Factors that influence human behavior in fuelwood use and their implications for biocultural conservation
Visualizações: 1181DOI:
https://doi.org/10.15451/ec2020-07-9.31-1-13Keywords:
Evolutionary ethnobiology, Human behavioral ecology, Social-ecological systems, Ethnobotany, fuelwoodAbstract
A set of investigations has attempted to identify patterns in human resource use behavior to drive conservation strategies. However, it is still necessary to advance the understanding of the factors that influence human decision making in the use of resources, considering the perceived cost-benefit relationships. In this research, we assessed whether cost-benefit rationale may explain why certain resources are more used than others, as well as the factors that can predict resource consumption by certain families. We adopted the use of biofuels as research model in a rural settlement in northeastern Brazil. Our main findings indicate that the species most frequently used by people are those that favor the cost-benefit relationship. Resource availability was the main variable that directed the frequency of use of the species, and only the number of people in the residences explained the consumption of firewood by the families. These findings can provide important insights for the elaboration of biocultural conservation strategies because they present the mechanisms that can direct the behavior in the use of certain resources and the greater consumption of firewood by certain families.
Downloads
References
Albuquerque UP, Ramos MA, Lucena RFP, Alencar NL. 2014. Methods and techniques used to collect ethnobiological data. In: Albuquerque UP, Cunha LVFC, Lucena RFP, Alves RRN. (eds.) Methods and techniques in Ethnobiology and Ethnoecology. Springer, New York. P. 15-37. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-8636-7_2
Albuquerque UP, Soldati GT, Ramos MA, Melo JG, Medeiros PM, Nascimento ALB, Ferreira Júnior WS. 2015. The influence of the environment on natural resource use: Evidence of apparency. In: Albuquerque UP, Medeiros PM, Casas A. (eds.) Evolutionary Ethnobiology. Springer, New York. P. 131-147. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-19917-7_10
Albuquerque UP, Medeiros PM, Ferreira Júnior WS, Silva TC, Silva RRV, Gonçalves-Souza T. 2019. Social-Ecological Theory of Maximization: basic concepts and two initial models. Biological Theory. Doi: 10.1007/s13752-019-00316-8. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13752-019-00316-8
Bhatt BP, Sachan MS. 2004. Firewood consumption pattern of differente tribal communities in Northeast India. Energ Policy 32:1-6. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/S0301-4215(02)00237-9
Brouwer R, Falcão MP. 2004. Wood fuel consumption in Maputo, Mozambique. Biomass Bioenergy 27:233-45. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biombioe.2004.01.005
Cai J, Jiang Z. 2010. Energy consumption patterns by local residents in four nature reserves in the subtropical broadleaved forest zone of China. Renew Sustain Energy Rev 14:828-34. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2009.08.017
Couture S, Garcia S, Reynaud A. 2012. Household energy choices and fuelwood consumption: An econometric approach using French data. Energ Econ 34:1972-81. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eneco.2012.08.022
FAO. Food and agriculture organization of the United Nations. 2003. Guía para encuestas de demanda, oferta y abastecimiento de combustibile de madera. FAO, Roma.
