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The Spiritual Valuation of Erythrophleum suaveolens, a Cultural Keystone Species in the Democratic Republic of Congo

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Data Availability

The data that support the findings of this study are available on request from the corresponding author, EDM. The data are not publicly available because they contain information that could compromise the privacy of research participants.

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Acknowledgements

I would like to thank all participants who took the time and effort to introduce me to the beliefs associated with the tree species. I would like to thank Enabel, the Belgian Development Agency, for supporting the research mission in the Mongala province. I would like to thank the Leopold III fund for funding the fieldwork in Idiofa. Furthermore, I thank Jurgen Heytens and Faja Lobi for supporting the fieldwork in Idiofa logistically and Jean Eden Mimbu for his assistance during the fieldwork in Idiofa. I would like to thank Tyler Arbour and Jennifer Murphy for their suggestions regarding the language of this article.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Plants and Crops, Ghent University, 9000, Ghent, Belgium

    Emiel De Meyer

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  1. Emiel De Meyer
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Correspondence to Emiel De Meyer.

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Declarations

The present research was performed in the framework of an interdisciplinary study on medicinal plant use by Congolese communities in Belgium and DR Congo which received formal approval from the Ethics Committee of the Faculty of Political and Social Sciences of Ghent University. Educated informed consent was obtained from all participants, and all data collection was done with clarity of objectives and respect for cultural norms. The study design followed ethical guidelines of AAA (2012) and ISE Code of Ethics (2006).

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De Meyer, E. The Spiritual Valuation of Erythrophleum suaveolens, a Cultural Keystone Species in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Econ Bot 77, 103–109 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12231-023-09566-x

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