Abstract
This chapter describes the vegetation and landscape from both ecological and cultural viewpoints. Local people call the geographic setting of New Georgia Island tutupeka and that of the barrier islands toba and understand that the soil and vegetation differ on the barrier islands when compared with those of the main island. In the Roviana language, forest is generally called hinqohinqo, but 12 names were used to describe various forest vegetation types. Among them, rizevu (borrowed from the English word “reserve”) is a forest reserve growing near the settlement. Logging by multinational companies and agricultural cultivation are prohibited in these areas, but the local people are allowed to harvest trees for personal use and to remove several non-timber forest products. Vegetation survey disclosed that the primary forests (muqe) on the main and barrier islands were only half as similar (16.0 %) as the respective secondary forests (nobo) (33.3 %). However, vegetation in the reserve forests was 45.9–52.6 % similar to that found in the primary and secondary forests on the main island. Thus, each forest type contained a different type of biodiversity, and this level of diversity is related to human activities.
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Notes
- 1.
In our protocol, any disagreements about the names of specific land use types were to be resolved by discussion among the experts, authors, and other villagers, although such disagreements rarely occurred. Although only four experts were consulted, the classifications reflected widespread recognition of land types by the villagers.
- 2.
Small plots can been problematic in vegetation survey s; however, quadrat s of 0.25 ha or less have been successfully used when locally defined forest types were not extensive enough to establish larger plots.
- 3.
Botanical specimens were collected, stored in liquid alcohol in the field, and later dried at Munda Forestry Station, Ministry of Forestry of Solomon Islands Government, so that the author took these specimens to be identified. Specimens were housed at BSIP.
- 4.
The similarity of species composition between each pair of forest types was calculated using the Sørensen–Dice similarity index:
Sørensen–Dice similarity index (%) = 2c/(a + b) × 100 %
where c is the number of species observed in both forest types and a and b are the number of species in forest types A and B, respectively.
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Furusawa, T. (2016). Diversity in Landscape. In: Living with Biodiversity in an Island Ecosystem. Ethnobiology. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-287-904-2_3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-287-904-2_3
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