Interaction between forest biodiversity and people’s use of forest resources in Roviana, Solomon Islands: implications for biocultural conservation under socioeconomic changes

Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine

Ryutaro Ohtsuka⁴  Masatoshi Sasaoka¹  Myknee Qusa Sirikolo²  Takuro Furusawa³ 

[1] Graduate School of Letters, Hokkaido University, Kita 10, Nishi 7, Kita-ku, Sapporo 060-0810, Japan;National Herbarium & Botanical Gardens, Ministry of Forestry, Honiara, Solomon Islands;Graduate School of Asian and African Area Studies, Kyoto University, Room #AA431, Research Bldg. No. 2, Yoshida-Honmachi, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto 606-8501, Japan;Japan Wildlife Research Center (JWRC), 3-3-7 Kotobashi, Sumida-ku, Tokyo, Japan

关键词: Solomon Islands;    Traditional environmental knowledge (TEK);    Socioecological production landscape (SEPL);    Roviana;    Quantitative ethnobotany;    New Georgia Island;    Biocultural diversity;   

Others  :  1218002
DOI  :  10.1186/1746-4269-10-10

 received in 2013-01-10, accepted in 2014-01-07,  发布年份 2014

【 摘 要 】

Background

In Solomon Islands, forests have provided people with ecological services while being affected by human use and protection. This study used a quantitative ethnobotanical analysis to explore the society–forest interaction and its transformation in Roviana, Solomon Islands. We compared local plant and land uses between a rural village and urbanized village. Special attention was paid to how local people depend on biodiversity and how traditional human modifications of forest contribute to biodiversity conservation.

Methods

After defining locally recognized land-use classes, vegetation surveys were conducted in seven forest classes. For detailed observations of daily plant uses, 15 and 17 households were randomly selected in the rural and urban villages, respectively. We quantitatively documented the plant species that were used as food, medicine, building materials, and tools.

Results

The vegetation survey revealed that each local forest class represented a different vegetative community with relatively low similarity between communities. Although commercial logging operations and agriculture were both prohibited in the customary nature reserve, local people were allowed to cut down trees for their personal use and to take several types of non-timber forest products. Useful trees were found at high frequencies in the barrier island’s primary forest (68.4%) and the main island’s reserve (68.3%). Various useful tree species were found only in the reserve forest and seldom available in the urban village. In the rural village, customary governance and control over the use of forest resources by the local people still functioned.

Conclusions

Human modifications of the forest created unique vegetation communities, thus increasing biodiversity overall. Each type of forest had different species that varied in their levels of importance to the local subsistence lifestyle, and the villagers’ behaviors, such as respect for forest reserves and the semidomestication of some species, contributed to conserving diversity. Urbanization threatened this human–forest interaction. Although the status of biodiversity in human-modified landscapes is not fully understood, this study suggested that traditional human modifications can positively affect biodiversity and that conservation programs should incorporate traditional uses of landscapes to be successful.

【 授权许可】

   
2014 Furusawa et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.

【 图 表 】

Figure 1.

Figure 2.

Figure 3.

Figure 4.

Figure 5.

