Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Marketing, Culture, and Conservation Value of NTFPs: Case Study of Afro-Ecuadorian Use of Piquigua, Heteropsis ecuadorensis (Araceae)

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
African Ethnobotany in the Americas

  • 1517 Accesses

Abstract

This chapter explores the pros and cons of non-timber forest products (NTFPs) in relation to three major aspects: (1) economics, (2) culture, and (3) conservation, through a case study of the Afro-Ecuadorian use of a fiber plant, piquigua, Heteropsis ecuadorensis (Araceae) Kunth, in the Mache-Chindul Ecological Reserve. The reserve is located in northwestern Ecuador, in the province of Esmeraldas. This chapter addresses the collection, management, use, and marketing of the plant, with particular emphasis on basketry. For these particular forest residents, the plant has minimum economic value and high cultural value, both of which lend themselves to the importance of this plant in terms of conservation. Afro-Ecuadorians, although a minority in the reserve, represent a significant group actively using and managing the forest. The role that piquigua plays in their lives and for the forest can help inform the NTFP discussion involving rural areas in the developing world.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
eBook
USD 16.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 84.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Adovasio JM (1977) Basketry technology: a guide to identification and analysis. Aldine Publishing Company, Chicago

    Google Scholar 

  • Aguirre NM, Gavilanes MA, Hofstede R, Sevink J (2000) Sistemas forestales en la costa del Ecuador: Una propuesta para la zona de amortiguamiento de la Reserva Mache-Chindul. Ecopar, Quito

    Google Scholar 

  • Alarcón HP (2000) Diseño Final del subproyecto de capacitación y comercialización de artesanía Chachi de la zona norte de la provincia de Esmeraldas. FECCHE, Esmeraldas

    Google Scholar 

  • Arnold JE (2010) Foreword. In: Wild product governance: finding policies that work for non-timber forest products. Earthscan, Washington, DC, pp xxiii–xxiv

    Google Scholar 

  • Balée W (1994) Footprints of the forest. Columbia University Press, New York City

    Google Scholar 

  • Balick MJ, Cox P (1997) Plants, people, and culture: the science of ethnobotany. Scientific American Library, New York City

    Google Scholar 

  • Balick MJ, Mendelsohn R (1991) Assessing the economic value of traditional medicines from tropical rain forests. Conserv Biol 6:128–130

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Barrett SA (1994) Los indios Cayapas del Ecuador. Abya-Yala, Quito

    Google Scholar 

  • Belcher B, Ruíz-Pérez M, Achdiawan R (2005) Global patterns and trends in the use and management of commercial NTFPs: implications for livelihoods and conservation. World Dev 33(9):1435–1452

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bennett BC (1991) Aspectos económicos y sociológicos de la etnobotánica. In: Ríos M, Pedersen HB (eds) Las plantas y el hombre. Abya Yala, Quito, pp 361–365

    Google Scholar 

  • Bennett BC (1992) Plants and people of the Amazonian rainforests: the role of ethnobotany in sustainable development. Bioscience 42:599–607

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bennett BC (2002) Forest products and traditional peoples: economic, biological and cultural ­considerations. Nat Res Forum 26:293–301

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bennett BC, Husby CE (2008) Patterns of medicinal plant use: an examination of the Ecuadorian Shuar medicinal flora using contingency table and binomial analyses. J Ethnopharmacol 116:422–430

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Bennett BC, Baker M, Andrade PG (2002) Ethnobotany of the Shuar of eastern Ecuador, vol 14. The New York Botanical Garden, Bronx

    Google Scholar 

  • Berg BB (2001) Qualitative research methods for the social sciences. Allyn and Bacon, Needham Heights

    Google Scholar 

  • Bernard HR (2006) Research methods in anthropology: qualitative and quantitative approaches, 4th edn. Altamira Press, Walnut Creek

    Google Scholar 

  • Berry W (1978) The unsettling of America: culture & agriculture. Sierra Club Books, Avon

    Google Scholar 

  • Browder JO (1995) Redemptive communities: indigenous knowledge, colonist farming systems, and conservation of tropical forests. Agric Human Values 12:17–30

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Byg A, Vormisto J, Balslev H (2006) Using the useful: characteristics of used palms in southeastern Ecuador. Environ Dev Sustain 8(4):495–506

