Bridging local and scientific knowledge for area-based conservation of useful plants in Colombia

While the importance of interdisciplinary approaches is increasingly recognised in conservation, bridging knowledge systems across scales remains a fundamental challenge. Focusing on the Important Plant Areas (IPA) approach, we evaluate how complementing scientific and local knowledge can better inf...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Ambio 2024-02, Vol.53 (2), p.309-323
Main Authors: Kor, Laura, Fernández-Lucero, Mateo, Granados Flórez, Diego Arturo, Dawson, Terence P., Diazgranados, Mauricio
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Atmospheric Sciences
Biodiversity
Colombia
Community participation
Conservation
Conservation areas
Conservation of Natural Resources - methods
Data collection
Earth and Environmental Science
Ecological effects
Ecology
Environment
Environmental Engineering/Biotechnology
Environmental Management
Ethnobotany
Ethnobotany - methods
Flowers & plants
Humans
Interdisciplinary aspects
Knowledge
Local communities
Physical Geography
Planning
Plants, Medicinal
Research Article
Species composition
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Summary:While the importance of interdisciplinary approaches is increasingly recognised in conservation, bridging knowledge systems across scales remains a fundamental challenge. Focusing on the Important Plant Areas (IPA) approach, we evaluate how complementing scientific and local knowledge can better inform the conservation of useful plants in Colombia. We worked in three municipalities to investigate knowledge on useful plant richness, species composition and use types, as well as perceptions on area-based plant conservation approaches. Participatory focus groups and ethnobotanical walks-in-the-woods were undertaken with local communities, while scientific data were represented by occurrence records from global data aggregators and digitised collections. A total of 1190 species with human uses were reported. Combining knowledge systems provided the richest understanding of useful plants but the relative contribution of each system varied between study areas, influenced by the history of scientific studies, socio-ecological context and study design. Meanwhile, local perceptions of how conservation areas should be selected differed from global IPA criteria. These results show that working with local communities can improve biological understanding for spatial conservation planning. Additionally, participatory approaches must move beyond community-based conservation and data collection, to inform the design of global conservation programmes.
ISSN:0044-7447
1654-7209
DOI:10.1007/s13280-023-01921-5