Local and scientific knowledge for assessing the use of fallows and mature forest by large mammals in SE Brazil: identifying singularities in folkecology

Which fish is this? Fishers know more than 100 fish species in megadiverse tropical rivers

Ethnobiological studies on folk, common, or popular names that fishers use to identify fish can help improve fisheries monitoring and collaborations between fishers and researchers. This study investigates fishers’ knowledge (recognition, naming, and habitat use) on 115 and 119 fish species, respectively, in the Negro and Tapajos Rivers, two megadiverse rivers in the Brazilian Amazon, and investigates the relationship between such knowledge and fish importance to fisheries, fish abundance, and fish size. We also compared fishers’ perceptions on fisheries and fish abundance with literature data on fish harvests and fish sampling. We interviewed 16 fishers in 16 communities (one fisher per community, 8 communities along each river). These fishers recognized an average of 91 ± 10.4 species in the Negro River and 115 ± 7.2 species in the Tapajos River, but all fishers recognized 114 species in Negro and all species in Tapajos. The fishers’ knowledge of fish species was positively related to fishers’ perceptions on fish abundance, size, and importance to fisheries in the Negro, but only positively related to fish size in the Tapajos. Our results highlight the usefulness of fishers’ knowledge to providing data on use and cultural relevance of fish species in high diversity aquatic ecosystems.

The socio-cultural significance of mineral licks to the Maijuna of the Peruvian Amazon: implications for the sustainable management of hunting

BACKGROUND

The overhunting of wild species is a major threat to biodiversity in the Amazon; yet, managed, sustainable hunting is widely considered part of the solution to conserving wildlife populations. Hunting is both a culturally important activity for Indigenous people and provides an important food source. Mineral licks, a focal point of hunting in Amazonia, are naturally occurring areas in the forest where animals come to obtain essential minerals or clays that are thought to neutralize plant-based alkaloids. We sought to better understand the socio-cultural importance of mineral licks to the Maijuna Indigenous group to inform the sustainable management of this habitat and associated wildlife populations.

METHODS

Semi-structured interviews, focus groups, and participatory mapping were carried out with hunters to assess the significance of mineral licks and their associated animal resources as well as to determine how the relationship that the Maijuna have with mineral licks has changed over time.

RESULTS

Mineral licks are culturally significant and useful to the Maijuna in a variety of ways. Hunters target these areas year-round both during the day and night, and animals killed are consumed for subsistence and sold to generate income. The spatial use of mineral licks across the landscape is determined on the generational family level, with families maintaining exclusive use of selected mineral licks and excluding access by other hunters. The Maijuna also have traditional beliefs for why animals visit mineral licks, which is linked to the traditional Maijuna story of the creation of the first tapir. The relationship that the Maijuna have with mineral licks has changed considerably over time, which is observed through changes in hunting technologies and methods as well as the loss of traditional knowledge and beliefs.

CONCLUSIONS

Traditional and current Maijuna hunting conventions, in which families maintain exclusive use of selected mineral licks, likely reduce the probability of overexploitation of animal populations. Community-based management plans for mineral licks in Maijuna lands and beyond must incorporate and account for the multiple cultural and economic needs of local communities while also striving toward ecological sustainability. Country-wide strategies to conserving forests and using them sustainably should aim to ensure land tenure for rural peoples and encourage management that incorporates traditional sustainable hunting conventions.

Scientific priorities and shepherds' perceptions of ungulate's contributions to people in rewilding landscapes

Nature's contributions to people (NCP) are all the contributions of living nature, both beneficial and detrimental, to the societies' life's quality. Ungulates play this dual role of providers of beneficial and detrimental NCP, as they are responsible of the supply of benefits (e.g. extractive experiences, habitat maintenance) and detriments (e.g. crops damage, traffic collisions). Our aim was to analyze the NCP provided by wild ungulates through examining the scientific priorities and the shepherds' perceptions in peninsular Spain. We reviewed scientific articles of NCP provided by ungulates in Spain and conducted questionnaires regarding NCP to shepherds in farming systems where domestic and wild ungulates cohabit. Then, we compared whether the scientific priorities match with those perceived by shepherds. Both stakeholders highlight more detrimental than beneficial NCP, although there are some mismatches between scientific priorities and shepherds' perceptions. Regarding detrimental NCP, soil alteration, silvicultural damage, human safety or traffic collision were included in scientific literature but not mentioned by shepherds. Contrarywise, shepherds mainly considered grazing competence and damage to animals (i.e. game species and livestock) as important detrimental NCP. Concerning beneficial NCP, whilst hunting was prominent in the publications, shepherds did not conceived it as an important beneficial contribution and considered the regulation of organisms (i.e. scavenging alternative prey) important benefits. These results can have twofold implications. The emphasis on detrimental NCP (studied and perceived) can reinforce the idea that ungulates can threaten humans rather than contribute to societies' wellbeing. The fact that research does not address the interests of shepherds can affect the social tolerance towards ungulates as the damages experienced or perceived by shepherds are not studied. Our results show the relevance of considering local knowledge held by shepherds and their perceptions, something highlighted by the NCP approach.

