Articles

Evaluating fishermen’s conservation attitudes and local ecological knowledge of the European sardine (Sardina pilchardus), Peniche, Portugal

European sardines are an important fishing resource in the North Atlantic. Recognized for its great commercial and economic value in southern Europe, this resource currently has low stock indices. From this pe...

Authors: Heitor O. Braga, Ulisses M. Azeiteiro, Henrique M. F. Oliveira and Miguel A. Pardal

Prioritizing fodder species based on traditional knowledge: a case study of mithun (Bos frontalis) in Dulongjiang area, Yunnan Province, Southwest China

Livestock rearing is one of the oldest and most important types of smallholder farming worldwide. The sustainability of livestock production depends on the efficient utilization of locally available resources....

Authors: Yanfei Geng, Guoxiong Hu, Sailesh Ranjitkar, Yuhua Wang, Dengpan Bu, Shengji Pei, Xiaokun Ou, Yang Lu, Xuelan Ma and Jianchu Xu

The determinants of dietary diversity and nutrition: ethnonutrition knowledge of local people in the East Usambara Mountains, Tanzania

Diet and nutrition-related behaviours are embedded in cultural and environmental contexts: adoption of new knowledge depends on how easily it can be integrated into existing knowledge systems. As dietary diver...

Authors: Bronwen Powell, Rachel Bezner Kerr, Sera L. Young and Timothy Johns

Erratum to: Riverine fishers’ knowledge of extreme climatic events in the Brazilian Amazonia

Authors: Ana Isabel Camacho Guerreiro, Richard J. Ladle and Vandick da Silva Batista

Integrating ethnobiological knowledge into biodiversity conservation in the Eastern Himalayas

Biocultural knowledge provides valuable insight into ecological processes, and can guide conservation practitioners in local contexts. In many regions, however, such knowledge is underutilized due to its often...

Authors: Alexander R. O’Neill, Hemant K. Badola, Pitamber P. Dhyani and Santosh K. Rana

Fischer’s Plants in folk beliefs and customs: a previously unknown contribution to the ethnobotany of the Polish-Lithuanian-Belarusian borderland

Historical ethnobotanical studies are useful starting points for further diachronic analysis. The aim of this contribution is to present archival data from the Polish-Lithuanian-Belarusian borderland, which we...

Authors: Monika Kujawska, Piotr Klepacki and Łukasz Łuczaj

The most used medicinal plants by communities in Mahaboboka, Amboronabo, Mikoboka, Southwestern Madagascar

This paper reports a study undertaken in three remote communities (Mahaboboka, Amboronabo, Mikoboka), located in Sakaraha, Southwestern Madagascar. Not only villages are far away from sanitary infrastructures ...

Authors: Tabita N. Randrianarivony, Aro Vonjy Ramarosandratana, Tefy H. Andriamihajarivo, Fortunat Rakotoarivony, Vololoniaina H. Jeannoda, Armand Randrianasolo and Rainer W. Bussmann

“Horchata” drink in Southern Ecuador: medicinal plants and people’s wellbeing

The “horchata” is a herbal mixture infusion consumed in Southern Ecuador. It remains unknown how vendors group the plant species to sell them at traditional markets. This research documented the following: 1) ...

Authors: Montserrat Rios, Fani Tinitana, Pablo Jarrín-V, Natalia Donoso and Juan Carlos Romero-Benavides

Traditional knowledge on wild and cultivated plants in the Kilombero Valley (Morogoro Region, Tanzania)

This research was performed in four villages adjacent the boundary of Udzungwa Mountains National Park in the Kilombero River plain of Tanzania. The area adjacent the villages is characterized by self-consumpt...

Authors: Mirko Salinitro, Renzo Vicentini, Costantino Bonomi and Annalisa Tassoni

Folk use of medicinal plants in Karst and Gorjanci, Slovenia

Information on the use of medicinal plants in Karst and Gorjanci is not available in the literature, but collection of plants is still an important and widespread practice in these regions. Karst and Gorjanci ...

