Institut de Ciència i Tecnologia Ambientals, Universitat Autònoma deBarcelona, Barcelona, Spain.
SENS, IRD, CIRAD, Montpellier, France.
PLoS One. 2022 Feb 17;17(2):e0264147. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0264147. eCollection 2022.
Understanding local knowledge about wild edible plants (WEP) is essential for assessing plant services, reducing the risks of knowledge extinction, recognizing the rights of local communities, and improving biodiversity conservation efforts. However, the knowledge of specific groups such as women or children tends to be under-represented in local ecological knowledge (LEK) research. In this study, we explore how knowledge of WEP is distributed across gender and life stages (adults/children) among Betsileo people in the southern highlands of Madagascar. Using data from free listings with 42 adults and 40 children, gender-balanced, we show that knowledge on WEP differs widely across gender and life stage. In addition, we find that children have extended knowledge of WEP while reporting different species than adults. Women's knowledge specializes in herbaceous species (versus other plant life forms), while men's knowledge specializes in endemic species (versus native or introduced). Finally, we find that introduced species are more frequently cited by children, while adults cite more endemic species. We discuss the LEK differentiation mechanisms and the implications of acquiring life stage's knowledge in the highland landscapes of Madagascar. Given our findings, we highlight the importance of considering groups with under-represented knowledge repositories, such as children and women, into future research.
了解关于野生食用植物 (WEP) 的本地知识对于评估植物服务、降低知识灭绝的风险、承认当地社区的权利以及改善生物多样性保护工作至关重要。然而，在本地生态知识 (LEK) 研究中，特定群体（如妇女或儿童）的知识往往代表性不足。在这项研究中，我们探讨了在马达加斯加南部高地的贝齐莱人（Betsileo）中，性别和生命阶段（成人/儿童）如何分布关于 WEP 的知识。使用来自 42 名成人和 40 名儿童的自由列表数据（性别平衡），我们表明，关于 WEP 的知识在性别和生命阶段之间存在广泛差异。此外，我们发现儿童对 WEP 的了解更为广泛，而报告的物种与成人不同。妇女的知识专门针对草本物种（与其他植物生活形式相比），而男性的知识专门针对特有物种（与本地或引入的物种相比）。最后，我们发现儿童更频繁地引用引入的物种，而成年人则引用更多的特有物种。我们讨论了 LEK 分化机制以及在马达加斯加高地景观中获取生命阶段知识的意义。根据我们的发现，我们强调了考虑知识储备不足的群体（如儿童和妇女）的重要性，将其纳入未来的研究。
