Abstract
The giant earthworm, Rhinodrilus alatus (Righi 1971), has been captured in the southeastern Brazilian Cerrado biome for approximately 80 years and used as bait for amateur fishing throughout Brazil. Local knowledge and traditional extraction practices are crucial for the establishment of management strategies for the species because, although its extraction involves conflicts and social and environmental impacts, the species is one of the major sources of income for approximately 3,000 people, especially for members of an Afro-descendant community that has approximately 2,000 inhabitants. Participatory tools, such as seasonal calendar, transect walks and participatory maps, were individually or collectively used with extractors and traders (former extractors), and 129 semi-structured and unstructured interviews were conducted with the same individuals between 2005 and 2012. The capture of Rhinodrilus alatus was observed in different seasons and areas of occurrence of the species in 17 municipalities, where this giant earthworm is the only species extracted for trade. All information obtained was verified by community members in 17 meetings. The extractors have an extensive knowledge of the life history, behavior, distribution, and possible impacts of climate change on the species. Different capture techniques, which have different impacts, are used during the dry and rainy seasons and are passed by the extractors through the generations. Local knowledge contributed to the establishment of agreements for the use of capture techniques that have less impact, to the expansion of scientific knowledge and the reassessment of the conservation status of Rhinodrilus alatus. The present study may serve as an example for management projects for other giant earthworm species in other regions of Brazil and in other countries.
Highlights
Recognition of the knowledge, practices and beliefs that are accumulated by society from one generation to the has gone through different stages, from its marginalization in the 1960s until its adoption as a standard in conservation projects in the 1990s [1]
Local knowledge can contribute to the conservation of biodiversity, protected areas management, sustainable use of natural resources, maintenance of ecosystem services, environmental impact assessment and to improve public policy strategies [2, 7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15]
Only one giant earthworm is found in the “pot”, but in some cases, when there is a confluence of galleries at the time of chamber construction, two or three individuals may be found in one “pot”
Summary
Recognition of the knowledge, practices and beliefs that are accumulated by society from one generation to the has gone through different stages, from its marginalization in the 1960s until its adoption as a standard in conservation projects in the 1990s [1]. Ethnozoological studies are very valuable for the knowledge of bioecology and of sociocultural links between humans and animals and, through them, is possible to identify and understand the use of wildlife for different purposes like for food, traditional medicine, trade, religion and culture [2, 16,17,18,19,20,21,22,23,24,25] This approach play a key role in wildlife conservation and management, contributing to the discovery of new species, new records of species, detection of invasions or extinctions [20, 26, 27], mapping of species distribution, and for identifying priority areas for conservation [28,29,30,31,32]. Some of these data can contribute to species conservation status assessment [30, 37,38,39,40]
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