Collaborative research and the hunting in the Brazilian Cerrado: The case of Xerente Indigenous Land

Abstract

This paper presents a study of the hunting activities on Xerente Indigenous Land (XIL) in the Brazilian Cerrado. We used data from a Hunting Monitoring Program from eight villages to evaluate the effects of village age, distance from village to town and season (wet and dry) on the composition of hunted species, animals and biomass killed and availability of preferred game-species. We also assessed for any indication of fauna depletion around the villages. Distance from village to town and season were the only variables which affected composition. Preferred species occured more often in villages closer to the town. However, these villages present strong indications of local game-species depletion. The hunters' great capacity for spatial movement can eliminate this effect. Animals and biomass killed was high in the dry season. Game-species composition between seasons can avoid the overexploitation of some sensitive species, such as low-land tapir. These results are important in the design of local management and conservation plans. Our results also contribute to further understanding the impacts of hunting in open Neotropical environments.

The “Guamúchil” cultivation in a Mexican cultural landscape: A wild food source for people and birds

“…Its study is fundamental to identify the factors, preferences, and resources that require survival. Research has largely focused on determining the food items that are consumed by indigenous communities within their territories (de Paula et al, 2018;Akinola et al, 2020;Thompson et al, 2020), whereas animal feeding use of cultural landscapes has been poorly assessed (Ortega-Álvarez and Casas, 2022). Moreover, little investigation has been performed to understand how a common food resource might simultaneously affect the fauna and indigenous communities.…”