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

that the proportion of segregates with no recorded use encountered in plot surveys is
representative of the population as a whole, for the 51 useful segregates recorded
under other circumstances it is to be expected that a further fourteen segregates
with no use must exist. If this is the case, uses were recorded for 195 of 264
segregates implied by the results, or 74 percent. A very small number of trees were
encountered in the plot surveys for which no Wapishana (or other) name was known.
As a result of this, and the fact that trees with no use are more likely to be lumped in
the folk nomenclature, the proportion of botanical species with no use is probably
slightly higher. It must also be noted that the information recorded in this study does
not encompass the entirety of botanical knowledge even within the study village, let
alone the botanically varied area encompassed by the totality of Wapishana
settlement.
Number of species
140
120
100
80
60
40
20
0
60
124
47
15
10
0 1 1 0 1
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Number of uses
Figure 4.7. Frequency distribution of numbers of reported uses per tree, following
Johnston and Colquhoun (1996).
Of the 195 useful segregates, the uses of 111 included one or more that involve the
felling of the entire tree. Specifically, these included uses in construction of houses,
manufacture of dugout canoes, and the manufacture of certain craft items such as
bows and cassava graters. A further 4 species of palm trees were reported
occasionally to be felled in order to cultivate palm grubs. A lack of quantitative data
on harvesting levels and their effects on populations limits the extent to which it is
possible to examine the ecological consequences of this. Informants in Maruranau did
report instances of very local depletion of some species of timber trees felled for