewed and 2084 use reports were collected; a hundred fifty-one vernacular names corresponding to 159 botanical species were found.

The Consumption of Acorns (from Quercus spp.) in the Central West of the Iberian Peninsula in the 20th Century

There is evidence of the consumption of acorns from Quercus species in the Iberian Peninsula from prehistory through the 20th century up until the 1960s. Acorns were used primarily for human consumption, mainly during food shortages. The high abundance and even distribution of Quercus tree species made it possible for acorn consumption to be widespread across the Iberian Peninsula. The favored species was the holm oak (Quercus ilex subsp. ballota), because a large part of its harvest consists of sweet acorns, while in other species the acorns are almost always bitter. People developed a substantial knowledge base underpinning a great variety of uses of acorns, from eating them directly from the tree to preparation with very simple treatments, such as drying, roasting, or boiling. By manipulating levels of bitterness in a number of species, cooks were able to prepare dishes that ranged from salty to sweet.Based on interviews with knowledgeable people and a review of ethnobotanical papers, this article describes the forms of consumption, the processed products, and the other uses of acorns of the species of the genus Quercus in the central west of the Iberian Peninsula. We also suggest why acorns lost their prominence in the late 1960s. At present, the main use of the acorn is as food for Iberian black pigs to obtain quality sausages. In addition, new products such as acorn liquor, caramels, and other items have recently appeared, marketed as distinctive products on a small scale.En la península Ibérica hay evidencias del consumo de bellotas de las especies del género Quercus desde la prehistoria hasta los años sesenta del siglo XX. Las bellotas se utilizaron principalmente para el consumo humano, sobre todo durante épocas de escasez de alimentos. La gran abundancia y distribución de los árboles productores de bellotas, permitió que este consumo se extendiera por toda la península Ibérica. La especie favorita fue la encina (Quercus ilex subsp ballota), porque en esta especie gran parte de la cosecha son bellotas dulces, mientras que en otras especies son casi siempre amargas. La gente desarrolló una base de conocimientos que hizo posible que las bellotas fueran usadas de formas muy variadas. Se comían directamente del árbol y se preparaban platos que van desde salados a dulces. Se les aplicaba tratamientos muy simples, como secarlas, tostarlas o hervirlas y en el caso de las bellotas amargas, se manipulaban para disminuir los niveles de amargor. A partir de la información obtenida de entrevistas a informantes conocedores del uso de las bellotas y de una revisión de documentos etnobotánicos, en este artículo se describen las formas de consumo, el procesado de los productos y otros usos de las bellotas de las especies del género Quercus en el centro-oeste de la península Ibérica durante el siglo XX. Asimismo, se indican las causas de porqué las bellotas perdieron su importancia a finales de los años sesenta. En la actualidad el uso principal de la bellota es como alimento para los cerdos negros ibéricos de los que se obtienen embutidos de gran calidad. Además, nuevos productos como licores de bellota, caramelos, etc., están siendo comercializados a pequeña escala como productos distintivos.