Research on the benefits of local ecological knowledge for conservation lacks empirical data on the pathways through which local knowledge might affect natural resources management. We test whether ethnobotanical skills, a proxy for local ecological knowledge, are associated to the clearance of forest through their interaction with agricultural labor. We collected information from men in a society of gatherers—horticulturalist, the Tsimane' (Bolivia). Data included a baseline survey, a survey of ethnobotanical skills (n = 190 men), and two surveys on agricultural labor inputs (n = 466 plots). We find a direct effect of ethnobotanical skills in lowering the extent of forest cleared in fallow but not in old-growth forest. We also find that the interaction between ethnobotanical skills and labor invested in shifting cultivation has opposite effects depending on whether the clearing is done in old-growth or fallow forest. We explain the finding in the context of Tsimane' increasing integration to the market economy.
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1 May 2011
The Role of Ethnobotanical Skills and Agricultural Labor in Forest Clearance: Evidence from the Bolivian Amazon
Victoria Reyes-García,
Unai Pascual,
Vincent Vadez,
Tomás Huanca,
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AMBIO: A Journal of the Human Environment
Vol. 40 • No. 3
May 2011
Vol. 40 • No. 3
May 2011
Ethnobotanical skills
Labor inputs
Market integration
Slash-and-burn agriculture
Tsimane' (Bolivia)
