The quiet loss of knowledge threatens indigenous communities
Most of the knowledge that indigenous communities in South America have about plants is not written down. Now, ecologists at the University of Zurich have analyzed comprehensive information about the services provided by palm trees from multiple regions and made it accessible via a network approach. What they also discovered in the process was that the simultaneous loss of biodiversity and knowledge represents a key threat to the survival of indigenous peoples.
This research was a carried out by SPSW member Jordi Bascompte with his team at the Department of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies, Zurich University and with colleagues.
Reference literature
Rodrigo Cámara-Leret, Miguel A. Fortuna, and Jordi Bascompte. 2019.
Indigenous knowledge networks in the face of global change.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA, in press. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1821843116