Conhecimento etnobotânico na comunidade Divino Espírito Santo no Distrito de Vale Verde, Bahia, Nordeste do Brasil

Abstract

The knowledge accumulated by traditional communities is fundamental for the maintenance of biological diversity, ensuring the use and rational management of natural resources. Thus, the present work aimed to make a survey through traditional knowledge, through a descriptive ethnobotanical perspective of plant species from the original territory of the Atlantic Forest used in different categories in a traditional community of the district of Vale Verde (BA). The first stage of the work dealt with the access to ethnobotanical knowledge of the local population. To this end, 13 field visits were carried out including 07 interviews with the community between April / 2018 and July / 2019. Research methods such as participant observation, informal conversations, semi-structured interviews, snowball and guided tour were used. The analysis was subsidized through the Microsoft Office Excel® 2007 program, being performed the descriptive statistics from simple tabulation, distribution of percentages, tables and figures. People identify and/or use more than 80 species of plants distributed into 09 usage categories: medicinal, ornamental, food, construction/woodworking, household use, insect repellent/insecticide, commercial, mystical use and cosmetic. Forty-four botanical families were identified, Lamiaceae being the most cited. The part of the vegetable that had the highest significance regarding the category of use was the leaf, being mostly used in home medicine. Mostly, the place of purchase of plants for use by the population is through backyards, totaling 87%, followed by forest (9%). It is discussed how natural resources are used and the implication of this in the conservation of the Atlantic Forest. The knowledge about the local vegetation and plants are acquired and passed through older people, as well as the daily experiences with the natural environment, reflecting in the way of life of the community. The choice of species by the informers of the community seems to indicate the criterion of ease in access to the plants used, since almost all species originate from the backyards and not from the forest. People choose plants due to their multiple uses, because most of the plants used have more than one form of use.