The changing Ifugao woodlots : implications for indigenous plant knowledge and biodiversity

Indigenous peoples are known to possess knowledge about their environment that is vital to biodiversity conservation. Conserving biodiversity is a fundamental element enhancing sustainable development. Thus the value of indigenous plant knowledge must be recognised, in both policy and practice, if sustainable development is to be promoted. Despite the importance of indigenous knowledge and biodiversity, both are under constant threat and are being depleted. Acculturation of indigenous peoples into the mainstream society, habitat fragmentation and loss due to conversion into other land uses are some of the important reasons for this loss. How much indigenous knowledge about the plants use and conservation exists, who has it, what is the rate of the knowledge loss, how, and if at all, it is passed on from one generation to the next, what are the pressures on the society and the land are questions that are explored in this study. The study is based on fieldwork in Bolog, a small lfugao farming village in the highlands of Northern Luzon, Philippines concentrating on the woodlots (managed secondary growth forest or agroforestry systems). Two main data collection activities formed part of the study: ethnobotanical documentation; and woodlot survey and assessment. Ethnobotanical information included food, medicinal and veterinary plant knowledge of 172 lfugao adults and 43 children. Data were gathered by semi-structured questionnaire, participant observation and recording of oral histories. Woodlot survey and assessment of 67 selected woodlots was conducted through detailed vegetation observation and site evaluation of the selected woodlots, complimented by in-depth interviews of three woodlot owners. Changes in plant knowledge was determined by comparing the adults' and the children's plant knowledge while changes in the woodlots were determined by comparing the plant composition, management systems and overall use of the present woodlots with secondary data on woodlots of the past. The study shows that, while lfugao adults and children still possess food, medicinal and veterinary plant knowledge, the knowledge is changing in its focus. Adults principally know about wild plants, many not commonly recognised, but children generally know only about well-known cultivated plants. Hence the knowledge of the traditional sources of food, medicinal and veterinary plants among the lfugaos in Bolog is slowly being replaced with knowledge of commonly known plants. This further implies that knowledge of indigenous plants is slowly being lost. Woodlots, the habitats of most lfugao food, medicinal, veterinary and other useful plants, are also changing in terms of their plant composition, management systems and overall use. Coffee and banana now dominate most woodlots in Bolog. The presence of these cash crops has changed woodlot management systems from secondary forest dominated by native species to cash crop farms. Some native forest plants have deliberately been eradicated because lhey are believed to interfere with the cash crops. Woodlots-are therefore being used as cash crop farms, a great contrast with the woodlots of the past which, apart from being dominated by native forest-plant, were carefully managed for the production of water for adjacent ricefields and wood for household use. Principal factors driving this transformation of woodlots include: introduction of cash crops, increasing need for cash, increasing population, commercialisation, government programs and policies and acculturation into main society. Continued extension of woodlot cash cropping must ultimately undermine biodiversity and will result in the disappearance of vital lfugao indigenous plant knowledge. Broader implications of this study suggest an urgent need for maintaining indigenous plant knowledge before it disappears, thereby supporting biodiversity conservation and allowing natural resources to be used more sustainably