Authors: Mateja Lumpert and Samo Kreft

Indigenous knowledge and use of lichens by the lichenophilic communities of the Nepal Himalaya

The aim of the study was to document the prevailing indigenous knowledge and various uses of lichens among the lichenophilic communities in the hills and mountainous settlements of Nepal.

Authors: Shiva Devkota, Ram Prasad Chaudhary, Silke Werth and Christoph Scheidegger

The bear in Eurasian plant names: motivations and models

Ethnolinguistic studies are important for understanding an ethnic group’s ideas on the world, expressed in its language. Comparing corresponding aspects of such knowledge might help clarify problems of origin ...

Authors: Valeria Kolosova, Ingvar Svanberg, Raivo Kalle, Lisa Strecker, Ayşe Mine Gençler Özkan, Andrea Pieroni, Kevin Cianfaglione, Zsolt Molnár, Nora Papp, Łukasz Łuczaj, Dessislava Dimitrova, Daiva Šeškauskaitė, Jonathan Roper, Avni Hajdari and Renata Sõukand

Nested Houses: Domestication dynamics of human–wasp relations in contemporary rural Japan

Domestication is an important and contested concept. Insects are used as food worldwide, and while some have been described as domesticated and even ‘semi-domesticated’, the assumptions and implications of thi...

Authors: Charlotte L. R. Payne and Joshua D. Evans

The role of Nucularia perrinii Batt. (Chenopodiaceae) in the camel-based Sahrawi social-ecological system

Pastoral social-ecological systems (SESs) are adaptive and complex systems rooted in the extensive exploitation of forage plants for livestock-based livelihoods and culture. There are species and relations tha...

Authors: Gabriele Volpato and Antonello Di Nardo

An ethnographic study of salt use and humoral concepts in a Latino farm worker community in California’s Central Valley

This article reports on the use of domestic or table salt for its perceived health effects and healing properties in a Latino farmworker community. It explores how contemporary salt usage beliefs can be seen t...

Authors: Judith C. Barker, Claudia Guerra, M. Judy Gonzalez-Vargas and Kristin S. Hoeft

Multi-functionality of the few: current and past uses of wild plants for food and healing in Liubań region, Belarus

This study examined the use of wild plants in the food, medicinal and veterinary areas within a small territory limited to one village council in the Liubań district of Belarus. The objectives of the research ...

Authors: Renata Sõukand, Yanina Hrynevich, Iryna Vasilyeva, Julia Prakofjewa, Yuriy Vnukovich, Jury Paciupa, Aliaksei Hlushko, Yana Knureva, Yulia Litvinava, Siarhei Vyskvarka, Hanna Silivonchyk, Alena Paulava, Mare Kõiva and Raivo Kalle

Therapeutic arthropods and other, largely terrestrial, folk-medicinally important invertebrates: a comparative survey and review

Traditional healing methods involving hundreds of insect and other invertebrate species are reviewed. Some of the uses are based on the tenet of “similia similibus” (let likes be cured by likes), but not all non-...

Authors: V. Benno Meyer-Rochow

Cultural significance of termites in sub-Saharan Africa

The number of termite species in the world is more than 2500, and Africa with more than 1000 species has the richest intercontinental diversity. The family Termitidae contains builders of great mounds up to 5 ...

Authors: Arnold van Huis

Medical pluralism and livestock health: ethnomedical and biomedical veterinary knowledge among East African agropastoralists

Human and animal health are deeply intertwined in livestock dependent areas. Livestock health contributes to food security and can influence human health through the transmission of zoonotic diseases. In low-i...

Authors: Mark A. Caudell, Marsha B. Quinlan, Robert J. Quinlan and Douglas R. Call

Traditional use and perception of snakes by the Nahuas from Cuetzalan del Progreso, Puebla, Mexico

Indigenous cultures are the result of their adaptation to the natural surroundings, in such a way that, amongst their main features is a set of knowledge, technologies and strategies for the appropriation of n...

Authors: Romina García-López, Alejandro Villegas, Noé Pacheco-Coronel and Graciela Gómez-Álvarez

Knowledge, attitudes and practices in tamarind (Tamarindus indica L.) use and conservation in Eastern Uganda

Tamarindus indica L. is one of the indigenous fruit tree species that traditionally contributes to food security and ecosystem stability in sub-Saharan Africa. We hypothesized that the...

