Assessment of biodiversity goods for the sustainable development of the chagra in an indigenous community of the Colombian Amazon: local values of crops

Land use change will have its greatest global impact on biodiversity by 2100, and is expected to be particularly significant in the tropics [1]. The majority of the world’s population (70%) is fed and nourished by local and ecological food production systems, but these systems are severely threatened by industrial farming systems that have exacerbated multiple crises of rising food prices, poverty, climate change, and biodiversity loss [2]. Food sovereignty involves the right of indigenous peoples to healthy and culturally appropriate food produced with traditional, ecologically sustainable methods.

The chagra is the traditional agroforestry system adapted to the characteristics of Amazon environment, in which availability of biomass depends on the constant exchange of nutrients derived from the decomposition of dead material (slash and burn). It is generally an area of polyculture, transitory during the first 2 to 4 years, giving rise later to the “stubble” or animal chagras (which remain a few more years for fruit production) [3‐5]; finally, natural vegetation regenerates [6]. The chagra is also a space for transmission of traditional knowledge (TK) about management, sustainable use, and conservation of biodiversity, and where education about family and social relations of the community is provided [3, 7]. Furthermore, it is a scenario of accumulation and transmission of knowledge about the handling of food, ritual, and medicinal plants through a permanent exercise of domestication, reproduction, and selection of varieties of plants.

Previous works report the loss, in recent decades, of two thirds of the species present in the chagra, a progressive loss of genetic diversity with a tendency to maintain so-called “commercial” species and a shift towards monocultures [7]. The proximity of indigenous communities to cities negatively impacts traditional farming systems and thus their food and labor sovereignty. Currently, there is a crisis in the traditional and successful farming system of the indigenous communities, due to the lack of interest and preference for foreign foods, the decrease in varieties and species present thus the inability to satisfy the food requirements of the families (generating additional pressure on the extractive methods fishing, hunting, and gathering in the forest), and the absence of policies and proposals to revitalize the chagra [6]. Additionally, this crisis threatens the exercise and transmission of TK in medicinal plants to address local etiologies, leading to increased demand for health services and the inevitable loss of valuable knowledge.

The Colombian Amazon covers 483,164 km², 83% of which correspond to forests. There are 7389 plant species present in the area, of which 1575 are considered valuable, 269 of which have been introduced [8]. The sustainable use of wild flora and forests is, since 1996, a policy of the Colombian state; focused on the conservation and management of the resource, seeking to create an environment conducive to investment in environmental matters and for the development of the forestry sector; taking into account that much of the natural forest areas of the country are inhabited, it is necessary to support the satisfaction of vital needs, the conservation of their traditional values, and the exercise of the rights of its inhabitants, within the limits of the common good [9]. In light of the foregoing, there are necessary alternatives that, taking into account the social context and opportunities of the area, allow for the contextualization and maintenance of the traditional practices of the chagra, providing them with some type of stimulus for the farming families, thus reinforcing food sovereignty, the appreciation of their own knowledge and improving the quality of life.

In recent years, ethnobotanical studies have increasingly focused on finding ways to express the commercial and non-commercial values of forests to rural people [10]. First, quantitative methods were developed in an attempt to go beyond simply listing the names and uses of local plants to obtain information that indicates more about the relative values of different species. Today, the aim is to express use values in terms that explicitly reflect the importance of plants as perceived by local stakeholders, so quantifying indicators should help focus future research or interventions on the most significant species [10].

As desirable characteristics in the evaluation and selection of forest product supply, it is recommended to consider economic, social and ecological factors [11]. This work characterizes the cultivators exploring their traditional knowledge associated to the chagra, using a rapid methodology sensitive to the appreciation of individuals, to quantify the cultural relative importance that the actors give to biodiversity goods; that perception was confirmed floristically through the identification and abundance valuation of the taxa reported in the chagras. Finally, the species with the best use, importance, and abundance values were valued from the point of view of a trading user of these goods, adjusting the priority order according to economic and market differentiation criteria, with the aim of proposing priorities in the sustainable use policy that allows the recovery of the chagra.

