Local knowledge of homegarden plants in Miao ethnic communities in Laershan region, Xiangxi area, China.

BACKGROUND: Homegardens are small-scale land use systems with significant implications for local livelihoods, biodiversity conservation, and sustainable development due to their diverse flora and fauna. Conducting homegarden surveys enables researchers to gain insights into the traditional ecological knowledge of indigenous communities, preserve homegarden biodiversity, and promote sustainable livelihoods. This study has two objectives: first, to collect, record, and organize data on homegarden plants and related traditional knowledge from three communities in the Laershan Plateau, and second, to analyze the species and functional diversity of homegarden plants in the region while exploring the factors that contribute to the heterogeneous distribution of these plants among the communities of three townships. METHODS: This research employed field surveys in the Laershan Miao Autonomous Region in Xiangxi, China, from September 2021 to August 2023. Data were collected through observation and semi-structured interviews. The study utilized descriptive statistics and quantitative analysis, including the Relative Importance Value (RI), Use Value Index (UV), Jaccard Index (JI), and Comprehensive Index of Land Use Degree (La), to examine the diversity of local homegarden plants and related traditional knowledge, as well as community heterogeneity. RESULTS: The study area exhibited rich biodiversity, with 152 plant species recorded belonging to 62 families and 124 genera. These findings highlight the importance of homegarden plants in maintaining ecological balance and enhancing system resilience against disturbances. Homegarden plants serve multiple functions such as food, ornamental, medicinal, and fodder purposes, with edible and trade plants having the most abundant knowledge. Furthermore, this research revealed that communities with similar forest resource compositions may have similar homegarden plant compositions, demonstrating the connection between cultural exchange among different communities and patterns of plant species distribution. CONCLUSIONS: The Laershan region boasts diverse homegarden plant species crucial for ecological balance and resilience. Their multifunctionality reflects human impact. Plant diversity varies with residents' lifestyles, needs, and cultural exchanges. The close connection between plants and local life is clear. Factors like resource distribution, cultural exchange, and lifestyle influence plant distribution. Further research is needed for conservation and sustainable development. Future research should focus on culturally valuable plant species and traditional knowledge applications.

Making the most of scarce biological resources in the desert: Loptuq material culture in Eastern Turkestan around 1900.

BACKGROUND: Most fisher-gatherer communities we know of utilized a limited number of natural resources for their livelihood. The Turkic-speaking Loptuq (exonym Loplik, Loplyk) in the Lower Tarim River basin, Taklamakan desert, Eastern Turkestan (Xinjiang), were no exception. Their habitat, the Lop Nor marsh and lake area, was surrounded by desert and very poor in plant species; the Loptuq had to make the most of a handful of available biological resources for housing, furniture, clothing and fabric, fishnets and traps, tools and other equipment. The taxa used by the Loptuq were documented by foreign explorers at the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth centuries, prior to the forced resettlement of the group in the 1950s and subsequent destruction of their language, lifestyle and culture. METHODS AND SOURCES: Ethnobiology explores the relationship between humans and their environment, including the use of biological resources for different purposes. In several aspects, historical ethnobiology is more challenging; it studies this relationship in the past and therefore cannot verify results with informants. As the present study discusses an extinct culture on the basis of literary and material sources, we apply a method called source pluralism. This approach allows the inclusion and combination of a wide range of data and materials, even scraps of information from various sources, with the aim to understand phenomena which are sparsely mentioned in historical records. Travel reports by Swedish, British, German, American and Russian explorers together with linguistic data provide the most important sources for understanding Loptuq interaction with the environment and its biota. Especially the large number of toponyms and phytonyms recorded by the Swedish explorer Sven Hedin and materials from his expeditions, including voucher specimens kept in Stockholm in the herbarium of the Swedish Natural History Museum, and objects of material culture in the collections of the Ethnographical Museum, are crucial for our analysis about local knowledge among the Loptuq. Illustrations and photographs provide us with additional information. RESULTS: The question of how the Loptuq managed to survive at the fringe of a desert, a marsh and a lake which changed its location, intrigued all foreign visitors to the Lop Nor. The Loptuq's main livelihood was fishing, hunting and gathering, and their material culture provided by plants and other organic materials included their usage, consumption and trade. Only a handful of species formed the basis of the Loptuq material culture, but they had learned to use these specific plants for a variety of purposes. The most important of these were Lop hemp, Poacynum pictum (Schrenk) Baill., the riparian tree Euphrates poplar, Populus euphratica Olivier, and the aquatic common reed, Phragmites australis (Cav.) Trin. ex Steud. Several species of tamarisk were used for fuel and building fences. A few plants were also harvested for making foodstuffs such as snacks and potherbs. In addition, the Loptuq also used fur, bird skins, down, feathers, mammal bones and fish bones for their material needs. The habitat provided cultural ecological services such as motifs for their folklore, linguistic expressions and songs, and the Loptuq engaged in small-scale bartering of plant products and furs with itinerant traders, which ensured them with a supply of metal for making tools. CONCLUSION: This article discusses the now extinct Loptuq material culture as it existed more than a hundred years ago, and how the scarce biological resources of their desert and marsh habitat were utilized. Loptuq adaptation strategies to the environment and local knowledge, transmitted over generations, which contributed to their survival and subsistence, were closely connected with the use of biological resources. For this study, a comprehensive approach has been adopted for the complex relationships between human, biota and landscape. The Loptuq are today largely ignored or deleted from history for political reasons and are seldom, if at all, mentioned in modern sources about the Lop Nor area. Their experience and knowledge, however, could be useful today, in a period of rapid climate change, for others living in or at the fringe of expanding deserts.

