Conservation of wild food plants from wood uses: evidence supporting the protection hypothesis in Northeastern Brazil

Abstract Background The interplay between different uses of woody plants remains underexplored, obscuring our understanding of how a plant’s value for one purpose might shield it from other, more harmful uses. This study examines the protection hypothesis by determining if food uses can protect woody plants (trees and shrubs) from wood uses. We approached the hypothesis from two distinct possibilities: (1) the protective effect is proportional to the intensity of a species’ use for food purposes, and (2) the protective effect only targets key species for food purposes. Methods The research was conducted in a rural community within “Restinga” vegetation in Northeast Brazil. To identify important food species for both consumption and income (key species) and the collection areas where they naturally occur, we conducted participatory workshops. We then carried out a floristic survey in these areas to identify woody species that coexist with the key species. Voucher specimens were used to create a field herbarium, which, along with photographs served as visual stimuli during the checklist interviews. The interviewees used a five-point Likert scale to evaluate the species in terms of perceived wood quality, perceived availability, and use for food and wood purposes. To test our hypothesis, we used Cumulative Link Mixed Models (CLMMs), with the wood use as the response variable, food use, perceived availability and perceived quality as the explanatory variables and the interviewee as a random effect. We performed the same model replacing food use for key species food use (a binary variable that had value 1 when the information concerned a key species with actual food use, and value 0 when the information did not concern a key species or concerned a key species that was not used for food purposes). Results Consistent with our hypothesis, we identified a protective effect of food use on wood use. However, this effect is not directly proportional to the species’ food use, but is confined to plants with considerable domestic food importance. Perceived availability and quality emerged as notable predictors for wood uses. Conclusion We advocate for biocultural conservation strategies that enhance the food value of plants for their safeguarding, coupled with measures for non-edible woody species under higher use-pressure.