In 2008, the community had a population of 135 individuals who comprised approximately 37 families, where 44% were women; 50% of the population was under 19 years old, and only 9% were over 60; there were no people over 75 years old, and 59% of the population were Uitoto, (Fig. 7) [5, 12]. In the community, there is a perception of marked population growth in recent years, derived from migration from distant municipalities in search of opportunities in the city of Leticia; population projections developed by the National Administrative Department of Statistics of Colombia [27] estimate that the population of the Leticia municipality grew in the decade 2008 to 2018 by 8.5% from 38,957 to 42,280 inhabitants; the extrapolation of this growth to the community of Km 7 of the Leticia municipality indicates an estimated population of 147 people at the time of development of this study.

In general, the global characterization of community is reflected in the sample studied (Figs. 2 and 7); except in the age composition where the sample of active chagras owners, as opposed to the distribution of the general population (Figs. 2 and 7), shows an inversion of the graph, with adults over 50 years old (62% of the sample) predominating in the chagras, while in the general population, young people predominate. This situation may be due to the lack of interest of current generations in maintaining the traditional culture of the chagra, leaving it in the hands of the elderly, which allows us to see the risk of losing this traditional and sustainable practice. Finally, the low proportion of the population that is still dedicated to this traditional practice is evident (11 of approximately 37 families), possibly due to the proximity of this community to the city of Leticia where they work in various other jobs.

Mainly, the chagra of this community gives rise to a traditional domestic harvesting of non-timber forest products [20]; however, the needs of the population, related to acquisition of products from the family basket, not produced or insufficient in the area, have led to the development of a persistent use; since the subsistence of the inhabitants of the community depends mainly on fishing and the cultivation of the land, whose products also serve as merchandise for exchange in the local trade and in Leticia; with the money obtained, they complement the diet with the achievement of other products.

Traditional knowledge has been transmitted in indigenous peoples, from generation to generation, for thousands of years [28], in general, from parents to children, a situation that in this case was reported, highlighting additionally a high percentage (43%) of cases in which transmission occurs through maternal line (as described by other authors) since the chagra is considered a space of female domain fertility, complementary to maloka [4]. In this community, it was evidenced that elders (traditional grandparents) maintain the knowledge about the management of chagra and medicinal plants (finding consistent with previous reports) [3]; taxa registered in this last category were provided by this stratum of the sample; the other age strata exercise the handling of chagra through practices mixed with contributions from other cultural origins.

The seeding of a chagra is a cultural activity preceded by a spiritual preparation aimed at maintaining the teachings of traditional culture; it is also an activity of a ritual nature that is done through a minga (associated work journey) [3, 5]. Specific aspects of the organization and traditional management of the chagra, such as the sowing of crops, planting at specific times and the distribution of plant species in the chagra area, were more evident in the open interviews, in situ, with the participants than in the specific questions of the instrument applied, making it clear that this knowledge is intrinsic to the work of the chagra and that it is evident in the accompaniment of the different activities of the chagra.

In the 38 taxa reported by the participants, a predominance of vegetal species of neotropical distribution (66%) is evident; additionally, 10% are distributed in one or two biogeographical regions (additional to the neotropical one), and 24% of the taxa are distributed in more than four biogeographical regions, considering them cosmopolitan (Table 1); this predominance of species endemic to the neotropics, and some of them with a very reduced distribution in the Amazon, represents an opportunity as it is a market differentiation criterion that highlights the supply of goods with very particular characteristics that may be of great interest.

The nominated species belong to 28 different families within which the Arecaceae (palms) and Solanaceae stand out with a slight preponderance of four species reported in each, Euphorbiaceae, Malvaceae, Myrtaceae, and Rubiaceae, with two nominated taxa in each of them, and the remaining families are represented by only one species. The value of palms is outstanding since 3 of the 15 most valued taxa (RIR) are palms, being the most nominated family in this group (finding consistent with other authors) [10]. These findings make evident the biological diversity of the area and particularly of the chagras, which is a cornerstone of its strength, ensuring an adequate and balanced human diet and a lower risk of pests since the presence of different species makes it more difficult for insects and monospecific pests to dominate and spread explosively [3].