Appraising biocultural approaches to sustainability in the scientific literature in Spanish.

Biocultural approaches that acknowledge the multiple and dynamic relationships between the diversity of cultures and nature are growing in popularity in sustainability research. Scientific contributions to biocultural approaches written in Spanish are numerous, including influential work on biocultural memory, biocultural heritage and biocultural ethics. However, despite linguistic diversity being considered essential in knowledge production for assuring broad and balanced evidence to successfully cope with sustainability challenges, non-English literature is rarely reviewed and taken into account in English-language scientific knowledge production and publications. This review assesses how the scientific literature in Spanish conceptualizes and applies biocultural approaches, showing their richness beyond the Anglophone predominance in academic knowledge production and communication. The results suggest that insights from Spanish-language scientific literature could contribute alternative methodological and theoretical pathways for biocultural approaches that might foster transformations for more sustainable human-nature relationships. We conclude by highlighting avenues that could bring more plural biocultural studies.

RESUMEN: Los enfoques bioculturales, que reconocen relaciones múltiples y dinámicas entre la diversidad de culturas y la naturaleza, son cada vez más populares en la investigación sobre la sostenibilidad. Las contribuciones científicas en español son numerosas, incluyendo trabajos sobre la memoria, la ética y el patrimonio biocultural. La diversidad lingüística se considera esencial en la producción de conocimientos para asegurar una base equilibrada de evidencias que permita afrontar los retos de la sostenibilidad. Sin embargo, rara vez se considera la literatura de habla no inglesa en la producción científica en inglés. Esta revisión evalúa cómo la literatura científica en español conceptualiza y aplica enfoques bioculturales, mostrando su riqueza más allá de la predominancia anglosajona en la producción de conocimiento académico. Los resultados sugieren que las perspectivas de la literatura en español podrían aportar propuestas teóricas y metodológicas alternativas. Concluimos destacando maneras que podrían contribuir a hacer más plurales las investigaciones bioculturales.

Harvesting Bertholletia excelsa Bonpl. in a western Amazon rural community: local ecological knowledge and meaning to "nut-crackers".