Authors: Esther Ebifa-Othieno, Antony Mugisha, Philip Nyeko and John David Kabasa

Treating infants with frigg: linking disease aetiologies, medicinal plant use and care-seeking behaviour in southern Morocco

Although most Moroccans rely to some extent on traditional medicine, the practice of frigg to treat paediatric ailments by elderly women traditional healers known as ferraggat, has not yet been documented. We des...

Authors: Irene Teixidor-Toneu, Gary J. Martin, Rajindra K. Puri, Ahmed Ouhammou and Julie A. Hawkins

A quiet harvest: linkage between ritual, seed selection and the historical use of the finger-bladed knife as a traditional plant breeding tool in Ifugao, Philippines

The transverse harvest knife, also commonly called the finger or finger-bladed knife, has been utilized by rice farmers in southeast Asia for many centuries. The finger knife persisted in many traditional cult...

Authors: Kevin M. Murphy

Ethnobotanical knowledge acquisition during daily chores: the firewood collection of pastoral Maasai girls in Southern Kenya

Researchers considering children’s traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) highlighted the importance of examining children’s daily activities as empirical contexts for its acquisition. Many of them evaluated c...

Authors: Xiaojie Tian

Swiss ethnoveterinary knowledge on medicinal plants – a within-country comparison of Italian speaking regions with north-western German speaking regions

Ethnoveterinary knowledge in Europe may play an important role as a basis for sustainable treatment options for livestock. Aims of our study were (a) to compare the ethnoveterinary practices of two culturally ...

Authors: Maria Mayer, Mirjam Zbinden, Christan R. Vogl, Silvia Ivemeyer, Beat Meier, Michele Amorena, Ariane Maeschli, Matthias Hamburger and Michael Walkenhorst

Traditional Mapuche ecological knowledge in Patagonia, Argentina: fishes and other living beings inhabiting continental waters, as a reflection of processes of change

Understanding how people interpret environmental change and develop practices in response to such change is essential to comprehend human resource use. In the cosmology of the American indigenous peoples, as a...

Authors: Juana Aigo and Ana Ladio

Ethnobotanical survey of cosmetic plants used in Marquesas Islands (French Polynesia)

Cosmetic plants and their uses have often been neglected in ethnobotanical surveys which focus mainly on plants with medicinal or food uses. Thus, this survey was carried out to specifically investigate cosmet...

Authors: Xénia Jost, Jean-Luc Ansel, Gaël Lecellier, Phila Raharivelomanana and Jean-François Butaud

Ethnoagroforestry: integration of biocultural diversity for food sovereignty in Mexico

Documenting the spectrum of ecosystem management, the roles of forestry and agricultural biodiversity, TEK, and human culture for food sovereignty, are all priority challenges for contemporary science and soci...

Authors: Ana Isabel Moreno-Calles, Alejandro Casas, Alexis Daniela Rivero-Romero, Yessica Angélica Romero-Bautista, Selene Rangel-Landa, Roberto Alexander Fisher-Ortíz, Fernando Alvarado-Ramos, Mariana Vallejo-Ramos and Dídac Santos-Fita

Ethno-medicinal survey of important plants practiced by indigenous community at Ladha subdivision, South Waziristan agency, Pakistan

Medicinal flora plays a vital role in treating various types of ailments in living beings. The present study was planned to investigate and document systematically the indigenous knowledge in a scientifically ...

Authors: Muhammad Abdul Aziz, Muhammad Adnan, Amir Hasan Khan, Atiq Ur Rehman, Rahmatullah Jan and Jafar Khan

Seahorses in focus: local ecological knowledge of seahorse-watching operators in a tropical estuary

Seahorses are endangered teleost fishes under increasing human pressures worldwide. In Brazil, marine conservationists and policy-makers are thus often skeptical about the viability of sustainable human-seahor...