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Carrasco E (1983) El pueblo Chachi. Abya-Yala, Quito

    Google Scholar 

  • Coomes OT (2004) Rain forest ‘conservation-through-use’? Chambira palm fibre extraction and handicraft production in a land-constrained community, Peruvian Amazon. Biodiversity and Conservation. 13(2):351–360

    Google Scholar 

  • Croat TB (1988) Ecology and life forms of Araceae. Aroideana 11:4–55

    Google Scholar 

  • Dixon K (2006) Beyond race and gender: recent works on Afro-Latin America. Lat Am Res Rev 41(3):247–257

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dodson CH, Gentry AH (1978) Flora of the Rio Palenque science center, Los Ríos, Ecuador. Selbyana 4(1–6):1–628

    Google Scholar 

  • Dodson CH, Gentry AH (1991) Biological extinction in eastern Ecuador. Ann Mo Bot Gard 78:273–295

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Duke JA (1992) Tropical botanical extractives. In: Plotkin M, Famolare L (eds) Sustainable harvest and marketing of rain forest products. Island Press, Washington, DC, pp 53–62

    Google Scholar 

  • Engler A (1878) Heteropsis (Kunth). In: De Candolle AC (ed) Monographie Phanerogamarum, vol 2., pp 98–100

    Google Scholar 

  • Ezebilo EE, Mattsson L (2010) Contribution of non-timber forest products to livelihoods of communities in southeast Nigeria. Int J Sustain Dev World Ecol 17(3):231–235

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fadiman M (2004) Management, cultivation and domestication of weaving plants: Heteropsis and Astrocaryum in the Ecuadorian rain forest. Calif Geograph 44:1–19

    Google Scholar 

  • Fadiman M (2007) Exploring conservation: Piguigua, Heteropsis ecuadorensis, in Ecuador. Pap Appl Geograph Conf 30:427–436

    Google Scholar 

  • Fadiman M (2008a) Resource stewardship: rain forest use among three ethnic groups of Ecuador. Pap Appl Geograph Conf 31:310–318

    Google Scholar 

  • Fadiman M (2008b) Use of Mocora, Astrocaryum standleyanum (Arecaceae), by three ethnic groups in Ecuador: differences, similarities and market potential. J Ethnobiol 28(1):92–109

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Foote N (2006) Race, state and nation in early twentieth century Ecuador. Nation Nationalism 12(2):261–278

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Garibaldi T, Turner N (2004) Cultural keystone species: implications for ecological conservation and restoration. Ecol Soc 9(3):1. Open acess http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol9/iss3/art1. 2 June 2011

    Google Scholar 

  • Gavilanes MR, Delgado SM, Hofstede R, Ronquillo JC (2000) Caracterización de los bosques y zonas de influencia. Ecopar, Quito

    Google Scholar 

  • Gentry AH (1992) New non-timber forest products from western South America. In: Plotkin M, Famolare L (eds) Sustainable harvest and marketing of rain forest products. Island Press, Washington, DC, pp 125–136

    Google Scholar 

  • Godoy R, Bawa KS (1993) The economic value and sustainable harvest of plants and animals from the tropical forest: assumptions, hypotheses, and methods. Econ Bot 47:215–219

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Goncalves E (2005) Araceae from central Brazil: comments on their diversity and biogeography. Ann Mo Bot Gard 91(3):457–463

    Google Scholar 

  • Hall P, Bawa K (1993) Methods to assess the impact of extraction of non-timber tropical forest products on plant populations. Econ Bot 47:234–247

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Heinrich M, Ankli A, Frei B, Weimann C, Stitcher O (1998) Medicinal plants in Mexico: healers consensus and cultural importance. Soc Sci Med 47:1859–1871

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Hoffman B (1997) The biology and harvest of Nibbi, Heteropsis flexuosa (Araceae): an aerial root fiber product in Guyana. Thesis, Florida International University, Miami

    Google Scholar 

  • Homma AKO (1992) The dynamics of extraction in Amazonia: a historical perspective. In: Nepstad DC, Schwartzman S (eds) Non-timber products from tropical forests-evaluation of a conservation and development strategy, vol 9, Advances in Economic Botany. The New York Botanical Garden, Bronx, pp 23–31