INTRODUCTION: The collection of Bertholletia excelsa Bonpl. (castanha-da-Amazônia; Brazil nuts) seeds make up part of the everyday activities of the traditional populations that have inhabited all of the Amazon basin since remote times. Nonetheless, knowledge about these harvesting activities in native forest areas has not been well documented. The present study was designed to better understand the significance of this harvesting activity as well as the traditional ecological knowledge of the harvesters. METHODS: Utilizamos entrevistas semiestruturadas para a coleta de dados com extrativistas de castanha, moradores de Caroebe, Roraima (n = 18) durante o período de março de 2021 a março de 2022. The data analysis was based on the frequency of responses to socio-economic questions and their knowledge about that plant species as well as why those interviewees chose that line of work. We also adopted the Spearman and Mann-Whitney non-parametric tests to correlate variables identified in the study, and selected sections of their depositions to highlight the traditional knowledge of the interviewees and their experiences as harvesters. RESULTS: Constatamos que as razões para a escolha do trabalho com o extrativismo para todos os entrevistados é a necessidade de renda complementar, tradição familiar (55%), the sense of well-being provided by contact with the natural environment (25%), and a favorable disposition toward that type of work (11%). Harvesting involves collective work, and many of the interviewees had engaged in those efforts to help their families since their childhood or adolescence. The older harvesters cited more animal species that consumed the Brazil nuts (ρ = 0.60; p = 0.009) and perceived more and greater changes in the environment that were prejudicial to the Brazil nut trees (U = 9.50; p = 0.022). The interviewees who reported lower incomes cited more significant cultural changes and more suggestions concerning conservation activities. According to their statements, deforestation, and the burning and illegal cutting of native trees, including Brazil nut trees, have contributed to environmental change in the region and raised significant concerns about the future of harvesting activities. CONCLUSION: The activities of the "nut-crackers" represent to them more than just a simple source of income, as harvesting provides them with a connection to nature that promotes their well-being and cultural heritage. The nut harvesters have gained specific knowledge concerning both environmental and cultural changes. Those changes have mainly come about through the expansion of agricultural activities and the felling of native forests-which are the main threats to the future of Brazil nut extraction. Attributing value to the folk knowledge of those harvesters would strengthen the local economy, promote forest conservation, and help to better understand the impacts of anthropic activities on the forest and the harvesting of natural products.

Boundary Spanning Methodological Approaches for Collaborative Moose Governance in Eeyou Istchee.

Natural resource governance challenges are often highly complex, particularly in Indigenous contexts. These challenges involve numerous landscape-level interactions, spanning jurisdictional, disciplinary, social, and ecological boundaries. In Eeyou Istchee, the James Bay Cree Territory of northern Quebec, Canada, traditional livelihoods depend on wild food species like moose. However, these species are increasingly being impacted by forestry and other resource development projects. The complex relationships between moose, resource development, and Cree livelihoods can limit shared understandings and the ability of diverse actors to respond to these pressures. Contributing to this complexity are the different knowledge systems held by governance actors who, while not always aligned, have broadly shared species conservation and sustainable development goals. This paper presents fuzzy cognitive mapping (FCM) as a methodological approach used to help elicit and interpret the knowledge of land-users concerning the impacts of forest management on moose habitat in Eeyou Istchee. We explore the difficulties of weaving this knowledge together with the results of moose GPS collar analysis and the knowledges of scientists and government agencies. The ways in which participatory, relational mapping approaches can be applied in practice, and what they offer to pluralistic natural resource governance research more widely, are then addressed.

Integrating local and scientific knowledge: The need for decolonising knowledge for conservation and natural resource management.

Integrating Indigenous and local knowledge in conservation and natural resource management (NRM) initiatives is necessary to achieve sustainability, equity, and responsiveness to local realities and needs. Knowledge integration is the starting point for converging different knowledge systems and enabling knowledge co-production. This process is also a key prerequisite towards decolonising the research process. However, power imbalances may perpetuate dominant forms of knowledge over others, obstruct knowledge integration, and eventually cause the loss of knowledge of the marginal and less powerful knowledge holders. Despite increasing interest in knowledge integration for conservation, NRM, and landscape governance, documentation of integration processes remains fragmented and somewhat scarce. This semi-systematic literature review contributes to filling this gap by synthesising methods, procedures, opportunities, and challenges regarding integrating and decolonising knowledge for conservation and NRM in Southern Africa. The findings demonstrate that despite an increasing number of studies seeking to integrate Indigenous and local knowledge and scientific knowledge relevant to conservation and NRM, methods, procedures, and opportunities are poorly and vaguely documented, and challenges and colonial legacies are often overlooked. Documentation, valuing Indigenous and local knowledge, addressing power relations, and collaboration across knowledge systems are missing steps towards efficient knowledge integration. The paper concludes that there is a need for further research and relevant policies. These should address methods and implications for equitable knowledge integration processes and move beyond knowledge sharing and mutual learning towards decolonising knowledge for conservation and NRM.

