The Zoʻé perspective on what scientists call “forest management” and its implications for floristic diversity and biocultural conservation

Abstract

Indigenous perspectives on forest management are grounded in traditional ecological knowledge (TEK), so that socioculture influences the ways Indigenous Peoples transform their landscapes. However, how socioculture structures Indigenous perspectives on forest management is unclear. Moreover, little is known about the influence of Indigenous landscape transformations on forest succession and floristic diversity. Here, we test hypotheses from biocultural and ecological theories suggesting that: (i) key social-ecological relationships with specific taxa structure Indigenous perspectives on forest management; (ii) such relationships guide sustainable management that generates resilient forest regrowth; and (iii) this management promotes floristic diversity by acting as an intermediate disturbance. We collected information about cosmology, occupation history and management among the Zoʻé, in Brazilian Amazonia. We also carried out floristic inventories in old-growth forests and in old Zoʻé swidden-fallow areas to analyze forest structure and alpha- and beta-diversity along a gradient of forest successional stages. We show that the Zoʻé perspective on forest management is structured by an ethical principle involving a social-ecological relationship with different beings, especially the spider monkey (<em>Ateles</em> sp.). This relationship generates mobility among the Zoʻé that allows forest regrowth in their fallow areas, so that in 28 years, forest basal area may equal that of old-growth forests. Also, Zoʻé forest management has increased alpha- and beta-diversity by increasing species richness and diversity in intermediate secondary forests and promoting floristic turnover at the landscape-level. These results show that some aspects of Zoʻé cosmology influence forest disturbance regimes that generate a sustainable social-ecological system, therefore being key for Zoʻé well-being and local biodiversity conservation. We believe that Indigenous perspectives about forest management should be included in forest conservation efforts aimed at protecting Amazonian biocultural diversity, thus valuing TEK and engendering sustainable social-ecological systems.