TY - JOUR
T1 - Cultural, practical, and economic value of wild plants
T2 - A quantitative study in the Bolivian Amazon
AU - Reyes-García, Victoria
AU - Huanca, Tomás
AU - Vadez, Vincent
AU - Leonard, William
AU - Wilkie, David
N1 - Funding Information:
Funds for this research came from the National Science Foundation (SBR-9731240 and SBR-9904318), the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Conservation, Food and Health Foundation, the Central de Pueblos Indigenas del Oriente Boliviano, and the Wenner-Gren Foundation (Gr-7250). We would like to thank Wendy Townsend for encouraging the research. We thank the Gran Consejo Tsi-mane', L. Apaza, E. Byron, D. Ista, A. Nate, J. Pache, and E. P6rez for their support with field-work and logistics, and ICRISAT-Patancheru for providing office facilities to Reyes-Garcia. We thank R. Godoy, W. McClatchey, D. Moer-man, and one anonymous reviewer for comments on previous versions of the article.
PY - 2006/3
Y1 - 2006/3
N2 - Researchers have developed several indices to estimate the significance of plant species for humans. We build on previous methods in ethnobotany and anthropology to develop a new way to value plant species along three dimensions: cultural, practical, and economic. We used interview and observational data on the use of wild plants by the Tsimane', a foraging-horticultural society in the Bolivian Amazon. We calculated the cultural, practical, economic, and total values of 114 plant species from 46 families. We found a low correlation between the practical and the cultural values of species: some species rarely used were frequently mentioned in interviews, whereas some species frequently used were rarely mentioned in interviews. Indices of cultural, practical, and economic value measure different dimensions of the importance of plant species to society. The combination of the three indices offers a more comprehensive valuation of the significance of plants for humans than the use of only one index.
AB - Researchers have developed several indices to estimate the significance of plant species for humans. We build on previous methods in ethnobotany and anthropology to develop a new way to value plant species along three dimensions: cultural, practical, and economic. We used interview and observational data on the use of wild plants by the Tsimane', a foraging-horticultural society in the Bolivian Amazon. We calculated the cultural, practical, economic, and total values of 114 plant species from 46 families. We found a low correlation between the practical and the cultural values of species: some species rarely used were frequently mentioned in interviews, whereas some species frequently used were rarely mentioned in interviews. Indices of cultural, practical, and economic value measure different dimensions of the importance of plant species to society. The combination of the three indices offers a more comprehensive valuation of the significance of plants for humans than the use of only one index.
KW - Bolivia
KW - Ethnobotanical knowledge
KW - Indices of cultural significance
KW - Tsimane' indigenous peoples
KW - Uses of plant
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U2 - 10.1663/0013-0001(2006)60[62:CPAEVO]2.0.CO;2
DO - 10.1663/0013-0001(2006)60[62:CPAEVO]2.0.CO;2
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:33646038861
VL - 60
SP - 62
EP - 74
JO - Economic Botany
JF - Economic Botany
SN - 0013-0001
IS - 1
ER -