Authors: Maria L. F. Ternes, Leopoldo C. Gerhardinger and Alexandre Schiavetti

Influence of ethnic traditional cultures on genetic diversity of rice landraces under on-farm conservation in southwest China

Crop genetic resources are important components of biodiversity. However, with the large-scale promotion of mono-cropping, genetic diversity has largely been lost. Ex-situ conservation approaches were widely used...

Authors: Yanjie Wang, Yanli Wang, Xiaodong Sun, Zhuoma Caiji, Jingbiao Yang, Di Cui, Guilan Cao, Xiaoding Ma, Bing Han, Dayuan Xue and Longzhi Han

Riverine fishers’ knowledge of extreme climatic events in the Brazilian Amazonia

Climate change is altering climate patterns, mainly increasing the frequency and intensity of extreme events with potentially serious impacts on natural resources and the people that use them. Adapting to such...

Authors: Ana Isabel Camacho Guerreiro, Richard J. Ladle and Vandick da Silva Batista

Wild food plants and minor crops in the Ripollès district (Catalonia, Iberian Peninsula): potentialities for developing a local production, consumption and exchange program

Wild food plants (WFP) have always been consumed by humans, first as the main basis of their food and, since the origins of agriculture, as ingredients of normal diets or as an alternative during situations of...

Authors: Montse Rigat, Airy Gras, Ugo D’Ambrosio, Teresa Garnatje, Montse Parada and Joan Vallès

A comparison of traditional plant knowledge between students and herders in northern Kenya

The Samburu region of northern Kenya is undergoing significant change, driven by factors including greater value on formal education, improvements in infrastructure and development, a shift from community to p...

Authors: Brett L. Bruyere, Jonathan Trimarco and Saruni Lemungesi

Folk knowledge of invertebrates in Central Europe - folk taxonomy, nomenclature, medicinal and other uses, folklore, and nature conservation

There is scarce information about European folk knowledge of wild invertebrate fauna. We have documented such folk knowledge in three regions, in Romania, Slovakia and Croatia. We provide a list of folk taxa, ...

Authors: Viktor Ulicsni, Ingvar Svanberg and Zsolt Molnár

Children as ethnobotanists: methods and local impact of a participatory research project with children on wild plant gathering in the Grosses Walsertal Biosphere Reserve, Austria

Ethically sound research in applied ethnobiology should benefit local communities by giving them full access to research processes and results. Participatory research may ensure such access, but there has been...

Authors: Susanne Grasser, Christoph Schunko and Christian R. Vogl

Wild and native plants and mushrooms sold in the open-air markets of south-eastern Poland

The study of plants and fungi sold in open-air markets is an important part of ethnobotanical enquiry. Only few such studies were carried out in Europe.

Authors: Renata Kasper-Pakosz, Marcin Pietras and Łukasz Łuczaj

Health seeking behavior and use of medicinal plants among the Hamer ethnic group, South Omo zone, southwestern Ethiopia

Health seeking behavior of people around the globe is affected by different socio-cultural and economic factors. In Ethiopia, people living in rural areas in particular, are noted for their use of medicinal pl...

Authors: Biniam Paulos, Teferi Gedif Fenta, Daniel Bisrat and Kaleab Asres

A comparative ethnobotany of Khevsureti, Samtskhe-Javakheti, Tusheti, Svaneti, and Racha-Lechkhumi, Republic of Georgia (Sakartvelo), Caucasus

The Republic of Georgia (Sakartvelo in Georgian language) is part of the Caucasus biodiversity hotspot, and human agricultural plant use dates bat at least 6000 years. However, little ethnobiological research ...

Authors: Rainer W. Bussmann, Narel Y. Paniagua Zambrana, Shalva Sikharulidze, Zaal Kikvidze, David Kikodze, David Tchelidze, Manana Khutsishvili, Ketevan Batsatsashvili and Robbie E. Hart

Plants from disturbed savannah vegetation and their usage by Bakongo tribes in Uíge, Northern Angola

This study represents the first in-depth ethnobotanical study in the province of Uíge in northern Angola and documents the traditional knowledge of the Bakongo people living in the area. Due to deforestation a...