【 参考文献 】

• [1]Conservation International: Overview: East Melanesian Islands: The Hotspots Asia-Pacific. http://www.conservation.org/where/priority_areas/hotspots/asia-pacific/East-Melanesian-Islands/Pages/default.aspx webcite
• [2]Brooks TM, Mittermeier RA, da Fonseca GAB, Gerlach J, Hoffmann M, Lamoreux J, Mittermeier CG, Pilgrim JD, Rodrigues ASL: Global biodiversity conservation priorities. Science 2006, 313:58-61.
• [3]Bayliss-Smith T, Hviding E, Whitmore T: Rainforest composition and histories of human disturbance in Solomon Islands. AMBIO 2003, 32:346-352.
• [4]Henderson CP, Hancock IR: A Guide to the Useful Plants of Solomon Islands. Ministry of Agriculture and Lands: Honiara; 1988.
• [5]Hviding E, Bayliss-Smith T: Islands of Rainforest: Agroforestry, Logging and Eco-tourism in Solomon Islands. Aldershot: Ashgate; 2000.
• [6]Centre pour l’ Environnement et le Developpement (CED) and Association Okani (Cameroon), South Central Peoples Development Association (SCPDA) (Guyana), Organisation of Kaliña and Lokono in Marowijne (KLIM) (Suriname), Inter-Mountain People Education & Cultures in Thailand Association (IMPECT) (Thailand), Forest Peoples Programme (United Kingdom): Customary sustainable use of biodiversity by indigenous peoples: case studies relevant to the Satoyama Initiative from Suriname, Guyana, Cameroon and Thailand. In Sustainable Use of Biological Diversity in Socio-ecological Production Landscapes; CBD Technical Series no. 52. Edited by Bélair C, Ichikawa K, Wong B, Mulongoy K. Montreal: Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity; 2010:22-35.
• [7]Hviding E: Kiladi Oro Vivineidi Ria Tingtonga pa Idere Oro pa Goana pa Marovo /Reef and Rainforest: An Environmental Encyclopedia of Marovo Lagoon, Solomon Islands. Paris: UNESCO; 2005.
• [8]Pikacha PG: Wild West: Rainforests of Western Solomon Islands. Honiara: Melanesian Geo Publication; 2008.
• [9]Kwaioloa M, Burt B: Our Forest Kwara’ae: Our Life in Solomon Islands and Things Growing in Our Home/Na Masu’s Kia ‘i Kwara’aw: Tualaka ‘I Solomon Islands Fa’inia Logo na ru Bulao ki Saena Fanoa Kia. London: British Museum Press; 2001.
• [10]Ellen R: Local and scientific understanding of forest diversity on Seram, Eastern Indonesia. In Local Science vs Global Science: Approaches to Indigenous Knowledge in International Development. Edited by Sillitoe P. New York: Berghahn Books; 2007:41-74.
• [11]Sillitoe P: An ethnobotanical account of the vegetation communities of the Wola region, Southern Highlands Province, Papua New Guinea. Journal of Ethnobiology 1998, 18:103-128.
• [12]Myers N, Mittermeier RA, Mittermeier CG, Da Fonseca GAB, Kent J: Biodiversity hotspots for conservation priorities. Nature 2000, 403:853-858.
• [13]Adams WM, Aveling R, Brockington D, Dickson B, Elliott J, Hutton J, Roe D, Vira B, Wolmer W: Biodiversity conservation and the eradication of poverty. Science 2004, 306:1146-1149.
• [14]van Oudenhoven FJW, Mijatović D, Eyzaguirre PB: Bridging managed and natural landscapes: the role of traditional (agri)culture in maintaining the diversity and resilience of social-ecological systems. In Sustainable Use of Biological Diversity in Socio-ecological Production Landscapes. Edited by Bélair C, Ichikawa K, Wong B, Mulongoy K. Montreal: Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity; 2010:8-21. [CBD Technical Series no. 52]
• [15]Sanderson S, Redford K: The defence of conservation is not an attack on the poor. Oryx 2004, 38:146-147.
• [16]Takeuchi K: Rebuilding the relationship between people and nature: the Satoyama Initiative. Ecol Res 2010, 25:891-897.
• [17]Bélair C, Ichikawa K, Wong B: Mulongoy K (Eds): Sustainable Use of Biological Diversity in Socio-ecological Production Landscapes CBD Technical Series no. 52 . Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity: Montreal; 2010.
• [18]SATOYAMA Initiative. http://satoyama-initiative.org/ webcite
• [19]Bennett JA: Pacific Forest: A History of Resource Control and Contest in Solomon Islands, c.1800–1997. Cambridge: White Horse Publisher; 2000.
• [20]Aswani S, Albert S, Sabetian S, Furusawa T: Customary management as precautionary and adaptive principles for protecting coral reefs in Oceania. Coral Reefs 2007, 26:1009-1021.
• [21]Carter B: Conservation Strategy for the Island of Tetepare. WWF Pacific: Gizo; 1997.
• [22]Read J, Moseby K: Vertebrates of Tetepare Island, Solomon Islands. Pac Sci 2006, 60:69-79.
• [23]Fazey I, Pettorelli N, Kenter J, Wagatora D, Schuett D: Maladaptive trajectories of change in Makira, Solomon Islands. Global Environ Change 2011, 21:1275-1289.
• [24]Bennett JA: Wealth of the Solomons: A History of a Pacific Archipelago, 1800–1978. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press; 1987.
• [25]Furusawa T, Ohtsuka R: The role of barrier islands in subsistence of the inhabitants of Roviana Lagoon, Solomon Islands. Hum Ecol 2009, 37:629-642.
• [26]Solomon Islands Government: Medium Term Development Strategy 1999–2001, Volume 1: Policy and Strategy. Honiara: Solomon Islands Government; 1999.
