Abstract
Traditional Knowledge, Use, and Management ofAphandra natalia(Arecaceae) in Amazonian Peru. Along the Pastaza and Urituyacu rivers in Peru, 100 informants in four villages knew 17 different uses of the piassaba fiber palm, Aphandra natalia (Balslev and Henderson) Barfod. Human consumption of fruits, extraction of fibers for trade, and harvesting leaves for thatch were the most frequently reported uses. Twenty uses were documented previously in the literature, and eight are reported here for the first time. Knowledge concerning the use of A. natalia among villagers varied significantly with ethnicity, village, and gender, but not with education or age; Amerindian informants knew more than non-Amerindian informants, and men knew more than women. Old and young informants knew about the same numbers of uses, and those who had little formal school training knew as many as those who had attended school for a longer time. Although 44% of our informants knew about fiber extraction, trade involving Aphandra fibers was not of great economic importance in our study area. Because fiber extraction has been documented as the most important use in all previous studies of A. natalia, it was surprising to find that people in one of the studied villages did not use A. natalia for that purpose at all. In contrast to previous observations, the extraction of fibers involved the destructive felling of the palms. We recommend implementing non-destructive extraction techniques so that local communities could exploit the fiber resource in a sustainable way. Non-destructive extraction methods involve cutting leaves from standing palms instead of felling the entire tree and leaving a few leaves on each extracted palm. However, given the limited economic incentive to the extractor, market mechanisms may be the greatest barrier to implementing sustainable extraction techniques.
Conocimientos tradicionales, uso, y manejo de Aphandra natalia (Arecaceae) en la Amazonía del Perú. A lo largo de los ríos Pastaza y Urituyacu en Perú, 100 informantes en cuatro comunidades conocían 17 usos diferentes de la palma piasaba, Aphandra natalia (Balslev & Henderson) Barfod. El consumo humano de sus frutos, extracción de fibras para su venta, y la cosecha de hojas para techar las casas, eran los usos mas frecuentemente reportados. Anteriormente se conocían 20 usos de esta palma y ocho usos están reportadas por primera vez en esta publicación. El conocimiento tradicional relacionado con el uso de A. natalia en las comunidades estudiadas fue significativamente variable en cuanto a etnicidad, comunidad, y género, pero no en cuanto a educación y edad. Informantes indígenas sabían más que informantes no-indígenas y los hombres sabían más que las mujeres. Informantes jóvenes y de mayor edad conocían el mismo número de usos de la piasaba y los que tenían pocos años de estudios escolares conocían el mismo número de usos que los que habían atendido colegio por más años. Aunque 44% de los informantes tenían conocimiento de la extracción de las fibra de piasaba, el negocio con la fibra no era de gran importancia en las comunidades visitadas. En todos los estudios anteriores de A. natalia, la extracción de fibra ha sido reportada como el uso más importante. Sin embargo, en una de las comunidades estudiadas ese uso de la palma no era conocido. En contraste a observaciones anteriores, la extracción de fibra se llevó a cabo con métodos destructivos, tumbando la palma. Recomendamos la implementación de tecnicas de extracción no-destructivas para que el uso de este recurso sea sostenible. Las técnicas no-destructivas dejan 5–6 hojas en la palma cosechada, sin tumbarla. Sin embargo, los incentivos económicos a los que cosechan la fibra son muy limitados, por lo cual los mecanismos del mercado pueden ser la barrera mas importantes para la implementación de técnicas sostenibles de extracción de este recurso.
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Acknowledgments
Our work on palms is supported by the Danish Natural Science Research Council via grants to HB (272-06-0476). We thank the villagers in Sungachi, Velasco, Reforma, and Guineal for their hospitality. Fieldwork for this study was supported by a grant from the Danida Research Council to HB (104.Dan.8-764) and grants from the Faculty of Science, Aarhus University, to MK and TRK.
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Balslev, H., Knudsen, T.R., Byg, A. et al. Traditional Knowledge, Use, and Management of Aphandra natalia (Arecaceae) in Amazonian Peru. Econ Bot 64, 55–67 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12231-009-9105-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12231-009-9105-4