Socio-economic factors influencing Afzelia africana Sm. use value and traditional knowledge in Uganda: implications for sustainable management

Emmanuel Biara, Anthony Egeru, Sylvanus Mensah (), Jenipher Biira Salamula and Mark Marvin Kadigo
Additional contact information
Emmanuel Biara: Makerere University
Anthony Egeru: Makerere University
Sylvanus Mensah: Makerere University
Jenipher Biira Salamula: University of Antwerp
Mark Marvin Kadigo: University of Antwerp

Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, 2021, vol. 23, issue 2, No 51, 2278 pages

Abstract: Abstract Afzelia africana Sm. is a highly valued multi-purpose and overexploited tree species in Africa. Ethnobotany of A. africana can guide its sustainable usage, yet there is limited information on such aspect for the species in Uganda. Here, we assessed use values of A. africana and users’ traditional knowledge, and how they relate to plant parts and socio-economic factors including ethnicity, gender, education, age, marital status, profession, household size, income, land size and livestock ownership. Two hundred face-to-face semi-structured interviews were conducted. Use values were assessed based on plant part value (PPV) and use value per use category (UVk), while users’ traditional knowledge was compared using overall use value (OUV) and reported use value (RUV). All plant parts were used, with stem (PPV = 41.4%), seeds (19.6%) and leaves (19.3%) being the most important. Nine plant use categories were enumerated, with most dominant being material (UVk = 0.63), followed by social (0.49) and fuel wood (0.41). Bark and root were mostly used for medicinal purpose, and branch and stem for fuelwood and material, respectively. Men and youngsters had higher OUV than females and older people, respectively. In particular, men frequently mentioned the use in agriculture, for fuelwood, environment and medicine, while women reported social use. Although socio-cultural group did not influence significantly OUV and RUV, multivariate analyses revealed differentiation in use category according to socio-cultural group. Land size also predisposed informants to report more uses for the species. Taking these significant socio-economic factors into account in participative forest management will facilitate A. africana sustainable use.

Keywords: Ethnobotany; Socio-cultural group; Multi-purpose tree species; Gender; Traditional knowledge; Uganda (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10668-020-00673-6 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:endesu:v:23:y:2021:i:2:d:10.1007_s10668-020-00673-6

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/economics/journal/10668

DOI: 10.1007/s10668-020-00673-6

Access Statistics for this article

Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development is currently edited by Luc Hens

More articles in Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().