Ethnography, ethnobiology and natural history: narratives on hunting and ecology of mammals among quilombolas from Southeast Brazil

BACKGROUND

As a leading practice of Homo sapiens' environmental experience for hundreds of millennia, hunting continues to evoke key research inquiries in the fields of archaeology, human ecology, and conservation biology. Broadly speaking, hunting has been mainly a subject of qualitative-symbolic and quantitative-materialistic schemata of analyze, among anthropologists and biologists, respectively. However, the phenomenological dimension of the hunting experience, in the course of individuals` everyday life, received little academic attention until this century. This study analyzes the daily praxis of hunting among quilombolas (descendants from runaway African slaves) in Southeast Brazil, making use of an ethnographic approach of phenomenological orientation, which dialogue with central ethnobiological issues. The authors also report the local ecological knowledge about mammals hunted in the area, and its relationship to the scientific literature on this subject.

METHODS

Between 2016 and 2019, the authors made use of participant observation and informal interviews among eight key local participants, in three quilombola communities in the Ribeira Valley (São Paulo, Brazil). Fragments of authors' field notes and parts of interviewers' speeches make up the core results obtained.

RESULTS

Articulating local knowledge to scientific literature, this study yielded a hybrid and comprehensive narrative about natural history of the mammals in the area. The authors also accessed elementary aspects of research participants' experience in hunting, such as strategies, tactics, motivations, and feelings. They reveal a set of human behavior dispositions that seems to emerge only in the context of the action, modulating the praxis of hunting on the course of individuals' everyday life.

CONCLUSION

Ethnography, ethnobiology, and natural sciences backgrounds were systematically articulated in this research. This made possible to get a contextualized and multifaceted understanding of hunting praxis in the Ribeira Valley, an important socioenvironmental context of Atlantic Forest in Brazil. The role of an ethnographic approach applied to ethnoecological and biological conservation issues is especially considered here.

Shepherds' local knowledge and scientific data on the scavenging ecosystem service: Insights for conservation

Integrating indigenous and local knowledge (ILK) and scientific knowledge (SK) in the evaluation of ecosystem services has been recommended by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services. We examined the similarities and contradictions between shepherds' ILK and SK on the scavenging service provided by vertebrates in Spain. We conducted 73 face-to-face surveys with shepherds to evaluate their ILK. We collected scientific information on 20 scavenger species by monitoring the consumption of 45 livestock carcasses with camera traps. We found a high consistency between ILK and SK regarding the provision of the scavenging service by vertebrates, which was also consistent over the range of shepherd ages and experience. Our findings support the importance of ILK held by shepherds to better understand and to collect information on the scavenging service, particularly at the species level. The integration of ILK and SK into the management strategies of scavengers can benefit the conservation of globally endangered scavengers and the ecosystem services they provide.

The ethnoprimatology of the Maijuna of the Peruvian Amazon and implications for primate conservation

BACKGROUND

In Amazonia, primates are not only an important food source but they also hold significant cultural and symbolic value for many indigenous groups. We document the relationship between primates and community members of the Maijuna indigenous community of Sucusari in the Peruvian Amazon and describe how ethnoprimatological studies provide a better understanding of the significance of primates in people's lives. Additionally, we explore how ethnoprimatological studies can help inform and enhance primate conservation initiatives.

METHODS

Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 50 residents of the community of Sucusari to assess the classification, cultural significance and traditional uses, beliefs, ceremonies and stories of primates within the Sucusari River basin.

RESULTS

Primates play an important role in the lives of individuals in the Sucusari community. They are distinguished by their arboreal lifestyle, and among the 11 species reported in the area, seven (Lagothrix lagotricha, Alouatta seniculus, Pithecia monachus, Callicebus spp., Saimiri sciureus, Leontocebus nigricollis) are highly recognized and culturally salient. Primates are used as food, medicine, pets, domestic tools and in the production of handicrafts. They are primarily hunted for local consumption, with larger primates such as L. lagotricha being preferred. Lagothrix lagotricha was also the most commonly reported pet species and the only observed pet primate in the community during surveys. Maijuna traditional beliefs include ancestral dietary taboos for A. seniculus, which are referred to as sorcerer monkeys, but this taboo is no longer fully adhered to. Maijuna traditional stories associated with primates describe the origin of primates found in Sucusari.

CONCLUSION

Primates are embedded in the intricate sociocultural system of the community of Sucusari. Better understanding the relationship between primates and people can help to focus conservation efforts on primate species of particularly high sociocultural importance as well as ecological value, such as L. lagotricha. We highly recommend the inclusion of ethnoprimatological studies into primate conservation initiatives to accomplish more effective conservation planning, ultimately integrating the goals of biodiversity conservation with the cultural and economic needs of indigenous and local communities.