Using indigenous knowledge to link land cover mapping with land use in the Venezuelan Amazon

Abstract

Remote sensing and traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) can be combined to advance conservation of remote tropical regions, e.g. Amazonia, where intensive in situ surveys are often not possible. Integrating TEK into monitoring and management of these areas allows for community participation, as well as for offering novel insights into sustainable resource use. In this study, we developed a 250 m resolution land-cover map of the Western Guyana Shield (Venezuela) based on remote sensing, and used TEK to validate its relevance for indigenous livelihoods and land uses. We first employed a hyper-temporal remotely sensed vegetation index to derive a land classification system. During a 1 300 km, eight day fluvial expedition in roadless areas in the Amazonas State (Venezuela), we visited six indigenous communities who provided geo-referenced data on hunting, fishing and farming activities. We overlaid these TEK data onto the land classification map, to link land classes with indigenous use. We characterized land classes using patterns of greenness temporal change and topo-hydrological information, and proposed 12 land-cover types, grouped into five main landscapes: 1) water bodies; 2) open lands/forest edges; 3) evergreen forests; 4) submontane semideciduous forests, and 5) cloud forests. Each land cover class was identified with a pulsating profile describing temporal changes in greenness, hence we labelled our map as "The Forest Pulse". These greenness profiles showed a slightly increasing trend, for the period 2000 to 2009, in the land classes representing grassland and scrubland, and a slightly decreasing trend in the classes representing forests. This finding is consistent with a gain in carbon in grassland as a consequence of climate warming, and also with some loss of vegetation in the forests. Thus, our classification shows potential to assess future effects of climate change on landscape. Several classes were significantly connected with agriculture, fishing, overall hunting, and more specifically the hunting of primates, Mazama americana, Dasyprocta fuliginosa, and Tayassu pecari. Our results showed that TEK-based approaches can serve as a basis for validating the livelihood relevance of landscapes in high-value conservation areas, which can form the basis for furthering the management of natural resources in these regions. Rev. Biol. Trop. 64 (4): 1661-1682. Epub 2016 December 01.Key words: Amazonia, forest conservation, greenness, indigenous people, land cover, land use, remote sensing. Alarming deforestation rates for the entire Amazon region imperil the future of this highbiodiversity biome (Saatchi, Nelson, Podest, & Holt, 2000). By the end of the 21st century, forest cover in this region is predicted to have declined at rates of up to 80 %, as a result of climate warming and desiccation Cox et al., 2004; Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, 2007;Salazar, Nobre, & Oyama, 2007; Nepstad, Stickler, SoaresFilho, & Merry, 2008). Range and rates of deforestation in the Amazon have been deter...

Evergreen forest types of the central plains in Cambodia: floristic composition and ecological characteristics

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Relating inclusive innovations to Indigenous and local knowledge: a conceptual framework

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Drones and Geographical Information Technologies in Agroecology and Organic Farming Contributions to Technological Sovereignty

“…To better understand social dynamics of land-use changes, the effectiveness of sustainability policies and projects, the drivers of unsustainable actions, and the behaviors of different actors (in particular, indigenous people and settlers), researchers often combine social fieldwork (georeferenced surveys, interviews, participatory mapping) and Census data with RS analysis in targeted geographic areas (Rudel et al, 2002;Lu et al, 2010;De Espindola et al, 2012;Ribeiro et al, 2014;Caviglia-Harris and Harris, 2008;Sirén and Brondizio, 2009). This technique is also useful in investigating the role of indigenous traditional ecological knowledge and practices in forest conservation (Olivero et al, 2016;Paneque-Gálvez et al, 2018). Moreover, combination with other spatial data concerning exploitative activities, future projects, and environmental variables (slope, elevation, soil types, etc.)…”