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

common than more traditional structures. A smaller variety of timber species is
suitable for this use than for the construction of a typical Rupununi dwelling. It may
be that gathered construction materials other than timber are also employed more
frequently in the cash-starved and isolated South Rupununi, where nails and other
manufactured substitutes, though desired and used when available, are more difficult
to come by. I have not visited Kurukupari and do not know if it is indeed the case
that board houses are the norm and manufactured articles more readily available. The
greater numbers of medicinal uses of plants in Kurukupari may be the result of the
mixed tribal composition of that community, in which Lokono, Makushi and Wapishana
people are all represented. Widely shared medicinal knowledge from all these tribes
may have therefore been documented in that study.
Number of species
140
120
100
80
60
40
20
0
61
132
52
10
4
0 0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6
Number of use categories
Figure 4.6. Frequency distribution of number of use categories in which trees were
represented, following Johnston & Colquhoun (1996)
In other respects the data sets from the two studies were similar. The majority of
useful trees recorded in this study were included in only a single use category, and
indeed had only one use. No segregate was represented in more than four use
categories, though four were represented in four, ten in three and 52 in two (figure
4.6). The greatest number of uses for a single species was iziari, with nine, and a
total of 76 segregates had more than one reported use (figure 4.7). It is certain that
the proportion of useless segregates is underestimated, as their lack of relevance to
my study meant that people were less likely to mention them to me. If it is assumed