Eliciting Local Values of Wild Edible Plants in Southern Bénin to Identify Priority Species for Conservation
2011
N’Danikou, Sognigbe | Achigan-Dako, Enoch G. | Wong, Jennifer L.G.
When financial resources are limited, prioritization of species for conservation becomes essential. Elicitation of local perceptions of threats can be a useful means of prioritizing species and can help strengthen local conservation actions for important plant species. In the neighborhood of Dan forest (southern Bénin), we used quantitative ethnobotany tools to explore: a) how local communities value wild resources, b) if concerns of resource depletion can engender pro-active management to conserve plants and, if so, c) which criteria local people would use to select species deserving conservation. Ethnobotanical knowledge was collected using a range of different techniques. Results indicate that the villagers eat 41 wild plant species belonging to 17 families with the most important being Parkia biglobosa, Vitex doniana, Vitellaria paradoxa, Launaea taraxacifolia, and Prosopis africana. Local criteria against which value is evaluated include: i) the market importance, ii) the nutritive value, iii) the number of complementary uses of species, and iv) the availability of the resource. Additional criteria are species specific and include: v) rapid growth and production, vi) resistance to drought and diseases, and vii) life form. Although there is a real appreciation of threats, there is little evidence of pro-active conservation management by harvesters. The needs for further investigations to promote conservation of wild edible plants through use were explored.
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