• [27]Schneider G: Reinventing identities: redefining cultural concepts in the struggle between villagers in Munda, Roviana Lagoon, New Georgia Island, Solomon Islands, for the control of land. In Pacific Answers to Western Hegemony: Cultural Practices of Identity Construction. Edited by Wassmann J. Oxford: Berg; 1998:191-221.
• [28]Prance GT, Baleé W, Boom B, Carneiro R: Quantitative ethnobotany and the case for conservation in Amazonia. Conserv Biol 1987, 1:296-310.
• [29]Phillips O, Gentry A, Reynel C, Wilkin P, Galvez-Durand C: Quantitative ethnobotany and Amazonian conservation. Conserv Biol 1994, 8:225-248.
• [30]Solomon Islands National Statistics Office: Report on 2009 Population and Housing Census: Basic Tables and Census Description. Honiara: Statistics Office; 2011.
• [31]Lewis MP: Summer Institute of Linguistics: Ethnologue: Languages of the world, Volume 9 . Dallas: SIL International; 2009.
• [32]Furusawa T: Changing ethnobotanical knowledge of the Roviana people, Solomon Islands: quantitative approaches to its correlation with modernization. Hum Ecol 2009, 37:147-159.
• [33]Furusawa T: Ecological and economic analyses of urbanization in the customary lands of the Solomon Islands. People and Culture in Oceania 2011, 27:1-17.
• [34]Aswani S: Common property models of sea tenure: a case study from the Roviana and Vonavona Lagoons, New Georgia, Solomon Islands. Hum Ecol 1999, 27:417-453.
• [35]Aswani S: Changing identities: the ethnohistory of Roviana predatory head-hunting. J Polynesian Soc 2000, 109:39-70.
• [36]Nagaoka T: Hope Pukerane: A Study of Religious Sites in Roviana, New Georgia, Solomon Islands. Auckland: University of Auckland; 1999. [MA thesis]
• [37]Furusawa T, Pahari K, Umezaki M, Ohtsuka R: Impacts of selective logging on New Georgia Island, Solomon Islands evaluated using very-high-resolution satellite (IKONOS) data. Environ Conserv 2004, 31:349-355.
• [38]Furusawa T: The roles of Western biomedicine and folk medicine in rural Solomon Islands: a quantitative analysis. Trop Med Health 2006, 34:83-91.
• [39]Whitmore TC: Guide to the Forest of the British Solomon Islands. London: Oxford University Press; 1966.
• [40]Hviding E: Guardians of Marovo Lagoon: Practice, Place, and Politics in Maritime Melanesia. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press; 1996.
• [41]Aswani S, Vaccaro I: Lagoon ecology and social strategies: habitat diversity and ethnobiology. Hum Ecol 2008, 36:325-341.
• [42]Bernstein J, Ellen RF, Antaran B: The use of plot surveys for the study of ethnobotanical knowledge: a Brunei Dusun example. Journal of Ethnobiology 1997, 17:69-96.
• [43]Dignan CA, Burlingame BA, Arthur JM, Quigley RJ, Milligan GC: The Pacific Islands Food Consumption Tables. Palmerston North: New Zealand Institute for Crop and Food Research; 1994.
• [44]Puwastien P, Burlingame B, Raroengwichit M, Sungpung P: ASEAN Food Composition Tables. Nakorm Pathom: Institute of Nutrition, Mahidol University; 2000.
• [45]Looman J, Campbell JB: Adaptation of Sorensen’s K (1948) for estimating unit affinities in prairie vegetation. Ecology 1960, 41:409-416.
• [46]Racelis AE, Aswani S: Hopes and disenchantments of religious community forestry in the Western Solomon Islands. Ecological and Environmental Anthropology 2011, 6:26-38.
• [47]Matsui T: Semidomestication: Rethinking the Origins of Agriculture and Pastoralism (Semi-domesutikeishon: Noko to Yuboku no Kigen Saikou). Tokyo: Kaimeisha; 1989. (In Japanese)
• [48]Kobayashi S: The Rehabilitation of Tropical Degraded Forest and Local Community Living with the Forest. Kyoto: Kyoto University; 2011.
• [49]Rennie SJ: Subsistence agriculture versus cash cropping - the social repercussions. J Rural Stud 1991, 7:5-9.
• [50]Garonna I, Fazey I, Brown ME, Pettorelli N: Rapid primary productivity changes in one of the last coastal rainforests: the case of Kahua, Solomon Islands. Environ Conserv 2009, 36:253-260.
• [51]Kenter JO, Hyde T, Christie M, Fazey I: The importance of deliberation in valuing ecosystem services in developing countries: evidence from the Solomon Islands. Global Environ Chang 2011, 21:505-521.
• [52]Kareiva P, Watts S, McDonald R, Boucher T: Domesticated nature: shaping landscapes and ecosystems for human welfare. Science 2007, 316:1866-1869.
• [53]Perfecto I, Vandermeer J: Biodiversity conservation in tropical agroecosystems: a new conservation paradigm. Annal NY Ac Sc 2008, 1134:173-200.
• [54]Green RE, Cornell SJ, Scharlemann JP, Balmford A: Farming and the fate of wild nature. Science 2005, 307:550-555.
• [55]Goldman M: Partitioned nature, privileged knowledge: community-based conservation in Tanzania. Dev Change 2003, 34:833-862.
• [56]Furusawa T, Sasaoka M, Ohtsuka R: Living by utilizing various modified natural resources in the Solomon Islands. In Sustainable Use of Biological Diversity in Socio-ecological Production Landscapes. Edited by Bélair C, Ichikawa K, Wong B, Mulongoy K. Montreal: Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity; 2010:168-171. [CBD Technical Series no. 52]