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Introduction

Ethnobotany is a science that links anthropology and botany, whose objective is to catalogue plant use by the human species (Prance, 1991) and approach the study of human societies and their cultural, ecological, genetic, evolutionary and symbolic interactions with plants (Fonseca-Kruel, & Peixoto, 2004). Ethnobotany studies make discoveries about plant utility in several instances, such as: medicinal, food and construction (Begossi, Leitão-Filho, & Richerson, 1993) and relate them to the ecological contest of vegetation exploration (Prance, 1991). Thus, one of the objectives of this science is to promote sustainable use and conservation of natural resources, besides approximating scientific research from social needs, since these studies can generate information applied to the environment and local populations (Oliveira, Albuquerque, Fonseca-Kruel, & Hanazaki, 2009).

Vegetal resources are considered very important for same local populations on the Brazilian coast (Hanazaki, 2003). The restinga, a vegetation type of the Brazilian coast, presents distinct phytophisiognomies through environmental gradients (Scarano, 2002), with eleven of these formations being described for Espírito Santo state (Pereira, 2003). An expressive floristic diversity has been reported for this state (Assis, Pereira, & Thomaz, 2004, Giaretta, Menezes, & Pereira, 2013), as well as for types of uses for plants occurring on restinga, Lopes & Lobão, 2013). However, real estate speculation and touristic demands generate threats to vegetal resources conservation on this ecosystem (Thomazi, Rocha, Oliveira, Bruno, & Silva, 2013).

Quantitative approaches and methods in Ethnobotany studies have been getting more frequent in the last decades (Phillips & Gentry, 1993a, 1993b, Begossi, 1996, Dzerefos & Witkowski, 2001, Oliveira, Lins-Neto, Araújo, & Albuquerque, 2007, Lucena, Lucena, Araújo, Alves, & Albuquerque, 2013). Some studies evaluated species use-value for local populations, for showing which plants are preferred for each population (Phillips & Gentry, 1993b, Galeano, 2000, Crepaldi & Peixoto, 2010). Studies also related use-values with species availability in their natural ecosystems (Phillips & Gentry, 1993b, Torres-Cuadro & Islebe, 2003, Ferraz, Albuquerque, & Meunier, 2006), testing the hypothesis of the ecological appearance (Phillips & Gentry, 1993b) and making possible to identify over-exploration of plants (Luoga, Witkowski, & Balkwill, 2000). However, Phillips and Gentry (1993b) calculated the use-values index based in the knowledge of local informants about useful species (potential utilization value) and Lucena et al. (2013) adapted this index, using the frequency of collection of the vegetation species by local informants (real utilization value).

Other quantitative method used is the conservation priority index (Dzerefos & Witkowski, 2001, Oliveira et al., 2007, Crepaldi & Peixoto, 2010), in which species more threatened by possible human use intensity are pointed out (Dzerefos & Witkowski, 2001). This index provides information about the sustainability of harvesting of the plants considered useful to local population (Oliveira et al., 2007) and support best discussion about conservation priorities this vegetation species (Crepaldi & Peixoto, 2010).

The present study aimed to: 1. Quantify the use-value (potential utilization value) of woody species mentioned by fishers and sampled in structural surveys of two phytophysiognomies (shrubby and forest) of resting vegetation; 2. Evaluate the relation between use-value and their respective structural parameters (importance values, absolute density and frequency) in the ecosystem; 3. Verify the proportion of useful species occurring in shrubby and forest formations, quantity of useful species exclusive to each environment and species with higher conservation priority index in each formation.

It is expected to be found positive relations between use-values and structural parameters of the woody community, indicating that the highest availability of the plant in its natural environment, the higher its use-value for the population is likely to occur (Phillips & Gentry, 1993b).

Material and methods

Study area

This research was carried out in 2009 and 2010, with Artisanal fishers that lived around (Itaúnas village) and inside in the Itaúnas State Park, belonging to the municipality of Conceição da Barra, northern Espírito Santo, Brazil (Figure 1). Conceição da Barra was raised to municipality status in 1891 and the Itaúnas village was acknowledged in 1911 (Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística [IBGE], 2014).

The Itaúnas State Park (Parque Estadual de Itaúnas: PEI) was created in 1991, has a 3.450 ha area and a 90.204.971 m perimeter (Centro de Pesquisa do Mar [Cepemar] & Instituto Estadual do Meio Ambiente e Recursos Hídricos [Iema], 2004) (Figure 1). Since implementation of PEI, there are several conflicts with local residents regarding pre-established dwellings and use of natural resources in Park areas. PEI encompasses several ecosystems of the Atlantic domain: restingas, dunes, mangroves and lowlands tropical rain forest (Ricco & Júnior, 2007).

