Ethnobotanical contributions to global fishing communities: a review

Abstract

Background: Ethnobotanical knowledge about the role of plants in fisheries provides valuable ecological information vital for sustainable management of local resources; however, it is diluted and understudied globally. This literature review aims to map the knowledge of plant use within traditional fishing communities.

Methods: Through the PRISMA method, we identified and selected 34 articles reporting the use of plants in fisheries, and including 344 taxa of plants and algae. Uses of plants and algae were grouped into different categories.

Results: In the novel categorization of fishery-related uses we proposed, the most mentioned were for fishing and building/repair of fishing artifacts and habitat-related uses, while the records of plants related to fiber uses, providing aid in fishing management and species causing problems, were among the least mentioned. Semi-structured interview is most commonly used with local resource users, especially fishery experts, in exploring perceptions on plant use within traditional fishing communities. Diversity was high in all the recorded families, but most were reported locally.

Conclusion: Ethnobotanical studies with fishers are not common in the documented literature but they provide a large number of use reports. On the basis this review, in most of the world, the information is of a casual and sporadic nature. Fishers can provide information on aquatic plants and algae that create problems and aid in fishing management, which are crucial in understanding the ecosystem of a region experiencing environmental challenges. This knowledge is greatly understudied globally and undergoing a rapid decline, as highlighted in several of the reviewed articles. Thus, further systematic research on fishery-related uses of plants by fisherfolk is needed considering its potential contribution to the sustainable management of fishery resources.

Keywords: Ethnobiology; Fisherfolk; Indigenous plant knowledge; Local ecological knowledge; Plant uses; Traditional ecological knowledge; Traditional fisheries knowledge; Traditional plant knowledge.

Fig. 1

Flow diagram for the literature review with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA)

Fig. 2

Summary of the publication year of the studies included in the review

Fig. 3

Distribution of the reviewed articles on the world map, red stars mean original reasearch, black stars mean original research combined with other data sources Source of the base map: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cf/A_large_blank_world_map_with_oceans_marked_in_blue.PNG

Fig. 4

The methods of data acquisition reported in the included articles

Fig. 5

Knowledge sources reported in reviewed articles

Fig. 6

Percentage of use reports from ethnobotanical studies with local fishers globally

Fig. 7

Frequency of reports on fishery-related uses of plants in reviewed articles per geographical area

Fig. 8

General categories of fishery-related uses of plants in the world

Fig. 9

Bar graph of the most frequently reported families in all the reviewed studies, indicating the number of reports per family

Fig. 10

Shared species used within genera across countries