Amazonian indigenous and traditional populations have used, managed and domesticated plant populations in different landscapes for thousands of years. However, how much these peoples transformed their landscapes and if these disturbances occurred principally along the major rivers or equally in the interfluves remains uncertain. In this study, we
tested the hypothesis that the useful tree and palms communities vary in richness, abundance and basal area around patches of Amazonian Dark Earth (ADE, pre-colombian settlements) and current occupations independent of distance to a major river. In the National Forest (FLONA) of Humaitá, along the edge of the Madeira River, and in the Indigenous Land (IL) Jiahui, 70 km from the Madeira, nine plots were installed at different distances (0 to 4.13 km) from three ADE patches, where palms and trees with DAP > 10 cm were inventoried and current use intensities were evaluated. Interviews with local residents were conducted to identify species and characterize their uses and management practices, including cultivation, and participatory mapping described the extent of areas used by each group. The plots were categorized as to intensity of use according to the sum of activities carried out by the current residents. Both in plots near the Madeira River and in more distant plots the richness, abundance and basal area of useful species were high compared to other Amazonian areas. The forest area used by the indigenous communities that inhabit the interfluve was more extensive and they recognized more food species than the residents of the FLONA. In both areas, plants used as food presented greater abundance in currently heavily managed sites, and plants used for construction had an opposite trend; plants managed for medicine presented greater relative richness in places with higher use intensity, while plants used in construction had lower relative richness. This management carried out by current, and possibly by previous, populations occurs in a selective way considering the use category of each species and the human group that uses them. The results suggest that intensive management areas and changes in the landscape resulting from this management are not limited to the areas adjacent to the edges of major rivers, but are more related to distance to ADE and the use intensity of a plot. The occurrence of indigenous communities
between large rivers with extensive use areas and vegetation management practices allows the inferrence that similar management occurred in the vicinities of pre-Columbian settlements, both near the edges of major rivers and in interfluvial areas.
|