Decolonizing ELT teacher education by incorporating knowledge of local communities in the teaching practicum.

Despite significant advances in the epistemological frameworks that guide teacher education in Colombia and elsewhere, it continues to be governed mostly by traditional Eurocentric paradigms. Decolonizing teacher education requires epistemological moves to resignify the plurality of local knowledges and praxis. This article aims at reporting a qualitative research project carried out with three student teachers of a teacher education program with emphasis on English, at a public university in the northeast of Colombia. The main objective was to explore and reflect on how EFL pre-service teachers incorporated knowledge of local communities as resources for language teaching and learning during the practicum. Data were gathered over a three-semester period through pre-service teachers' lesson plans, materials, a final academic report, and a semi-structured interview. Data were analyzed based on the principles of thematic data analysis. Findings revealed that student teachers approached knowledge from an ecological perspective coming from different ways of knowing, seeing, being and living in the world. At the same time, the ecology of knowledges helped them to overcome the challenges they faced during the project.

Local Voices: Perspectives from the Local Community on the Primates of Kakamega Forest, Western Kenya.

From the perspective of a field research team comprising members of the local community near a rain forest in western Kenya, we describe the relationship between local people and local primates. Local people generally have little knowledge about the natural history of the monkeys living nearby, with people living closer to the forest knowing more. Most have a negative attitude toward monkeys because they occasionally forage on agricultural crops. A few people value monkey meat, which they believe to enhance human health. Participating in research on the behavioral ecology of blue monkeys allowed the author team to learn a great deal about these animals, including their role in the forest ecosystem and their behavioral similarities to humans. This experience differentiates their attitudes from most other members of their local community. However, the attitudes of local people are changing along with lifestyles. With more children in school and adults finding paid work, local people today generally have less experience of the forest than previous generations. A more tolerant attitude toward monkeys, recognizing their role in the forest ecosystem and their similarities to humans, is emerging among those who have been taught about biodiversity. This perspective is likely to contribute to their successful conservation.

Communicating climate change and biodiversity loss with local populations: exploring communicative utopias in eight transdisciplinary case studies.

Climate change and biodiversity loss trigger policies targeting and impacting local communities worldwide. However, research and policy implementation often fail to sufficiently consider community responses and to involve them. We present the results of a collective self-assessment exercise for eight case studies of communications with regard to climate change or biodiversity loss between project teams and local communities. We develop eight indicators of good stakeholder communication, reflecting the scope of Verran's (2002) concept of postcolonial moments as a communicative utopia. We demonstrate that applying our indicators can enhance communication and enable community responses. However, we discover a divergence between timing, complexity and (introspective) effort. Three cases qualify for postcolonial moments, but scrutinising power relations and genuine knowledge co-production remain rare. While we verify the potency of various instruments for deconstructing science, their sophistication cannot substitute trust building and epistemic/transdisciplinary awareness. Lastly, we consider that reforming inadequate funding policies helps improving the work in and with local communities.

Beyond artificial academic debates: for a diverse, inclusive, and impactful ethnobiology and ethnomedicine.

In answer to the question "Should ethnobiology and ethnomedicine more decisively foster hypothesis-driven forefront research able to turn findings into policy and abandon more classical folkloric studies?", in this essay I argue that a major strength of ethnobiology and ethnomedicine is their ability to bridge theories and methods from the natural sciences, the social sciences, and the humanities. Hypothesis-driven research is a powerful way to structure thinking that can lead to forefront research findings. But hypothesis-driven research is not the only way to structure thinking and is not a necessary condition to impact policymaking. To increase policy impact, ethnobiology and ethnomedicine should continue nurturing a mixture of complementary methods and inclusive approaches as fragmentation through opposing different approaches might weaken the discipline. Moreover, with the aim to play a fundamental role in building bridges between different knowledge systems and co-producing solutions towards sustainability, the discipline could benefit from enlarging its epistemological grounds through more collaborative research. Ethnobiologists' research findings, hypothesis-driven, descriptive, or co-constructed can become leverage points to transform knowledge into actionable outcomes in different levels of decision-making.