Gonçalves PHS, Albuquerque UP, Medeiros PM. 2016. The most commonly available woody plant species are the most useful for human populations: a meta-analysis. Ecol Appl 26:2238-53. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/eap.1364
Hanazaki N, Herbst DF, Vandebroek I. 2013. Evidence of the shifting baseline syndrome in ethnobotanical research. J Ethnobiol Ethnomed 9:75. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/1746-4269-9-75
Kumar M, Sharma CM. 2009. Fuelwood consumption pattern at different altitudes in rural areas of Garhwal Himalaya. Biomass Bioenergy 33:1413-8. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biombioe.2009.06.003
Liu J, Daily GC, Ehrlich PR, Luck GW. 2003. Effects of household dynamics on resource consumption and biodiversity. Nature 421:530-3. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nature01359
Lucena RFP, Medeiros PM, Araújo EL, Alves AGC, Albuquerque UP. 2012. The ecological apparency hypothesis and the importance of useful plants in rural communities from Northeastern Brazil: An assessment based on use value. J Environ Manage 96:106-115. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2011.09.001
Maldonado B, Caballero J, Delgado-Salinas A, Lira R. 2013. Relationship between use value and ecological importance of floristic resources of seasonally dry tropical forest in the Balsas River Basin, México. Econ Bot 67:17-29. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12231-013-9222-y
Marquez-Reynoso MI, Ramírez-Marcial N, Cortina-Villar S, Ochoa-Gaona S. 2017. Purpose, preferences and fuel value index of trees used for firewood in El Ocote Biosphere Reserve, Chiapas, Mexico. Biomass Bioenergy 100:1-9. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biombioe.2017.03.006
Martínez GJ. 2015. Cultural patterns of firewood use as a tool for conservation: A study of multiple perceptions in a semiarid region of Cordoba, Central Argentina. Journal of Arid Environments 121:84-99. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaridenv.2015.05.004
Marufu L, Ludwig J, Adreae MO, Meixner FX, Helas G. 1997. Domestic biomass burning in rural and urban Zimbabwe - Part A. Biomass Bioenergy 12:53-68. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/S0961-9534(96)00067-0
Medeiros PM, Almeida ALS, Silva TC, Albuquerque UP. 2011. Pressure indicators of wood resource use in an Atlantic Forest area, Northeastern Brazil. Environ Manage 47:410-24. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00267-011-9618-3
Medeiros PM, Campos JLA, Albuquerque UP. 2016. Ethnicity, income, and education. In: Albuquerque UP, Alves RRN (eds). Introduction to Ethnobiology. Springer, New York, pp 245-9. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28155-1_36
Phillips O, Gentry AH. 1993. The useful plants of Tambopata, Peru: II. Additional hypothesis testing in quantitative ethnobotany. Econ Bot 47:33-43. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02862204
Rahut DB, Behera B, Ali A. 2016. Household energy choice and consumption intensity: Empirical evidence from Bhutan. Renew Sustain Energy Rev 53:993-1009. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2015.09.019
Ramos MA, Medeiros PM, Almeida ALS, Feliciano ALP, Albuquerque UP. 2008a. Use and knowledge of fuelwood in an area of Caatinga vegetation in NE Brazil. Biomass Bioenergy 32:510-517. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biombioe.2007.11.015
Ramos MA, Medeiros PM, Almeida ALS, Feliciano ALP, Albuquerque UP. 2008b. Can wood quality justify local preferences for firewood in an area of caatinga (dryland) vegetation? Biomass Bioenergy 32:503-509. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biombioe.2007.11.010
Samant SS, Dhar U, Rawal RS. 2000. Assessment of fuel resource diversity and utilization patterns in Askot Wildlife Sanctuary in Kumaun Himalaya, India, for conservation and management. Environ Conserv 27:5-13. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0376892900000023
Saslis-Lagoudakis CH, Savolainen V, Williamson EM, Forest F, Wagstaff SJ, Baral SR, Watson MF, Pendry CA, Hawkins JA. 2012. Phylogenies reveal predictive power of traditional medicine in bioprospecting. Proc Natl Acad Sci 109:15835-40. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1202242109
Tabuti JRS, Dhillion SS, Lye KA. 2003. Firewood use in Bulamogi County, Uganda: species selection, harvesting and consumption patterns. Biomass Bioenergy 25:581-596. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/S0961-9534(03)00052-7
Top N, Mizoue N, Kai S, Nakao T. 2004. Variation in woodfuel consumption patterns in response to forest availability in Kampong Thom Province, Cambodia. Biomass Bioenergy 27:57-68. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biombioe.2003.10.008
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2020 Ethnobiology and Conservation
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
