WOODY PLANTS KNOWN FOR TECHNOLOGY IN A RURAL SETTLEMENT IN THE CERRADO

Abstract

The technological use-category includes woody plants species known to people for making household utensils, tool handles and others. Ethnobotanical studies related to the local knowledge of these species can support projects for sustainable use of biodiversity. The aim of this work was to investigate the species richness, the local importance and the known uses for technological purposes in a rural agrarian reform settlement in Cerrado (municipality of Terenos, Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil). We also seek identify what factors influence knowledge about the plants such as age and origin of respondents (migrants or non-migrants). Data were collected through semi-structured interviews and the plants mentioned were collected for identification and deposited in the CGMS herbarium. Induced questions were made about known plants for technological purposes and, posteriorly respondents indicated other uses (spontaneous) for this category-use. Besides richness, the Relative Frequency Citation (RFC) of species with known uses for technological purposes was estimated to identify the species with the greatest local importance. Analysis of Generalized Linear Models (GLM) were made to verify the influence of age and migration on the number of cited (known) species. 74 woody plants were mentioned for 20 technological purposes. Richness can be considered high when compared to other studies. The species indicated with the greatest local importance were: Aspidosperma subincanum (RFC = 0.87), Handroanthus impetiginosus (RFC = 0.8), Handroanthus ochraceus (FRC = 0.53) and Cedrela fissilis (RFC = 0.5). We observed the influence of the migration on the number of species mentioned, but there was no difference in the relationship with the age of the interviewees. The most important species locally have harder (denser) woods when compared to literature data and have been indicated for uses where wood needs to be more resistant.