Ethnobotany and conservation of the species Celtis toka (Forssk.) Hepper & J.R.I. wood: A way forward for sustainable use in Burkina Faso.

Celtis toka (C. toka), a critically endangered mystical plant, is a highly valued and overharvested multiuse tree species by local population in Burkina Faso. The ethnobotany of C. toka can lead to its sustainable use, therefore it is a great challenge because little information is available on this aspect concerning the species in Burkina Faso as well as in Africa. Thus, this study aims to assess the sustainable use and management of C. toka in Burkina Faso. The study was conducted along a climate gradient (Sudanian and Sudano-Sahelian climatic zones) in Burkina Faso. Data were collected randomly through selected semi-structured interviews with 405 informants (148 women and 257 men) randomly selected from 34 villages and 25 ethnolinguistic groups. Frequency of citation was computed. Kruskal-Wallis test, Mann-Whitney test and Generalized Linear Models analyses were performed to determine whatever information varied according to site and socio-demographic parameters. Among eight use categories, food (27.89%), livestock (18.97%), shade (16.23%), and pharmacopeia (14.92%) were the most recorded. Leaves (63.83%), roots (19.20%), and bark (17.11%) were the most valued plant parts. All plant parts were used to heal 29 ailments in 37 ways. The most common diseases treated by C. toka were vitamin deficiencies (FL = 8.84%), malaria (FL = 8.44%), cast (FL = 5.84%), madness (FL = 3.25%), eye ache (FL = 2.77%) and yellow fever (FL = 2.60%). Sacred forests (39%) and protected areas (27%) were the key biotopes of C. toka. Value of C. toka was well-treasured in the study sites. The frequency of citation of some use patterns and plant parts varied significantly across some ethnolinguistic groups, sex and generation levels (p < 0.05). Management such as sowing (0%), seedling transplantation (0%) and assisted natural regeneration (0%) were lacking. Sacred (37.99%), taboo (25.04%), mystic (11.62%), magic (10.28%) fetish (8.96%) and medico-magic (6.12%) characters of C. toka determined the traditional conservation strategies of the species in Burkina Faso. Our results recommend that the conservation policies and sustainable use of C. toka should be prioritized. Furthermore, studies should thus emphasize the domestication potential of C. toka for its plant parts.

The perceived value of local knowledge tourism: dimension identification and scale development.

Introduction: Local knowledge tourism encompasses the rich cultural heritage, historical narratives, and traditional practices of a specific destination. Despite its significance in enhancing the tourist experience, there is a dearth of research examining the subjective perceptions and values of visitors engaging in local knowledge tourism. Consequently, there is a pressing need to explore the composition of perceived tourist values in this unique context. Methods: Due to the exploratory nature of this research, a constructivist grounded theory and content analysis are applied to analyze the data. Results: This study identifies and conceptualizes five distinct dimensions of perceived values in local knowledge tourism: functional value, emotional value, social value, cognitive value, and self-actualization value. Furthermore, an 18-item scale is developed to measure these dimensions quantitatively. Discussion: This research makes several significant contributions: (1) it expands the scope of perceived value research within the tourism domain and enhances our understanding of the tourist experience in local knowledge tourism; (2) it provides a reliable instrument for future quantitative investigations into the behavior and mindset of local knowledge tourists; and (3) it offers theoretical foundations and practical insights for destination managers seeking to develop tourism products tailored to the preferences and expectations of local knowledge tourists.

Harnessing Fishers' local knowledge and their perceptions: Opportunities to improve management of coastal fishing in Mediterranean marine protected areas.

To contribute to the sustainable management of the coastal fishing in the future Marine Protected Area (MPA) of "Taza" (Algeria, SW Mediterranean), the aim of this study was to evaluate the Local Knowledge (LK) of fishers operating near the forthcoming MPA and to understand their conservation-oriented attitudes. Data were collected through interviews and participatory mapping. To this end, 30 face-to-face semi-structured interviews were conducted between June and September 2017 with fishers, collecting socioeconomic, biological, and ecological information in the fishing harbor of Ziama (Jijel, NE Algeria). The case study focuses on both professional and recreational coastal fisheries. This fishing harbor is located in the eastern part of the Gulf of Béjaia, a Bay located within the area of this future MPA, but outside its boundaries. Based on fishers' LK, cartography of fishing grounds within the MPA perimeter was obtained, while the perceived healthy bottom habitats and polluted areas in the Gulf were mapped by the use of a hard copy map. The results show that fishers present detailed knowledge that is consistent with literature about different target species and their breeding seasons, showing awareness about the reserve effects 'spillover' in enhancing local fisheries. Overall, the fishers noted that the good management of the MPA relies on limiting trawling in coastal areas and avoiding land-based pollution within the Gulf. Some of such management measures are already included in the proposed zoning plan, but lack of enforcement is a perceived constraint. Given the gap observed between the two shores of the Mediterranean Sea in terms of both financial resources and MPA coverage, the use of local knowledge system (e.g., fishers' LK and their perceptions) can enable the implementation of a cost-effective method to encourage the creation of new MPAs in the Southern shore for more ecological representativeness systems of MPAs at a Mediterranean scale. Therefore, this work offers management opportunities that may be used for addressing the lack of scientific knowledge in managing coastal fishing and valuing MPAs in Southern Mediterranean low-income countries characterized by a data-poor context.

Exploring animal husbandry in smallholder dairy systems in Ethiopia using photovoice.

This study uses photovoice to explore smallholder dairy farmers' husbandry knowledge and practices and document how they address constraints faced in pursuing their livelihood strategy. Currently, there is a paucity of farmer-led research in Ethiopia which captures farmers' local knowledge and lived experiences. This study was conducted in April and May 2021 in Kaliti, a sub-city of Addis Ababa, and Holeta, located near Addis Ababa, in the Oromia region of Ethiopia. Farmers were selected through purposive and snowball sampling approaches based on their previous participation in a bovine tuberculosis study. Farmers selection was based on their experience in dairy farming and willingness to attend research-related meetings and to engage in photo-taking and subsequent group discussions. Farmers were trained on the use of the digital camera and asked to take pictures of their day-to-day activities, challenges faced in pursuing dairy production and how they overcome these challenges. The pictures taken by farmers indicated their attachment to their cattle, cattle disease symptoms, manure management, pest control practices, cattle housing, feeding practices, milking hygiene and storage. Discussions revealed that husbandry challenges faced stemmed from land-use change, declining farm sizes, poor access to veterinary and animal health services, low milk prices and high cattle feed prices. Farmers explained that they had developed knowledge of cattle nutrition, such as feed ration mixing and ways to deal with manure problems. The results of this study underscore that farmers have a good understanding of husbandry challenges and, additionally, have a wealth of local knowledge which can be leveraged, if captured through participatory and visual research methods, such as photovoice, by policymakers to develop context-aware policies and interventions and recommendations regarding improved practices which are economically viable, and socially and culturally acceptable.

An approach to assess data-less small-scale fisheries: examples from Congo rivers.

Small-scale fisheries (SSF) account for much of the global fish catch, but data to assess them often do not exist, impeding assessments of their historical dynamics and status. Here, we propose an approach to assess 'data-less' SSF using local knowledge to produce data, life history theory to describe their historical multispecies dynamics, and length-based reference points to evaluate stock status. We demonstrate use of this approach in three data-less SSFs of the Congo Basin. Fishers' recalls of past fishing events indicated fish catch declined by 65-80% over the last half-century. Declines in and depletion of many historically important species reduced the diversity of exploited species, making the species composition of the catch more homogenous in recent years. Length-at-catch of 11 of the 12 most important species were below their respective lengths-at-maturity and optimal lengths (obtained from Fishbase) in recent years, indicating overfishing. The most overfished species were large-bodied and found in the Congo mainstem. These results show the approach can suitably assess data-less SSF. Fishers' knowledge produced data at a fraction of the cost and effort of collecting fisheries landings data. Historical and current data on fish catch, length-at-catch, and species diversity can inform management and restoration efforts to curb shifting baselines of these fisheries. Classification of stock status allows prioritizing management efforts. The approach is easy to apply and generates intuitive results, having potential to complement the toolkits of researchers and managers working in SSF and engage stakeholders in decision-making processes. Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11160-023-09770-x.

Indigenous communities' perceptions reveal threats and management options of wild edible plants in semiarid lands of northwestern Kenya.

BACKGROUND: Understanding how local communities perceive threats and management options of wild edible plants (WEPs) is essential in developing their conservation strategies and action plans. Due to their multiple use values, including nutrition, medicinal, construction, and cultural as well as biotic and abiotic pressures, WEPs are exposed to overexploitation, especially within arid and semiarid lands, and hence the need to manage and conserve them. We demonstrate how an understanding of indigenous communities' perceptions could be achieved through an integrated participatory approach involving focus group discussions (FGDs) and field plot surveys. METHODS: We conducted three FGDs between October 2020 and April 2021 within three community units in northwestern Kenya with different socioeconomic and environmental characteristics. We subsequently surveyed 240 field plots of size 1 ha each to assess threats facing WEPs within a 5 km buffer radius in every study community. We compared ranks of threats and management options across community units. RESULTS: Rankings of threats and management options differed across the three study communities. We obtained strong positive linear relationships between field and FGD rankings of threats facing WEPs. Climate change, overstocking, overharvesting, and invasive species were the highest-ranked threats. Mitigation of climate change, local knowledge preservation, selection, propagation, processing, and marketing of WEPs ranked high among possible management options irrespective of the socioeconomic and environmental characteristics of the community unit. CONCLUSIONS: Our approach emphasizes the relevance of leveraging indigenous communities' perceptions and conducting field plot surveys to assess threats and management options for WEPs. Evaluating the effectiveness and cost-benefit implications of implementing the highly ranked management options could help determine potentially suitable habitats of the WEPs for conservation and management purposes, especially for priority WEPs.

An overdue catalyst: Limitations imposed by COVID-19 improved capacity building in community-led environmental education in Madagascar.

The COVID-19 pandemic caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus brought many primatology research programs and conservation efforts to a halt. After Madagascar closed its borders during March 2020, many on-site international project leaders and researchers returned to their home countries when their programs were delayed or canceled. Madagascar remained closed to travelers until November 2021, when it reopened to international flights. The 20-month absence of international researchers allowed many local Malagasy program staff, wildlife professionals, and community leaders to step into new leadership roles and responsibilities. Many programs that already had strong Malagasy leadership and meaningful collaborations with local communities flourished, while others either swiftly strengthened these attributes or faced challenges from pandemic-related travel restrictions. Here, we describe how the coronavirus pandemic events of 2020-2021 initiated long-overdue shifts in outdated models of internationally led primate research and education projects in communities living alongside primates at risk of extinction. We discuss the benefits and challenges of pandemic-induced changes within five primatological outreach projects, as well as how we can use these experiences to improve community-led environmental education and conservation awareness in the future.

Site occupancy by American martens and fishers in temperate deciduous forests of Québec.

Interspecific interactions can mediate site occupancy of sympatric species and can be a key factor in habitat use patterns. American martens (Martes americana) and Fishers (Pekania pennanti) are two sympatric mesocarnivores in eastern North American forests. Due to their larger size, fishers have a competitive advantage over martens. We investigated site occupancy of martens and fishers in temperate deciduous forests of Québec, an environment modified by forest management and climate change. We formulated hypotheses on the spatial distribution of the studied species based on the knowledge of local trappers and on the scientific literature regarding forest cover composition, habitat fragmentation, and competitive relationships. We used a network of 49 camera traps monitored over two fall seasons to document site occupancy by both species. We used two-species site occupancy models to assess habitat use and the influence of fishers on martens at spatial grains of different sizes. None of the habitat variables that we considered explained site occupancy by fishers. Availability of dense old coniferous stands explained the spatial distribution of martens both at the home range grain size and at the landscape grain size. We identified the characteristics of habitat hotspots based on the knowledge of trappers, which highlighted the importance of stand composition, height, age, and canopy closure. The characteristics of habitat hotspots for martens in temperate deciduous forests refine the habitat suitability model for American martens that was originally developed for boreal forests of Québec.

Les interactions interspécifiques peuvent affecter l'occupation de sites par des espèces sympatriques et jouer un rôle clé dans leur utilisation des habitats. La martre d'Amerique (Martes americana) et le pékan (Pekania pennanti) sont deux mésocarnivores sympatriques des forêts de l'est de l'Amérique du Nord. En raison de sa grande taille, le pékan est un compétiteur dominant de la martre. Nous avons étudié l'occupation des sites par la martre et le pékan dans la forêt tempérée feuillue du Québec, un environnement modifié par l'aménagement forestier et les changements climatiques. Nous avons formulé des hypothèses sur la répartition spatiale des espèces étudiées en nous basant sur les connaissances des trappeurs locaux et sur la littérature scientifique en ce qui a trait à la composition du couvert forestier, à la fragmentation de l'habitat, et aux relations de compétition. Nous avons utilisé un réseau de 49 appareils photo à déclenchement automatique pendant deux automnes pour documenter l'occupation des sites par les deux espèces. Nous avons utilisé des modèles d'occupation de sites à deux espèces afin d'évaluer l'effet de la présence du pékan sur l'utilisation de l'habitat par la martre à des échelles spatiales de résolutions variables. Aucune des variables d'habitat que nous avons prises en compte n'explique l'occupation des sites par les pékans. La disponibilité de vieux peuplements denses de conifères explique la répartition spatiale de la martre aux échelles spatiales du domaine vital et du paysage. Nous avons développé un indice d'habitat potentiel basé sur les connaissances des trappeurs, qui a mis en évidence l'importance de la composition, de la hauteur, de l'âge et de la densité des peuplements. Cet indice affine, pour les forêts tempérées feuillues du Québec, le modèle de qualité de l'habitat de la martre d'Amérique originellement élaboré pour la forêt boréale.

Systematic review of fungi, their diversity and role in ecosystem services from the Far Eastern Himalayan Landscape (FHL).

Fungi are morphologically and ecologically diverse kingdom but less explored in the global perspective. This systematic review of mainly higher fungi (mushrooms) and lichenized fungi (lichens) was aimed to convey comprehensive knowledge on these understudied taxa, especially considering diversity, research trends, taxonomic/geographic knowledge gaps, and their contribution to ecosystem services. We investigated literature from the Far Eastern Himalayas and adjacent areas. We followed the PRISM (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) framework for the evidence synthesis and reporting. Search strings were used to explore literature both in English and Chinese databases. Publications were validated examining the title, locality, abstract and full text. We included 75 eligible studies after screening 12,872 publications. The result on species diversity extrapolated from literature was consolidated as a species checklist and published on the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) portal. This review demonstrates a significant shortage of research work on fungi, and a lack of quantitative data on diversity, ecology, and ecosystem services. Mycological inventories with multidisciplinary perspectives are urgent in the Landscape to better understand the importance of fungi in conservation and sustainable development science. This review is especially useful when global environmental and climate concerns are focused on the use of nature-based solutions, and fungi as integral part of all ecological processes, could play important role in enhancing ecosystem services and therefore benefits coming to people as natural solutions.

A methodological approach for the analysis of ecosystem services from the local communities' perspective.

In this paper, we developed an innovative and plural methodology for a socio-cultural assessment of ecosystem services (ES). This methodology was performed using diverse and interdependent tools applied within the framework of ethnoecology and post-normal science, with the aim of identifying ES from the perspective of local communities that inhabit different socio-ecosystems, highlighting the relevance of Indigenous and Local Knowledge (ILK). As examples of how this methodology works, we analyzed a multiple case study performed in three peasant communities of the Dry Chaco eco-region, Argentina. We identified ES in all the categories and their fundamental contributions to the particular way of life in this area. The method is flexible enough to be used in other socio-ecosystems with different environmental and social features.