Designing Biodiversity Management Strategies at the Community Level: Approaches Based on Participatory Action Research

Abstract

Through Traditional Plant Knowledge (TPK), the Indigenous communities of the Ecuadorian Andes benefit from the different ecosystem services provided by plants. However, this TPK is endangered for several causes. Thus, we developed a Participatory Action Research (PAR) project in the community of San Ignacio (Ecuadorian Andes) to test whether, through the implementation of the PAR project, it was possible to increase the inhabitants' use of plants. In order to verify if the actions carried out resulted in higher use of the plants, a subsequent survey with information about the taxa employed and their uses was applied to the 22 Family Agricultural Productive Units (FAPUs) that participated in the project and in 21 that did not (control group). In addition, an inventory was conducted in the same FAPUs to determine species richness and abundance. The inhabitants reported 1,266 uses for 118 taxa, which are mainly used for food, medicine, and wind barriers, amongst other uses. The post-control evaluation revealed an increase the inhabitants' use of plants at the FAPU level with an average of 16 to 21 species, especially among medicinal plants and plantings for live fences purpose, showing that the activities carried out in the framework of the project are an interesting starting point for developing future biodiversity management strategies at the community level.