CONICET | Buscador de Institutos y Recursos Humanos

Aims: The agricultural frontier advances progressively on forested regions in CentralArgentina, changing the landscape structure by extremely reducing the extension ofnative forests. In rural communities that are related to the forests, it is possible thatsevere changes in the landscapes can have an impact on the knowledge and uses ofmedicinal plants. The aim of this paper was to evidence some general patterns betweenthe ethnobotanical information recorded in the Chaco region and some characteristics ofthe landscape. Specifically, we hypothesized that the knowledge on medicinal plants andtheir type (native or exotic) are related to different types of land use (i.e. differentproportions of native forests).Place and Duration of Study: The study was performed 15 rural localities within theChaco phytogeographic regionin Córdoba, Argentina, conducted between 2004 and2012.Methodology: A total of 279 interviews were conducted. Plant species were identifiedaccording to their status (native or exotic), and a standardized proportion of exotic species was calculated for each site. The different types of land use and their proportionswere estimated in 15 rural localities using satellite images. A Principal ComponentAnalysis and a bivariate Spearman correlation were performed to analyze theassociations among land-use types, the proportion of native forests and the knowledge ofmedicinal plants.Results: In general, people had known many native and exotic medicinal plants.Nevertheless, in those localities where landscapes have experienced higherdeforestation rates, exotic medicinal plants are more available than native ones(cultivated in gardens and orchards). The tradition of maintaining exotic species ingardens may contribute to maintain the ethno-medical systems in regions of severeforest fragmentation.Conclusion: The disappearance of the forest showed a positive association with lossesin the knowledge and use of native medicinal plants.