Abstract
ABSTRACT Among the agricultural environments of traditional communities, home gardens are frequently cited as high agrobiodiversity sites. However, the agrobiodiversity of home gardens along a rural-urban gradient demands study in order to identify possible influences of urbanization and to support mitigation of impacts. The present work investigated the role home gardens play in the in situ agrobiodiversity conservation of plants in quilombola communities with different degrees of urbanization. The study found that more urbanized communities have larger home gardens, but the average richness of plant species in these areas was not statistically different among the communities. Furthermore, the abundance of plant species was similar. Medicinal and food plants were mainly found in home gardens of the communities with high to intermediate levels of urbanization, while ornamental plants were more common in rural community home gardens. It is believed that crop exclusivity in home gardens of the more urbanized communities highly influenced the results, increasing the role home gardens play in maintaining traditional practices. The elevated and statistically equal species richness in home gardens suggests that, despite the factors generated by urbanization, all of the communities are very important for in situ conservation of native and introduced species.
Highlights
The present study investigated the role that home gardens play in in situ conservation of quilombola communities with different degrees of urbanization and asked the following questions: How does the size of home gardens vary in rural and urban locations? How do the richness and abundance of plant species that are grown in rural and urban home gardens vary? What is the origin of the species in home gardens? We hypothesized that more rural communities have larger home gardens that maintain a higher richness and abundance of plants, with a higher number of native species
The greatest number of plant species found in home gardens (Tab. 1) was in the Aldeia community (n = 26), which was based on a total of 348 species
The home gardens were larger in the more urbanized community (Aldeia) compared to the less urbanized community (Fortunato). This may reflect the lower availability of arable land outside of home gardens because, in the case of Aldeia, more homogeneous plantings of food species need to be grown in home gardens
Summary
Home gardens are the most widespread use of land worldwide (Howard et al 2006; Kumar & Nair 2006), are often located on the property of individual houses and managed by families (Fernandes & Nair 1986; Vogl et al 2004), and can help meet local demands (Kumar & Nair 2004; Kumar & Nair 2006). One of the main purposes of a home garden is to produce food (Fernandes & Nair 1986), and the high agrobiodiversity found in these areas increases the nutritional diversity and quality of family diets (Faber & Benadé 2003; Johns & Sthapit 2004). Home gardens can represent a legacy of traditional farming practices, where knowledge has been passed down and socially accumulated, often for many generations (Nolin 2003)
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