Abstract
Wild plant species provide a variety of ecosystem services that contribute to human well-being. However, much of the legacy of traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) in Japan is rapidly being lost because of environmental changes; therefore, it is important to study the relationship between TEK of ecosystem management practices and plant diversity. Our study area is located in the southwest of Nagano Prefecture, Japan. We compared plant diversity among three land management types including traditional, labor-saving, and land abandonment sites, where we recorded 103 useful plant species based on interviews concerning the traditional use of local ecological resources; among them, 45 species are used for horse livestock, 32 for agriculture, 16 as edible plants, and 19 for manufacture of diverse every-day life goods. Data analyses demonstrated that useful plant diversity was significantly higher in the traditional sites than in other sites. We found highly diverse traditional uses of plant species (e.g., edible plants, horse feed, and rainwear) provided by TEK of local management. These results imply that when local farmers perform traditional management practices, they increase plant species diversity. With our work we investigated the effect of the loss of cultural values and the impact of biodiversity changes on the opportunities that people have to use ecosystem resources in Japan. This aspect particularly highlights the urgency of reconnecting nature and people. Conservation planning based on TEK has been and will be vital in addressing the goal of reducing biodiversity loss on a global scale.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Andreasen C, Stryhn H, Streibig JC (1996) Decline of the flora in Danish arable fields. J Appl Ecol 30:619–626
Atreya K, Pyakurel D, Thagunna KS, Bhatta LD, Uprety Y, Chaudhary RP, Oli BN, Rimal SK (2018) Factors contributing to the decline of traditional practices in communities from the Gwallek–Kedar area, Kailash Sacred Landscape, Nepal. Environ Manag 61:741–755
Benton TG, Vickery JA, Wilson JD (2003) Farmland biodiversity: is habitat heterogeneity the key? Trends Ecol Evol 18:182–188
Berglund BE, Kitagawa J, Lageras P, Nakamura K, Sasaki N, Yasuda Y (2014) Traditional farming landscapes for sustainable living in Scandinavia and Japan: global revival through the Satoyama initiative. Ambio 43:559–578
Berkes F, Folke C, Colding J (2000) Linking social and ecological systems: management practices and social mechanisms for building resilience. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
Billeter R, Liira J, Bailey D et al. (2008) Indicators for biodiversity in agricultural landscapes: a pan-European study. J Appl Ecol 45:141–150
Chan KMA, Guerry AD, Balvanera P et al. (2012) Where are cultural and social in ecosystem services? A framework for constructive engagement. Bioscience 62:744–756
Clark NE, Lovell R, Wheeler BW, Higgins SL, Depledge MH, Norris K (2014) Biodiversity, cultural pathways, and human health: a framework. Trends Ecol Evol 29:198–204
Colding J (1998) Analysis of hunting options by the use of general food taboos. Ecol Model 110:5–17
Colding J, Elmqvist T, Olsson P (2003) Living with disturbance: building resilience in social-ecological systems. In: Berkes F, Colding J, Folke C (eds) Navigating social-ecological systems: building resilience for complexity and change. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp 163–185
Conservation International (2015) The biodiversity hotspots. http://www.cepf.net/resources/hotspots/Pages/default.aspx. Accessed 25 Jan 2019
Daily GC, Polasky S, Goldstein J et al. (2009) Ecosystem services in decision making: time to deliver. Front Ecol Environ 7:21–28
Dengler J, Janišová M, Török P, Wellstein C (2014) Biodiversity of Palaearctic grasslands: a synthesis. Agric Ecosyst Environ 182:1–14
Díaz S, Demissew S, Carabias J, Joly C, Lonsdale M, Ash N, Larigauderie A, RamAdhikari J, Arico S, Báldi A, Bartuska A, AndreasBaste I, Bilgin A, Brondizio E, MAChan K, ElsaFigueroa V, Duraiappah A, Fischer M, Zlatanova D (2015) The IPBES conceptual framework—connecting nature and people. Curr Opin Environ Sustain 14:1–16
Editorial Board of Kaida-Village Office (Nagano-ken Kiso-gun Kaida-mura yakuba sonshi-henshu-iinkai) (1980) History of Kaida-village (Kaida-son shi), Kaida-village (Kiso-gun Kaida-mura) (in Japanese)
Eloy L, Bilbao BA, Mistry J, Schmidt IB (2019) From fire suppression to fire management: advances and resistances to changes in fire policy in the savannas of Brazil and Venezuela. Geogr J 185:10–22
Fischer J, Hartel T, Kuemmerle T (2012) Conservation policy in traditional farming landscapes. Conserv Lett 5:167–175
Freeman MMR, Carbyn LN (1988) Traditional knowledge and renewable resource management in northern regions. Canadian Circumpolar Institute, Edomonton
Gómez-Baggethun E, Reyes-García V, Olsson P, Montes C (2012) Traditional ecological knowledge and community resilience to environmental extremes: a case study in Doñana, SW Spain. Glob Environ Chang 22:640–650
Haddad NM, Crutsinger GM, Gross K, Haarstad J, Knops JMH, Tilman D (2009) Plant species loss decreases arthropod diversity and shifts trophic structure. Ecol Lett 12:1029–1039
Hautier Y, Niklaus PA, Hector A (2009) Competition for light causes plant biodiversity loss after eutrophication. Science 324:636–638
Johannes RE (1989) Traditional ecological knowledge: a collection of essays. IUCN, The World Conservation Union, Switzerland
Johnson M (1992) Lore: capturing traditional environmental knowledge. The Dene Cultural Institute and the International Development Research Centre, Ottawa