Itaúnas village has approximately 2.000 inhabitants (Instituto de Apoio à Pesquisa e ao Desenvolvimento [Ipes], 2001), from different ethnological groups (indigenous people from several tribes, Africans and Portuguese), resulting in a high cultural diversity (Ricco & Júnior, 2007). Afro-descendants are predominant in the village, due to the intense slave trade in the beginning of the nineteenth century in northern Espírito Santo (Ricco & Júnior, 2007). Artisanal fishers in Itaúnas are organized in an Association with approximately 350 members, and is considered one of the best-articulated entities in the village. This study had the approval of the director of the fishers’ community of Itaúnas and of the Ethics Committee of the Universidade Federal do Espírito Santo (Ufes).

Itaúnas economy was based on hunting, fishing, subsistence agriculture and commerce. After 1970, part of the vegetation was replaced by eucalyptus monocultures, which suppressed the inhabitants’ natural subsistence source. Currently, the village’s economy is focusing in artisanal fishing and mainly in tourism (Ricco & Júnior, 2007). This is the major income source for inhabitants and has been promoting ecological conscience to several of them, since the natural beauties of PEI are among the main touristic attractions (Ricco & Júnior, 2007).

Data collection and analysis

It was used data from a previous ethnobotanical survey (Lopes & Lobão, 2013), which obtained information about useful plants of resting vegetation through semi-structured interviews and collection of plants mentioned by artisanal fishers of Itaúnas village. From the total of species mentioned in the ethno botanical survey (Lopes & Lobão, 2013), 38% (30 species) were also sampled in structural surveys of the vegetation in Itaúnas region: in forest in 2009 and 2010, in which the authors used the permanent plots methods (Giaretta et al., 2013), and open shrubby formations in 2010, in which the authors used the line intercept methods (Monteiro, Giaretta, Pereira, & Menezes, 2014). A total of 30 species were selected for this study’s analysis. More detailed information about interviews and plant collections can be found in Lopes and Lobão (2013), and about the structural survey in Giaretta et al. (2013) and Monteiro et al. (2014).

The use-values were calculated as per Phillips and Gentry (1993b), modified by Rossato, Leitão-Filho, and Begossi (1999), for the 30 selected woody species. Use-value is an index in which the ratio between amount of species citation and number of interviewed informers is calculated (Rossato et al., 1999). For the same plants, absolute density and frequency, and importance value in sampled environments were also verified (Giaretta et al., 2013, Monteiro et al., 2014). Importance value is an index resulting from the sum of relative density, relative dominance and relative frequency values of the species in the ecosystem.

The relation between the use-value and structural parameters (importance value, absolute density and frequency) was evaluated in both phytophysiognomies, through non-parametric linear Spearman correlation, using the software Past (Hammer, Harper, & Ryan, 2001).

It was calculated the priority conservation index for useful species of each v egetation formation, according to Dzerefos and Witkowski (2001), modified by Crepaldi and Peixoto (2010), in which the density measure is individual 0.1 ha. The conservation priority index was calculated through weighted values of species density, collection risk, local importance and/or diversity of use (Dzerefos & Witkowski, 2001) (Table 1).

Results and discussion

It was not detected significant correlation regarding plant UV and their respective structural parameters (absolute density and frequency, and importance value), when evaluating species sets from both formations separately (Table 2). This indicates that there is no interdependence between availability of the plant in the resting and the knowledge of informers (potential of use). This result contradicts (Phillips & Gentry, 1993b) and corroborates (Ferraz et al., 2006) other researches. Torres-Cuadros and Islebe (2003) reported that not always plant use-value is related to its availability on the system.

The highest use-values (UV) were observed for Protium heptaphyllum (1.03), Protium icicariba (1.03), Byrsonima sericea (0.76) and Anacardium occidentale (0.69 - Table3). The first three occur in both formations and A. occidentale is exclusive to the shrubby formation. P .heptaphyllum, Ocotea notata and Clusia hilariana had the biggest Importance Values (IV) among woody species from the Shrubby Formation (SF) (Monteiro et al., 2014). Protium heptaphyllum, Ocotea lobi and Tapirira guianensis had the highest IVs on Forest Formation (FF) (Giaretta et al., 2013).

Regarding absolute density (ind./0.1 ha), the highest values belong to Ocotea notata, Protium heptaphyllum and Hirtella corymbosa in the shrubby formation. However, in the forest formation the highest values were from Ocotea lobi, Unonopsis aurantiaca and Protium heptaphyllum. Highest absolute frequency values from Ocotea notata, Protium heptaphyllum and Clusia hilariana were detected in the shrubby formation (Monteiro et al., 2014) and from Ocotea lobi and Pouteria caimito in the forest formation (Giaretta et al., 2013).

Protium heptaphyllum and Protium icicariba are among the species with highest use, importance, absolute frequency and density values. In this case, high use-value may be related to availability on the environment. Both species are known by the same common name, however they are differentiated as different varieties (Lopes & Lobão, 2013). Despite results showing that use value for the plant set is not related with its environmental availability, this may be detected for some species (Ferraz et al., 2006). Besides, P. heptaphyllumis frequently cited by different populations for several types of use (Pasa, Soares, & Guarim-Neto, 2004, Cunha & Albulquerque, 2006, Crepaldi & Peixoto, 2010), also being reported its use in pharmacology (Oliveira et al., 2005, Aragão et al., 2006). This species presents wide distribution in Brazil (Daly, 2014) and is reported in vegetation listings as one of the most abundant species on restinga (Assumpção & Nascimento, 2000, Assis et al., 2004). The use of P. heptaphyllumby different populations and its elevated distribution and frequency may facilitate this wide knowledge (common sense).

From the 30 woody species mentioned as useful by informers and collected in structural listings, 25 occur in forest formation, representing 22% of the sampled species total in the structural listing of the area (Giaretta et al., 2013), 16 of them being exclusive from this formation. For the open shrubby formation, 14 species were mentioned as useful by fishers, representing 43.75% of the woody species total (32) sampled in this environment (Monteiro et al., 2014), four being exclusive from this formation. The greatest amount of useful species cited exclusively for forest environment may be related with the higher richness of woody taxa in this environment (Giaretta et al., 2013), when compared to the shrubby formation (Monteiro et al., 2014). However, it was detected that the proportion between total useful species/woody species in the environment is superior on the shrubby formation. This may be associated with a closer proximity of this formation to the beach, most likely making it easier for fishers to collect and identify useful plants.

Other studies pointed out a superior percentage of useful species/species sampled in listings ratio, when compared to the present study: indigenous people on Amazon forest (49 to 79% - Prance, Ballee,

Boom, & Carnaria, 1987), African descendants in Chocó (62% - Galeano, 2000), rural populations in Tanzania (69% - Luoga et al., 2000) and in the Brazilian northeastern semi-arid (91.3% - Ferraz et al., 2006). This suggests a possible lower dependency from fishers of Itaúnas to the woody resting vegetation. This may be due to the presence of a full protection conservation unit in Itaúnas, PEI, where direct use of natural resources is forbidden. Besides, other associated fact is the recent urbanization of the village, probably generating changes on its inhabitants’ characteristics, such as access to industrialized products (bottled gas for cooking, pharmaceutical medicines and processed food), leading to a smaller dependence from subsistence natural resources (Ricco & Júnior, 2007). Opinions about establishment of full protection unities in areas where there is previous existence of local inhabitants are controversial (Albuquerque & Andrade, 2002). However, when communities are inserted in activities developed by the Park, it is possible to raise the inhabitants’ awareness about the actual activities of the Institution (Albuquerque & Andrade, 2002).

In the open shrubby formation, two species meet the Category 1 of the Conservation Priority Index (CPI) and in the forest formation eight species had high values (Category 1) for conservation priority, Byrsonima sericea and Clusia hilariana presenting the maximum value (100) (Table 4).

The Maximum conservation priority values for Byrsonima sericea and Clusia hilariana in the forest formation were due to their low density in this formation and to the use of their trunks for firewood. This type of use possibly generates total removal of the individual, which increases collection risk (Dzerefos & Witkowski, 2001) and it is among the most destructive and impacting activities for plant communities (Luoga et al., 2000). Clusia hilariana is facilitator species in the ecological succession process in the restinga (Dias, Zaluar, Ganade, & Scarano, 2005) and has several morpho-physiological attributes related to assimilation of water and nutrients that differentiates it from other species of this environment (Rosado & Mattos, 2010), indicating the need to conserve C. hilariana for better ecosystem functional. However, B. secicea is frequently observed at the edge in ecosystems (personal communication), local not quantified in the evaluated structural work, fact that may hold for their high value as the index of conservation priority.

Conclusion

Therefore, the data showed a null correlation between use-values and species structural parameters. Protium heptaphyllum and P. Icicariba were the most cited by fishers, apparently due to their high availability in the resting and by the widespread use of Protium heptaphyllum in several communities.

Species classified in category (1) (Table 4), according to conservation priority values, must be protected from exploration and could be cultivated in areas outside PEI for fishers’ use.

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the fishers that participated in interviews and plant collection; MSc. Augusto Giaretta for his assistance in species identification; Dr. Luis Fernando Tavares de Menezes for providing loan of collection material and sample storage and Dr. Carlos Frederico Duarte da Rocha by revision of text in the discipline Scientific Article.

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Author notes

lucas.cml@hotmail.com

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