    Google Scholar 

  • INEFAN (1996) Estudio de alternativas de manejo para las montañas de Mache, provincia de Esmeraldas. INEFAN, Quito

    Google Scholar 

  • INEFAN (1998) Reserva Ecológica Mache-Chindul Remach: Estudio de tenencia de la tierra. Resumen ejecutivo. INEFAN, Quito

    Google Scholar 

  • INEFAN (1999) Reserva Ecológica Mache-Chindul (Remach): Estudio complementario de tenencia de la tierra sector Y de la Laguna. INEFAN, Quito

    Google Scholar 

  • INEFAN (2006) Reserva Ecológica Mache-Chindul Remach: Estudio de tenencia de la tierra. Resumen recente. INEFAN, Quito

    Google Scholar 

  • Johnson E (2009) Schooling as a regime of equality and reproducing difference in an Afro-Ecuadorian region. Ethnograph Educ 4(2):147–164

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jørgensen PM, León-Yánez S (eds) (1999) Catalogue of the vascular plants of Ecuador. Monographs in Systematic Botany from the Missouri Botanical Garden, 75:1181–1182

    Google Scholar 

  • Joyal E (1994) Palm ethnoecology in the Saripiqui region of Costa Rica. J Ethnobiol 14:161–172

    Google Scholar 

  • Joyal E (1996) The Palm has its time: an ethnoecology of Sabal uresana in Sonora Mexico. Econ Bot 50(4):446–462

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Joyal E (2003) University of Hawaii, building bridges conference abstracts. http://www.botany.hawaii.edu/traditionalknowledge/events/sessions/presenta/abstract/Joyal. Accessed 22 Mar 2003

  • Knab-Vispo C, Hoffman B, Moermond T, Vispo C (2003) Ecological observation on Heteropsis spp. (Araceae) in Southern Venezuela. Econ Bot 57(3):345–353

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Laird SA, Wynberg RP, McLain J (2010) Recommendations. In: Wild product governance: finding policies that work for non-timber forest products. Earthscan, Washington, DC, pp 367–384

    Google Scholar 

  • Lincoln K, Orr B (2011) The use and cultural significance of the Pita plant (Aechmea magdalenae) among Ngöbe women of Chalite, Panama. Econ Bot 65(1):13–26

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Madison M (1977) Vascular epiphytes: their systematic occurrence and salient features. Selbyana 2:1–13

    Google Scholar 

  • Martin G (2004) Ethnobotany: a methods manual. Earthscan, Sterling

    Google Scholar 

  • Mayo SJ, Bogner J, Boyce PC (1997) The genera of Araceae. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew

    Google Scholar 

  • Neill D (2006) Missouri Botanical Garden Ecuador vegetation page. www.mobot.org/MOBOT/research/ecuador/vegetation.shtml. Accessed 13 Mar 2006

  • Nepstad DC, Schwartzman S (1992) Conclusions and recommendations: the challenge of non-timber forest product extraction. In: Nepstad DC, Schwartzman S (eds) Non-timber products from tropical forests-evaluation of a conservation and development strategy, vol 9, Advances in economic botany. The New York Botanical Garden, Bronx, pp 143–146

    Google Scholar 

  • Novoa RR (2001) Zambaje y autonomía: Historia de la gente negra de la provincia de Esmeraldas siglos XVI-XVIII. Abya-Yala, Quito

    Google Scholar 

  • Padoch C (1987) The economic importance and marketing of forest and fallow products in the Iquitos region of Brazil. In: Denevan WM, Padoch C (eds) Swidden-fallow agroforestry in the Peruvian Amazon. New York Botanical Garden, Bronx, pp 74–89

    Google Scholar 

  • Padoch C (1992) Marketing of non-timber forest products in western Amazonia: general observations and research priorities. In: Nepstad DC, Schwartzman S (eds) Non-timber products from tropical forests-evaluation of a conservation and development strategy, vol 9, Advances in economic botany. The New York Botanical Garden, Bronx, pp 43–50

    Google Scholar 

  • Padoch C, de Jong W (1989) Production and profit in agroforestry: an example from the Peruvian Amazon. In: Browder JO (ed) Fragile lands of Latin America: strategies for sustainable development. Westview Press, Boulder, pp 102–113