Kato M (1995) Utilization and folk knowledge of straw and wild grasses in terraced ricefields among Cattle-rearing farmers in Tajima area Japan. Hum Nat 6:87–100
Kelemen A, Török P, Valkó O, Miglécz T, Tóthmérész B (2013) Mechanisms shaping plant biomass and species richness: plant strategies and litter effect in alkali and loess grasslands. J Veg Sci 24:1195–1203
Kleijn D, Rundlöf M, Scheper J, Smith HG, Tscharntke T (2011) Does conservation on farmland contribute to halting the biodiversity decline? Trends Ecol Evol 26:474–481
Lyver PO’B, Timoti P, Davis T, Tylianakis JM (2019) Biocultural hysteresis inhibits adaptation to environmental change. Trends Ecol Evol. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tree.2019.04.002
Marini L, Fontana P, Battisti A, Gaston KJ (2009) Response of orthopteran diversity to abandonment of semi-natural meadows. Agric Ecosyst Environ 132:232–236
Matsuzaki SS, Shinohara R, Uchida K, Sasaki T (2019) Catch diversification provides multiple benefits in inland fisheries. J Appl Ecol 56:843–854
Mauerhofera V, Ichinose T, Blackwell BD, Willig MR, Flinte CG, Krause MS, Penkerg M (2018) Underuse of social-ecological systems: a research agenda for addressing challenges to biocultural diversity. Land Use Policy 72:57–64
McCarter J, Gavin MC (2014) Local perceptions of changes in traditional ecological knowledge: a case study from Malekula Island, Vanuatu. Ambio 43:288–296
Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (2005) Ecosystems and human well-being. World Resources Institute, Washington, DC
Nagata YK, Ushimaru A (2016) Traditional burning and mowing practices support high grassland plant diversity by providing intermediate levels of vegetation height and soil pH. Appl Veg Sci 19:567–577
Ostrom E (1990) Governing the commons: the evolution of institutions for collective action. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
Quave CL, Pieroni A (2015) A reservoir of ethnobotanical knowledge informs resilient food security and health strategies in the Balkans. Nat Plants 1:1–6
de Snoo GR, Herzon I, Staats H et al. (2013) Toward effective nature conservation on farmland: making farmers matter. Conserv Lett 6:66–72
Soga M, Gaston KJ, Koyanagi TF, Kurisu K, Hanaki K (2016) Urban residents’ perceptions of neighbourhood nature: does the extinction of experience matter? Biol Conserv 203:143–150
Suka T, Okamoto T, Ushimaru A (2012) Grasslands and Japanese. Tokyo Tsukiji-Shokan, Tokyo
Takeuchi K (2010) Rebuilding the relationship between people and nature: the satoyama initiative. Ecol Res 25:891–897
Tattoni C, Ianni E, Geneletti D, Zatelli P, Ciolli M (2017) Landscape changes, traditional ecological knowledge and future scenarios in the Alps: a holistic ecological approach. Sci Total Environ 579:27–36
Tscharntke T, Klein AM, Kruess A, Steffan-Dewenter I, Thies C (2005) Landscape perspectives on agricultural intensification and biodiversity-ecosystem service management. Ecol Lett 8:857–874
Turner NJ, Ignace MB, Ignace R (2000) Traditional ecological knowledge and wisdom of aboriginal peoples in British Columbia. Ecol Appl 10:1275–1287
Uchida K, Hiraiwa M, Cadotte WM (2019) Non-random loss of phylogenetically distinct rare species degrades phylogenetic diversity in semi-natural grasslands. J Appl Ecol 56:1419–1428
Uchida K, Takahashi S, Shinohara T, Ushimaru A (2016) Threatened herbivorous insects maintained by long-term traditional management practices in semi-natural grasslands. Agric Ecosyst Environ 221:156–162
Uchida K, Ushimaru A (2014) Biodiversity declines due to abandonment and intensification of agricultural lands: patterns and mechanisms. Ecol Monogr 84:637–658
Uematsu Y, Koga T, Mitsuhashi H, Ushimaru A (2010) Abandonment and intensified use of agricultural land decrease habitats of rare herbs in semi-natural grasslands. Agric Ecosyst Environ 135:304–309
Ushimaru A, Uchida K, Suka T (2018) Grassland biodiversity in Japan: threats, management and conservation. In: Squires VR, Dengler J, Feng H, Hua L (eds) Grasslands of the world. Boca Ratton, London, New York, pp 211–232
Utsunomiya S (1970) Note of plants. The Yomiuri Shimbun, Tokyo
Williams NM, Baines G (1993) Traditional ecological knowledge: wisdom for sustainable development. Centre for Resource and Environmental Studies, Canberra
Zarger RK, Stepp JR (2004) Persistence of botanical knowledge among Tzeltal Maya children. Curr Anthropol 45:413–418
Acknowledgements
We are grateful to an anonymous reviewer whose suggestions have much improved our draft of manuscript. And we thank Takeshi Suka, Yoshiko Tazawa, Kesao Taguchi, Atushi Ushimaru, and Daisuke Tochimoto for providing constructive comments on this study. We thank also Emi Uchida for supporting of this study. We thank Yuko Nagata, Kotaro Morimoto, Masayoshi K. Hiraiwa, and Toshiki Izumisawa for their assistance in field surveys. This study was partially supported by the grant-in-aid for JSPS Research Fellow No. 13J03127, Zoshinkai Fund for Protection of Endangered Animals, and Nippon Life Insurance Foundation to K.U.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
Additional information
Publisher’s note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Supplementary information
Appendix
Appendix
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Uchida, K., Kamura, K. Traditional Ecological Knowledge Maintains Useful Plant Diversity in Semi-natural Grasslands in the Kiso Region, Japan. Environmental Management 65, 478–489 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00267-020-01255-y
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00267-020-01255-y