Authors: Anne Göhre, Álvaro Bruno Toto-Nienguesse, Macaia Futuro, Christoph Neinhuis and Thea Lautenschläger

Fauna used by rural communities surrounding the protected area of Chapada do Araripe, Brazil

Studies on the inter-relations between people and animals have been considered essential to better understand the dynamics of socio-ecological systems. This study aimed to register the animal species known by ...

Authors: Kallyne Machado Bonifácio, Alexandre Schiavetti and Eliza Maria Xavier Freire

Local knowledge held by farmers in Eastern Tyrol (Austria) about the use of plants to maintain and improve animal health and welfare

The sustainable management of animal health and welfare is of increasing importance to consumers and a key topic in the organic farming movement. Few systematic studies have been undertaken investigating farme...

Authors: Christian R. Vogl, Brigitte Vogl-Lukasser and Michael Walkenhorst

Ethnobotanical study of traditional edible plants used by the Naxi people during droughts

Since 2009, millions of people have been forced to live under food shortage by the continuous drought in Southwestern China. The market was the primary source of aid grains, and fears that the market will be u...

Authors: Lingling Zhang, Zhenzhen Chai, Yu Zhang, Yanfei Geng and Yuahua Wang

Ethnobotany of the Balti community, Tormik valley, Karakorum range, Baltistan, Pakistan

Limited health facilities and malnutrition are major problems in the Karakorum Range of Northern Pakistan, often resulting in various human disorders. Since centuries, however, local communities in these areas...

Authors: Zaheer Abbas, Shujaul Mulk Khan, Arshad Mehmood Abbasi, Andrea Pieroni, Zahid Ullah, Muhammad Iqbal and Zeeshan Ahmad

Fern rhizomes as fodder in Norway

Although ferns are often known under collective names in Norway, e.g. blom, a substantial number of vernacular names for individual fern species are known, in particular for useful or poisonous taxa. In the past,...

Authors: Torbjørn Alm

Therapeutic and prophylactic uses of invertebrates in contemporary Spanish ethnoveterinary medicine

Zootherapeutic practices in ethnoveterinary medicine are important in many socio-cultural environments around the world, particularly in developing countries, and they have recently started to be inventoried a...

Authors: José Antonio González, Francisco Amich, Salvador Postigo-Mota and José Ramón Vallejo

Traditional knowledge and use of wild mushrooms by Mixtecs or Ñuu savi, the people of the rain, from Southeastern Mexico

Mexico is an important global reservoir of biological and cultural richness and traditional knowledge of wild mushrooms. However, there is a high risk of loss of this knowledge due to the erosion of traditiona...

Authors: Faustino Hernández Santiago, Jesús Pérez Moreno, Beatriz Xoconostle Cázares, Juan José Almaraz Suárez, Enrique Ojeda Trejo, Gerardo Mata Montes de Oca and Irma Díaz Aguilar

Exploiting indigenous knowledge of subsistence farmers’ for the management and conservation of Enset (Ensete ventricosum (Welw.) Cheesman) (musaceae family) diversity on-farm

Enset (Ensete ventricosum (Welw.) Cheesman) belongs to the order sctaminae, the family musaceae. The Musaceae family is subdivided into the genera Musa and Ensete. Enset is an important staple crop for about 20 m...

Authors: Zerihun Yemataw, Kassahun Tesfaye, Awole Zeberga and Guy Blomme

Traditional climate knowledge: a case study in a peasant community of Tlaxcala, Mexico

Traditional climate knowledge is a comprehensive system of insights, experiences and practices used by peasant communities to deal with the uncertainties of climate conditions affecting their livelihood. This ...

Authors: Alexis D. Rivero-Romero, Ana I. Moreno-Calles, Alejandro Casas, Alicia Castillo and Andrés Camou-Guerrero

Ethnobotanical study of wild edible plants in Burji District, Segan Area Zone of Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples Region (SNNPR), Ethiopia

An ethnobotanical study of wild edible plants was conducted in Burji District, Segan Area Zone of Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples Region, Ethiopia. The objective of the study was to identify and do...

Authors: Mersha Ashagre, Zemede Asfaw and Ensermu Kelbessa