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THE USE OF PLOT SURVEYS FOR THE STUDY OF ETHNOBOTANICAL KNOWLEDGE: A BRUNEI DUSUN EXAMPLE

1997; SAGE Publishing; Volume: 17; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

2162-4496

Jay H. Bernstein, Roy Ellen, Bantong bin Antaran,

Pacific and Southeast Asian Studies

This paper de scribes a technique for using plot surveys to measure ind ividual informants' ethnobotanical knowledge of forests, as applied to th e Dusun community of Merimbun in Brunei. Two knowledgeable but non-literate Dusun informants enumerated marked plots of both recent and old secondary growth mixed dipterocarp forest near the village. They were able to provide names (other than life-forms or the most general basic and intermediate categories) for 86-97% of species growing in the plots. Between 152 and 170 plant names were elicited by the surveys. In all cases, about 88% of the names were at the basic naming level and 12%below. The surveys reveal the breadth of biodiversity knowl­ edge of particular types of forest and highlight differences in the knowledge of individual informants and the wa ys in which that knowledge is organized. The plot-survey technique provides a way of measuring the comprehensiveness of local knowledge of plants with reference to all plant types found within circum­ scribed plots in locally recognized biotopes, and may be useful as a rap id means of assessing local ecological diversity.