Factors affecting local plant knowledge in isolated communities from Patagonian steppe: Metacommunity theory is revealed as a methodological approach.

ABSTRACT: The Patagonian steppe is a refuge for several indigenous peoples who live in relatively isolated communities, depending heavily on natural resources for their activities, health, and food security. The local ecological knowledge is a reservoir that generates full wellbeing and for which it must be the object of protection and local development. In this study, we aimed to find which factors can influence local ecological knowledge from a metacommunity on the Patagonian steppe. We analyzed variation in knowledge about cultivated and gathered plants used as medicinal, edible, and firewood according to multiple factors widely discussed in the ethnobiological literature: age, gender, formal education, occupation, indigenous identity, contact with urban centers, use of biomedicine, hunting, and

SUBMITTER: Santoro FR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9467323 | biostudies-literature | 2022

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature