Non-timber Forest Products of Mauritia flexuosa L. f.: Loss or Permanence of TEK in Quilombola Communities of Southern Amazon?

Abstract

While Non-timber forest products are relevant to conservation and development, there are diverse drivers that have a complex impact on their use and traditional ecological knowledge (TEK). The erosion of TEK and its causes were evaluated on buriti (Mauritia flexuosa L. f.) in Quilombola communities in Brazil, by using ethnographic and ethnobotanical methods, including snow ball, 23 interviews, and participant observation. Informants reported 15 different uses of buriti divided into five categories (food, animal feed, handicrafts, construction, and ornamental); however, only five uses were actively performed until the end of this study. Differences between knowledge and uses of buriti could be attributed to proximity to urban centers, public policies for livestock production, and decreasing interest in handcraft manufacturing by using local resources. Therefore, it is important to ensure that knowledge and traditional practices in rural communities are combined for the socioeconomic benefits of rural/urban connection. Additionally, public policies need to focus on the local potential associated with biodiversity – including buriti – and with the TEK associated, instead of encouraging exotic cultures that significantly decrease biological and cultural diversity.

Mauritia flexuosa L.f. (Buriti) Forest Description: Hydro-edaphic Effects on Tree Species Distribution in Western Amazon

“…Both studies emphasise the ecological importance of this monodominant species in its habitat, along with other high-value species such as Virola surinamensis and Euterpe precatoria. However, our ndings also indicate a high species richness, with 112 species recorded, in contrast to the lower richness observed by Sander et al (2017) in the Juruena-Mirim Area of Relevant Ecological Interest, located in the southern Amazon region.…”

“…A comparison of the studies by Sander (2014), Sander et al (2017) reveals that our study highlights a lower species richness in the buritizal transect (T3) speci cally, compared to other environments. This corroborates the observation by Oliveira et al (2017) about the variation in species composition in different savannah habitats.…”

“…A comparison of the studies by Sander (2014), Sander et al (2017), Oliveira et al (2017Oliveira et al ( , 2019 revealed similarities and differences in the oristic and phytosociological characteristics of the buritizais, and in the distribution of the Mauritia exuosa species. Our study, conducted in the ARIE Javari-Buriti, highlights the signi cant presence of Mauritia exuosa, corroborating the ndings of Sander (2014) in a buritizal on the Amazon-Cerrado biological border.…”

Afro-diasporic ethnobotany: Food plants and food sovereignty of Quilombos in Brazil

“…The other included three communities (Boqueirão, Retiro, and Casalvasco Manga), close to urban areas in the transition between the Cerrado and the Amazon biome and showed that women were mainly responsible for the minimal processing of the buriti fruit into juice, sweets, and oil. In these communities, the increase in women per capita income has negatively influenced resource use (Sander et al 2018) . In the Atlantic Forest biome, Quilombola communities Cambury and Fazenda have identified, based on participatory resource assessment methodologies, cambucá (Plinia edulis) as a high-priority food resource for conservation and management of territories (Rodrigues et al 2020) .…”

“…We identified 39 Quilombola communities participating in the 24 studies reviewed. Some articles included more than one Quilombola community or more than one study; for example, Aldeia, Morro do Fortunato, and Santa Cruz, in the south of the Atlantic Forest were studied by (Ávila et al 2015, 2017) , and the Kalunga Engenho II community in the Cerrado biome was studied in more than one article (Martins et al 2012, Sander et al 2018.…”