Assessment of environmental changes, how cultural and socio-economic factors in effect from use and conservation of medicinal plants in communities of remaining of Quilombo in the country Alcântara, Maranhão

• Grant number: 12/24520-0
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants
• Start date: June 01, 2013
• End date: May 31, 2015
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Botany - Applied Botany
• Principal Investigator: Lin Chau Ming
• Grantee: Lin Chau Ming
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Ciências Agronômicas (FCA). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Botucatu. Botucatu , SP, Brazil
• Associated researchers: Jairo Fernando Pereira Linhares

Abstract

The municipality of Alcântara-MA was an important agricultural region in the colonial era. After the decline, were made quilombos. However, in the twentieth century, 23 centenarians villages were forcibly relocated to install the Alcantara Launch Center. The objective of the research is to rescue the knowledge of the Maroons in the municipality of Alcântara in Maranhão State, about the medicinal plants, contributing to the conservation of quilombola for guaranteeing local knowledge and sustainable use of regional biodiversity. More specifically, it seeks to: 1) Rescue and systematize the knowledge of maroon communities on medicinal plants. 2) Identify botanically the plants collected. 3) Identify past and current uses of medicinal plants. 4) Provide information to assist in the implementation of future management plans. 5) Assess the environmental changes, cultural and social changes. 6) Evaluate the erosion of local knowledge about medicinal plants. The methodology consists of the following methodological outline: 1) Pre-search: this phase will be made explanations of the proposed work to the representative bodies of Rural Black Communities. 2) characterization of landscape units and vegetation types related to the medicinal species with the use of satellite images in two distinct periods, past and present. 3) Interviews: Interviewees will be chosen using the technique of "snowballing" in which respondents suggest other people able to participate in the study. 4) Selection of the most important species in the local perception, will be asked in interviews, about the species considered most important in the past and present. 5) Evaluation of vegetation related to the exploitation of medicinal species: Sampling points shall be determined from the indication of key informant, for the attainment of phytosociological surveys of forest fragments used for the extraction of species. The plants are first identified by the common name for reporting informant key and will be subsequently performed botanical identification, using the standard procedure. (AU)