BackgroundRecent reviews have demonstrated an increase in the number of papers on ethnobiology in Latin America. Among factors that have influenced this increase are the biological and cultural diversity of these countries and the general scientific situation in some countries. This study aims to assess the panorama of ethnobiological research in Latin America by analyzing its evolution, trends, and future prospects.MethodsTo conduct this study, we searched for papers in the Scopus (http://www.scopus.com) and Web of Science (http://www.isiknowledge.com) databases. The search was performed using combinations of keywords and the name of each Latin American country. The following countries were included in this study: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Ecuador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Venezuela, and Uruguay.Results and conclusionsAccording to our inclusion criteria, 679 ethnobiological studies conducted in Latin America were found for the period between 1963 and 2012. Of these studies, 289 (41%) were conducted in Brazil, 153 in Mexico (22%), 61 in Peru (9%), 58 in Argentina (8%), 45 in Bolivia (6%), and 97 (14%) in other Latin American countries. The increased number of publications related to this area of knowledge in recent years demonstrates the remarkable growth of ethnobiology as a science. Ethnobiological research may be stimulated by an increase in the number of scientific events and journals for study dissemination and by the creation of undergraduate courses and graduate programs to train ethnoscientists who will produce high-quality studies, especially in certain countries.

Although a growing number of investigations have considered the theme of environmental perception, few have focused directly on young people. The present study examines the perceptions of the local landscape held by students in fifth through eighth grades in the municipality of Igarassu in the Atlantic Forest-namely, Pernambuco (northeastern Brazil). To that end, students were asked to write an essay with the prompt, ''When someone talks about the forest, I think of….'' They were also asked to make a drawing with the prompt, ''When I think of the forest I see….'' Afterward, a structured interview (projective type) was conducted using six photographs of environments with different degrees of anthropogenic interference. The students were asked to order the photographs according to the degree of preference they felt toward them. In the majority of essays, it was possible to determine esthetic and utilitarian aspects of the forest, descriptions of its biodiversity, as well as the sentiments of the students in relation to the environment and to the necessity of protecting it. The drawings showed a large number of exotic elements, which may have been influenced by the current teaching methods that do not contextualize pedagogical subjects within local reality. In terms of the ordering of the photographs, it was observed that, for the students in fifth and seventh grades, the image of a less urbanized environment stood out as most preferred, while a natural environment was last in the preferences of students. For the students in sixth grade, the image of a natural environment was most preferred, while a less urbanized environment was the least preferred. The students of the eighth grade demonstrated satisfaction with images of an urban environment, while the natural environment represented by an image of the forest occupied last place in their preferences. This type of inquiry may be useful to environmental education programs, as our findings help such programs adapt their efforts specifically to the visions and expectations of their focal groups.Readers should send their comments on this paper to: BhaskarNath@aol.com within 3 months of publication of this issue.

Historical Ethnobotany is an area of research responsible for understanding past interrelationships between people and plant using written records and iconography. The literature on this topic is scattered, and many of these studies are not recognised as such; therefore, it is difficult to compile historical ethnobotanical data. Accordingly, this study attempted to draw a general picture of the publications in this field. The Scopus, ISI Web of Knowledge and Scirus databases were used to search for articles with such keywords as “Ethnobotany + History” and “Historical Ethnobotany” among others. After the studies were selected, information was extracted that included the continents addressed and historical ages. Most studies encompassed a time frame that began in the Modern Age (54.7%), and 46% of the studies were focused on the American continent. With regard to the nature of the source, 98% of the studies included written records, and publications that used the documental analysis as a secondary data in their scope of research were among the most frequent types of studies that were found. In respect to iconographic sources, paintings were used in 6% of the studies. A total of 66% of the studies involved a species or species group as the study object. Our survey revealed the vast scope of these Historical Ethnobotany studies. We believe that this scientific field has great potential for future development and that its findings will only grow in importance considering the current ethnobotanical debate.

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