Ethnoecology, Resource Use, Conservation And Development In A ...

Number of tree species
100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
35
55
91
Medicine Edible Construction Technological Miscellaneous Firewood
Figure 4.3. Number of trees named in Wapishana for which uses were documented within
each of the six use categories, following Johnston and Colquhoun (1996).
The proportions of useful trees in each of these categories, shown in figure 4.3,
differed markedly from those reported from Kurukupari. The most marked difference
was the much greater numbers of species deemed useful in construction, the largest
category in the present study. The proportion of medicinal uses reported in the
present study was much less. As in the Kurukupari study, the pattern of numbers of
tree species per category was similar to that of number of uses per category (see
figure 4.4). The greatest number of cases of multiple uses of a species within a
category (figure 4.5) occurred in the technological category, within which five uses
were recorded for one segregate (iziari, the balata tree Manilkara bidentata). I do
not find this result surprising, as this was the most diverse of the use categories
employed. However, it does differ from the results from Kurukupari, in which the large
medicinal category exhibited the greatest occurrence of multiple uses.
73
13
15