Indigenous Use of Tropical Biodiversity and Ecosystem Domestication

Abstract

People have long-induced modifications of ecosystems to enhance the suitable conditions for useful plant species; similar to plant domestication, these modifications can be regarded as a continuum of use and management. In tropical forests, indigenous people have contributed to these modifications by using ecosystems both actively and passively through a process called ecosystem domestication. In this chapter, we explore the gradient of ecosystem domestication and its implications to biodiversity. Historically, indigenous societies actively managed ecosystems to make their livelihoods possible in areas otherwise inadequate; the effects of such past management systems are still observable in present biodiversity. Currently, indigenous people continue to modify the ecosystems in which they live, using a diverse range of management practices (e.g., forest gardens, fallow improvement, and agroforestry techniques) which can be equated to different degrees of anthropogenic disturbances. These practices have deep consequences for overall biodiversity, often enhancing it. Therefore, areas inhabited by indigenous people show a high potential for new approaches of biocultural conservation.