Institut de Ciència i Tecnologia Ambientals, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Spain.
Ambio. 2011 May;40(3):310-21. doi: 10.1007/s13280-010-0107-3.
Research on the benefits of local ecological knowledge for conservation lacks empirical data on the pathways through which local knowledge might affect natural resources management. We test whether ethnobotanical skills, a proxy for local ecological knowledge, are associated to the clearance of forest through their interaction with agricultural labor. We collected information from men in a society of gatherers-horticulturalist, the Tsimane' (Bolivia). Data included a baseline survey, a survey of ethnobotanical skills (n = 190 men), and two surveys on agricultural labor inputs (n = 466 plots). We find a direct effect of ethnobotanical skills in lowering the extent of forest cleared in fallow but not in old-growth forest. We also find that the interaction between ethnobotanical skills and labor invested in shifting cultivation has opposite effects depending on whether the clearing is done in old-growth or fallow forest. We explain the finding in the context of Tsimane' increasing integration to the market economy.
关于地方生态知识对保护的益处的研究缺乏实证数据，说明地方知识可能通过哪些途径影响自然资源管理。我们检验了民族植物学技能（地方生态知识的代表）是否通过与农业劳动的相互作用与森林砍伐有关。我们从一个采集者-园艺社会（玻利维亚的 Tsimane'）的男性那里收集了信息。数据包括基线调查、民族植物学技能调查（190 名男性）和两次农业劳动投入调查（466 个地块）。我们发现，民族植物学技能直接影响休耕期森林砍伐的程度，但对原始森林没有影响。我们还发现，民族植物学技能与轮作劳动投入之间的相互作用，根据清理是在原始森林还是休耕森林中进行，会产生相反的效果。我们在 Tsimane'越来越融入市场经济的背景下解释了这一发现。