    Google Scholar 

  • Pendelton LH (1992) Trouble in paradise: practical obstacles to non-timber forestry in Latin America. In: Plotkin M, Famolare L (eds) Sustainable harvest and marketing of rain forest products. Island Press, Washington, DC, pp 252–262

    Google Scholar 

  • Pérez FL (1998) Human impact on the high páramo landscape of the Venezuelan Andes. In: Young KR, Zimmerer KS (eds) Nature’s geography: new lessons for conservation in developing countries. The University of Wisconsin Press, Madison, pp 147–183

    Google Scholar 

  • Peters CM, Gentry AH, Mendelsohn RO (1989) Valuation of an Amazonian rainforest. Nature 399:655–666

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Plowden C, Uhl C, Oliveira F (2003) The ecology and harvest potential of titica vine roots (Heteropsis flexuosa: Araceae) in the eastern Brazilian Amazon. For Ecol Manage 182(1–3): 59–73

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Prance G (1997) Valuation and sustainable use of tropical rainforest. J Biol Educ 31(4):258–262

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Putz FE, Holbrook NM (1986) Notes on the natural history of Hemiepiphytes. Selbyana 9:61–68

    Google Scholar 

  • Ray TS (1987) Leaf types in the Araceae. Am J Bot 74:1359–1872

    Google Scholar 

  • Ray TS (1992) Foraging behavior in tropical herbaceous climbers (Araceae). J Ecol 80: 189–203

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Redford KH, Coppolillo P, Sanderson EW, Da Fonseca G, Dinerstein E, Groves C, Mace G, Maginnis S, Mittermeier RA, Noss R, Olson D, Robinson JG, Vedder A, Wright M (2003) Mapping the conservation landscape. Conserv Biol 17(1):116–131

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Reyes-García V, Goday R, Vadez V, Apaza L, Byron E, Huanca T, Leonard WR, Pérez E, Wilkie D (2003) Ethnobotanical knowledge shared widely among Tsimane’ Amerindians, Bolivia. Science 299(5613):1707

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Rival L (2007) Alliances for sustainable forest management: lessons from the Ecuadorian Chocó rain forest. In: Ros-Tonen MAF (ed) In collaboration with H. Hombergh and A. Zoomers. Partnerships in sustainable forest resource management: learning from Latin America. Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, pp 37–62

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Rudel TK (2000) Organizing for sustainable development: conservation organizations and the struggle to protect tropical rain forests in Esmeraldas, Ecuador. Ambio 29(2):78–82

    Google Scholar 

  • Ruíz-Pérez M, Belcher B, Achdiawan R, Alexiades M, Aubertin M, Caballero J, Campbell B, Clement C, Cunningham T, Fantini A, de Foresta H, Fernández CG, Gautam KH, Martínez PH, de Jong W, Kusters K, Govindan Kutty M, López C, Fu M, Alfaro MAM, Raghavan Nair TK, Ndoye O, Ocampo R, Rai N, Ricker M, Schreckenberg K, Shackleton S, Shanley P, Sunderland T, Youn YC (2004) Markets drive the specialization strategies of forest peoples. Ecol Soc 9(2): 4. Open access: http//www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol9/iss2/. /4 June 2011

  • Runk J (1998) Productivity and sustainability of a vegetable ivory palm (Phytelephas aequatorialis, Arecaceae) under three management regimes in northwest Ecuador. Econ Bot 52:168–182

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Runk J (2001) Wounaan and Emberá use and management of the fiber palm Astrocaryum standleyanum (Arecaceae) for basketry in eastern Panama. Econ Bot 55(1):72–82

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Salick J (1992) Amuesha forest use and management: an integration of indigenous use and natural forest management. In: Redford KH, Padoch C (eds) Conservation of neotropical forests: working from traditional resource use. Colombia University Press, New York City, pp 305–319

    Google Scholar 

  • Sanchez AJ (2008) Multiethnic nations and cultural citizenship: proposals from the Afro-descendent movement in Ecuador. Souls 10(3):215–226

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schmidt IB, Figueiredo IB, Scariot A (2007) Ethnobotany and effects of harvesting on the population ecology of Syngonanthus nitens (Bong.) Ruhland (eriocaulaceae), A NTFP from Jalapão region, Central Brazil. Econ Bot 6(1):73–85

