Evaluation of conservation status of plants in Brazil's Atlantic forest: An ethnoecological approach with Quilombola communities in Serra do Mar State Park

Abstract

The Atlantic Forest is considered the fourth most important biodiversity hotspot. Although almost 96% of its original area has been devastated, a large part of its remaining conserved area is inhabited by traditional communities. This research focused on two Quilombola communities who reside within the Núcleo Picinguaba of the Serra do Mar State Park, State of São Paulo, Brazil. The objective was to use a combination of ethnoecological and ecological approaches to select priority species for which to develop participatory conservation and sustainable management plans in protected areas in Brazil. We collaborated with community members to collect ethnobotanical and ethnoecological data and then measured the abundance of native species in local forests through phytosociological sampling. We used this information to assess the degree of threat to useful species using the Conservation Priority Index, adding an additional layer of analysis based on habitat successional categories. We then overlayed those useful species identified as highest risk locally with those federally listed as threatened or endangered. Based on this, we identified three species as priority for the development of sustainable management plans: Virola bicuhyba, Cedrella fissilis and Plinia edulis.

Fig 1. Site of the Quilombo da Fazenda (QF) (in yellow) and Quilombo do Cambury (QC) (in red) in the Serra do Mar State Park–Nucleus Picinguaba (in green), in the State of São Paulo, Brazil.

Fig 2. 2m x 50m transection drawing (adapted from Gentry [24]) to identify the abundance of each species.

Fig 3. Graph of rarefaction curve with the number of species in relation to transects performed for the two study areas (QC and QF), with both observed (Obs) values and those estimated (Est) by Jackknife 1 using EstimateS software.

Fig 4. Percentage of species occurring in the present sample as to their successional categories in QC and QF.