Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, University Post Office, Kumasi, Ghana.
Laboratory of Ecology, Botany and plant Biology (LEB), University of Parakou, 03 BP 125, Parakou, Benin.
J Ethnobiol Ethnomed. 2019 Aug 14;15(1):38. doi: 10.1186/s13002-019-0317-0.
Atacora Chain of Mountains (ACM) is the Benin part of a range of mountains lying from Benin to Ghana through Togo. It provides goods and services to people and is dominated by rural communities with heavy reliance on natural resources. The ACM may be threatened by the increasing resource needs and the possible shift in people's livelihood priorities brought about by challenges and opportunities ushered in by modernization. This study sought to understand local people's perception of the services derived from the ACM and the socio-demographic factors (age, gender, and level of urbanization of the place people live in) accounting for these perceptions.
Face to face interviews with 12 focus groups in 3 municipalities were carried out to obtain a list of ecosystem services cited by the participants. At the individual level, 144 people (men, women, young, adult, and old people from either rural or urbanized areas) equally distributed in the 3 municipalities were asked whether they acknowledge each of the services cited by the focus groups. Logistic regressions were then used with generalized linear models (GLM) function in R to analyze the relationships between the probability of acknowledgement of a service by the respondents and their socio-demographic characteristics.
Local people perceived the ACM as a provider of provisioning, supporting, and cultural services but cited more provisioning services than the others. The factors considered in this study (gender, location, and age) were all predictors of ecosystem services perception in the ACM. Location influenced people's perception of provisioning and supporting services such that respondents from rural municipalities were more likely to perceive provisioning and supporting services. This is because people in rural areas have a heavier reliance on natural resources. Gender was associated with respondents' perception of supporting, provisioning, and cultural services. Women were more likely to perceive provisioning services and less likely supporting and cultural services. People in each category of gender have a perception of ES linked to their livelihood activities. Young people were less likely to perceive supporting services than adults and old people due to their less involvement in farming activities.
This study showed that gender, location, and age predict local people's perception of ecosystem services in the ACM and livelihood orientation is determinant. The omission of regulation and many of the supporting services questions the future of this mountain chain if its exploitation continues without any awareness and conservation measures.
阿塔科拉山脉（ACM）是贝宁部分的一系列山脉，从贝宁延伸到加纳，穿过多哥。它为人们提供商品和服务，主要由农村社区主导，严重依赖自然资源。ACM 可能会受到资源需求不断增加的威胁，以及现代化带来的挑战和机遇可能导致人们生计优先事项发生转变。本研究旨在了解当地人对 ACM 提供的服务的看法，以及解释这些看法的社会人口因素（年龄、性别以及人们居住的地方的城市化水平）。
在 3 个直辖市进行了 12 个焦点小组的面对面访谈，以获取参与者提到的生态系统服务清单。在个人层面上，在 3 个直辖市中平均分配了 144 人（来自农村或城市化地区的男性、女性、年轻人、成年人和老年人），询问他们是否承认焦点小组提到的每一项服务。然后，使用 R 中的广义线性模型（GLM）函数的逻辑回归来分析受访者对服务的认可概率与其社会人口特征之间的关系。
当地人认为 ACM 是供应、支持和文化服务的提供者，但提到的供应服务多于其他服务。本研究考虑的因素（性别、地点和年龄）都是 ACM 生态系统服务感知的预测因素。地点影响人们对供应和支持服务的看法，以至于来自农村直辖市的受访者更有可能感知供应和支持服务。这是因为农村地区的人们对自然资源的依赖程度更高。性别与受访者对支持、供应和文化服务的看法有关。女性更有可能感知供应服务，而不太可能感知支持和文化服务。每个性别类别的人都对与其生计活动相关的 ES 有一定的看法。年轻人比成年人和老年人更不可能感知支持服务，因为他们较少参与农业活动。
本研究表明，性别、地点和年龄预测了当地人对 ACM 生态系统服务的看法，生计取向是决定性的。如果在没有任何意识和保护措施的情况下继续开发，忽视监管和许多支持服务的问题将威胁到这条山脉的未来。