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schmink M, Redford KH, Padoch C (1992) Traditional peoples and the biosphere: framing the issues and defining the terms. In: Redford KH, Padoch C (eds) Conservation of neotropical forests: working from traditional resource use. Colombia University Press, New York City, pp 3–13

    Google Scholar 

  • Shanley P, Luz L, Swingland IR (2002) The faint promise of a distant market: a survey of Belém’s, trade in non-timber forest products. Biodivers Conserv 11:615–636

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sheil D, Wunder S (2002) The value of tropical forests to local communities: complications, caveats and cautions. Conserv Ecol 6(2):9. http//www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol6/iss2/art9/. 3 June 2011

  • Sierra R (1999) Traditional resource-use systems and tropical deforestation in a multi-ethnic region in north-west Ecuador. Environ Conserv 26:136–145

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Southgate D (1998) Tropical forest conservation: an economic assessment of the alternatives in Latin America. Oxford University Press, New York City

    Google Scholar 

  • Southgate D, Whitaker M (1994) Economic progress and the environment: one developing country’s policy crisis. Oxford University Press, New York City

    Google Scholar 

  • Speiser S (1991) Tenencia de la tierra en los cantones Eloy Alfaro y San Lorenzo provincia de Esmeraldas. FEPP, Esmeraldas

    Google Scholar 

  • Strong DR, Ray TS (1975) Host tree location behavior of a tropical vine (Monstera gigantea) by skototropism. Science 190:804–806

    Google Scholar 

  • Tam SH, Boyce PC, Upson TM, Darabé D, Bruneau A, Forest F, Parker JS (2004) Intergeneric and infrafamilial phylogeny of subfamily Monsteroideae (Araceae) revealed by chloroplast <011>trnL-F sequences1. Am J Bot 91:490–498

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Tickton T (2005) Applying a metapopulation framework to the management and conservation of a non-timber forest species. For Ecol Manage 206:249–261

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Toledo V (1995) New paradigms for a new ethnobotany: reflections on the case of Mexico. In: Schultes R, von Reis S (eds) Ethnobotany: evolution of a discipline. Dioscorides, Portland, pp 75–92

    Google Scholar 

  • TROPICOS (2006) Specimen list for Heteropsis ecuadorensis. http://mobot.mobot.org/cgi-bin/search_vast. Accessed 7 July 2006

  • Turner IM (2001) The ecology of trees in the tropical rain forest. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • Valencia R, Pitman N, León-Yánez S, Jørgensen P (eds) (2000) Libro rojo de las plantas endémicas del Ecuador. Hojas y Signos, Quito

    Google Scholar 

  • Villaquirán ML (1990) Alonso de Illescas, estratega, militar y político. In: Savoia P (ed) El negro en la historia: Aportes para el conocimiento de las raices en América Latina. Centro Cultural Afroecuatoriano, Cayambe, pp 193–198

    Google Scholar 

  • West RC (1952) Colonial placer mining in Colombia. Louisiana State University Press, Baton Rouge

    Google Scholar 

  • West RC (1957) The pacific lowlands of Colombia: a negroid area of the tropics. Louisiana State University Press, Baton Rouge

    Google Scholar 

  • Whitten NE Jr (1974) Black frontiersmen: a South American case. Schenkman Publishing Company, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • Young KR, Zimmerer KS (1998) Introduction: the geographical nature of landscape change. In: Young KR, Zimmerer KS (eds) Nature’s geography: new lessons for conservation in developing countries. The University of Wisconsin Press, Madison, pp 3–34

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geosciences, Florida Atlantic University, 777 Glades Road, Boca Raton, FL, 33431, USA

    Maria Fadiman Ph.D.

Authors
  1. Maria Fadiman Ph.D.
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Maria Fadiman Ph.D. .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. , Department of Geography, California State University, 800 N. State College Blvd, Fullerton, 92834, California, USA

    Robert Voeks

  2. , Department of Sociology and, College of Charleston, 66 George St., Charleston, 29424, South Carolina, USA

    John Rashford

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2013 Springer Science+Business Media New York

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Fadiman, M. (2013). Marketing, Culture, and Conservation Value of NTFPs: Case Study of Afro-Ecuadorian Use of Piquigua, Heteropsis ecuadorensis (Araceae). In: Voeks, R., Rashford, J. (eds) African Ethnobotany in the Americas. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-0836-9_7

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation