Valuation of Forests and Plant Species in Indigenous Territory
and National Park Isiboro-Sécure, Bolivia
1
E
VERT
T
HOMAS
*
,2
,I
NA
V
ANDEBROEK
3
,
AND
P
ATRICK
V
AN
D
AMME
2
2
Laboratory of Tropical and Subtropical Agriculture and Ethnobotany, Ghent University, Coupure
links 653, B-9000, Ghent, Belgium
3
Institute of Economic Botany, The New York Botanical Garden, 2900 Southern Boulevard, New
York, NY 10458, USA
*Corresponding author; e-mail: evert.thomas@gmail.com
Valuation of Forests and Plant Species in Indigenous Territory and National Park Isiboro-
Sécure, Bolivia. A quantitative ethnobotanical study was conducted in Indigenous Territory and
National Park Isiboro-Sécure (TIPNIS), Bolivia, to assess the usefulness assigned by local Yuracaré
and Trinitario ethnic groups to different terra firme and floodplain forests. Furthermore, we
investigated which variables are good predictors for the use value attributed to plant species in
the research area. Plants were collected during transect, walk-in-the-woods and homegarden
sampling. Ethnobotanical and ethnoecological data of the inventoried plants were obtained
from 12 Yuracaré and 14 Trinitario participants through semistructured interviews. On average,
84% of species in transects were claimed to be useful to people. The understorey (2.5 cm≤dbh
<10 cm) of the sampled forest types contained more useful species than the overstorey (dbh ≥
10 cm), particularly for species with a medicinal and/or social use function. The local use value
of plant species can be predicted, in part, from their botanical family, growth form, density,
frequency, mean and maximum dbh, and ecological importance value. Our data confirm the
hypothesis that density and frequency of plants in the landscape are both related to perceived
plant accessibility. Accessibility of plants partly seems to guide their usefulness in TIPNIS. Indi-
genous assessment of accessibility and abundance of plants also covaried with their perceived
usefulness and therefore has a potential for uncovering patterns in the perceived utility of plants.
Key Words: TIPNIS; 0.1-ha transects; quantitative ethnobotany; Yuracaré; Trinitario; Mojeño;
use value; accessibility.
Introduction
Ethnobotanical research in combination with
quantitative ecological sampling methods that
make use of plots or transects has gained
considerable importance over the past twenty
years. Such quantitative ecological and ethnobo-
tanical data have been used to calculate the
proportion of useful plant species over available
species (De Walt et al. 1999; Galeano 2000;
Prance et al. 1987; Thomas et al. 2008; van
Andel 2000) and to distinguish “more useful”
vegetation types from others (Phillips et al. 1994;
Thomas et al. 2009b). Obviously, a particular
vegetation type owes its overall perceived plant
usefulness to the variable usefulness of the plant
species it contains. Some plant species are clearly
considered more useful than others by local
people. Ethnobotanists have frequently linked
plant usefulness to a number of phylogenetic,
physical, ecological, physiognomic, and organo-
leptic parameters (Galeano 2000; Lawrence et al.
2005; Phillips and Gentry 1993b; Thomas et al.
2009a, b; Voeks 2004). For example, it is a
widely accepted notion that people are more
likely to learn, name, and use those plants that are
more accessible and/or salient to them (Adu-Tutu
et al. 1979; Byg et al. 2006; Lawrence et al. 2005;
Moerman et al. 1999; Phillips and Gentry 1993b;
Thomas et al. 2009a, b; Torre-Cuadros and
Islebe 2003; Turner 1988; Voeks 2004). This
Economic Botany, 63(3), 2009, pp. 229–241.
© 2009, by The New York Botanical Garden Press, Bronx, NY 10458-5126 U.S.A.
1
Received 6 October 2008; accepted 30 April
2009; published online 30 May 2009.