Through quantitative methods, we seek to obtain evidence about the relative values of the different plants by quantifying, in a relatively quick but socially sensitive way, the perceptions of the different stakeholders and then explore the different categories of use and their real abundance in the active farms at the time of the study. Participants’ perceptions of which chagra plants can be most readily traded are presented in Table 1 (RIR); these values are averaged over the entire sample (not simply over the participants who nominated each taxon), then influenced only by the frequency of nomination as each non-nomination contributes a score of zero to the overall average value. There is no difference in the RIR value between women and men (U Mann–Whitney test α = 0.05). In terms of the number of taxa, women nominated 84% of the 38 taxa reported, while men nominated only 61% (23 of the 38 taxa), derived from the fact that females represent 64% of participants interviewed and that, as previously mentioned, the chagra is considered a fertility space of female dominance. The species nominated only by women were umarí, coca, camu camu, sacha ajo, makambo, eucuye, mucura, algodón, carambola, dr+ma, santa maría, granadilla, stevia, jidoro, and mejorana, while those nominated exclusively by men were caimo, coco, daledale, lulo, batata, and tomate.

The use value index allows, by consensus of the participants, a quantitative approximation to the cultural relative importance (CRI) given to the nominated taxa, understood as a non-monetary concept. Structured instruments are more susceptible to statistical analysis than open-ended approaches; however, the use of survey type information collection instruments can limit responses to plant uses. In our case, participants provided information limited to taxa previously defined as most suitable for trade and assigned them to previously defined categories of use; these techniques are applied when time in the field is limited [17]. Grouping the specific uses cited by participants into use categories facilitates efficient compilation, comparison, and presentation of the data sets; however, it should be noted that plants that are frequently cited for similar uses (e.g., whole fruit for food or fruit for juice) may receive atypically high CRI scores, and the method does not distinguish between degrees of importance and analyzes only the average number of uses cited, so a rarely used plant with two cited uses would be better scored than a very popular plant with only one use [17, 19, 29]. The above approach is valid when studying useful plants in general; however, under this approach, the relative importance of chagra as a source of medicinal plants is usually underestimated, because medicinal plants obtain the lowest UVIs, and their scientific value can be lost [30]. The UVI score of selected taxa is presented in Table 1.

The prioritization of our study highlighted the bejuco (sacha inchi) that, in its seeds, has a high content of unsaturated fatty acids, particularly α-linolenic acid (omega-3) and to a lesser extent linoleic acid (omega-6) and omega-9 [31], whose properties in the reduction of risk of dyslipidemias by means of reduction of total cholesterol and LDL cholesterol in plasma, with increase of HDL cholesterol and proteins, have been described [32]. Species allows in an initial stage (early victory) to stimulate the production and sale of roasted seeds to tourists, as an alternative to recover the interest of the community in the chagra and thus preserve the associated TK. In later stages of development, this species allows for the production of sacha inchi oil, an alternative to fish oil that does not have the taste, considered unpleasant (and sufficient to reject its use) of the latter.

Next in the order of prioritization are the species macambo and copoazú, two theobromas that may give rise to exotic soft drinks to offer to tourists [33] and, in later developments, can give rise to raw materials of important added value, for the food and pharmaceutical industries [34‐36]. Mucuracaá (mucura) is a plant of therapeutic use accepted as an anti-inflammatory of the oral mucosa, coadjutant in the treatment of inflammatory processes [37, 38]. Sacha ajo, uva caimarona, canangucho (aguaje), umari, and guama are exotic species from the Amazon offering opportunities both for sale on the local market and to tourists. Finally, jidoro, used in dyes for non-permanent tattoos, which can be the basis of a tattoo offer to tourists and has great potential as a colorant for food and pharmaceutical industries.

The chagra of Ziora-Amena community of Km 7, as a traditional agroecosystem adequate to the Amazonian environment, is in danger due to the centralization of its handling only in the stratum of older adults of the community, the transmission by oral tradition of its traditional knowledge (and the disinterest of younger generations in the same), and the competition of the market and labor scenario offered by the nearby city of Leticia.

The chagras of community have great biodiversity, the perception of participants allowed to highlight 38 taxa of interest for their commercialization, which belong to 28 different botanical families, predominating the neotropical species.

Regarding the perception of marketing scenarios for the chagra plants, 79% of the participants consider the Leticia market and sales to tourists as their main marketing opportunities. Indicators of perception, use and abundance show preference and predominant use of food species.

Alternatives are needed that, in keeping with the social context and opportunities of the area, allow the recovery of interest in the chagra and thus preserve the traditional knowledge at risk today. Research on plant species endemic to the region, with property of reducing health risks, or ingredients for the food or pharmaceutical industry, represent an opportunity of high added value for the region.