Sociocultural and Environmental Interactions Between People and Wild Edible Plants: The Case of Sierra la Laguna Biosphe
The Biosphere Reserve Sierra de la Laguna is a continental island with a great level of endemism, and its population is characterized by a special culture not found in other places of Mexico and named as South-Californian ranchers. This research shows the
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Sociocultural and Environmental Interactions Between People and Wild Edible Plants: The Case of Sierra la Laguna Biosphere Reserve Juan Fernando Pío-León and Alfredo Ortega-Rubio Abstract The Biosphere Reserve Sierra de la Laguna is a continental island with a great level of endemism, and its population is characterized by a special culture not found in other places of Mexico and named as South-Californian ranchers. This research shows the wild edible plants consumed by the inhabitants of the reserve. Although there are no Indian tribes in the reserve, the number of wild edible plants reported in this research is similar or higher than those of other Indian tribes in neighboring states. A distinctive characteristic of the ranchers in the reserve is the use of some plants to prepare teas and the consumption of oak acorns. This chapter also compares the implications of life in and out of the reserve. Keywords Ethnobotany · Edible plants · Rancher culture
16.1 B iological and Social Contexts of Sierra la Laguna Biosphere Reserve The Biosphere Reserve Sierra de la Laguna (hereafter, called Sierra la Laguna) is located on the south extreme of the Baja California Peninsula in the state of “Baja California Sur” of Mexico; it was decreed as Biosphere Reserve in 1994 with an area of 112,437.02 ha (Conanp 2003). Sierra la Laguna comprises the only tropical ecosystem in the peninsula and includes the driest tropical deciduous forest of Mexico and the only pine-oak forest of the state. The reserve is found within the
J. F. Pío-León (*) Universidad Politécnica del Mar y la Sierra, La Cruz de Elota, Mexico e-mail: [email protected] A. Ortega-Rubio Red Nacional Áreas Naturales Protegidas RENANP-CONACYT, Centro de Investigaciones Biológicas del Noroeste CIBNOR-CONACYT, La Paz, Baja California Sur, Mexico e-mail: [email protected] © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020 A. Ortega-Rubio (ed.), Socio-ecological Studies in Natural Protected Areas, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-47264-1_16
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bioregion forests of the Cape region (González-Abraham et al. 2010), which is considered as a continental island because it comprises a tropical ecosystem surrounded by xerophytic scrubs, the main ecosystem in the peninsula, favoring the development of a high degree of endemism of flora and fauna. Considering the flora, the higher-plants biodiversity includes around 1000 species, and about 100 are endemic (León-de la Luz et al. 2012). On the other hand, the main reason to decree Sierra la Laguna as a reserve was because this is the main area of collection of the water used for human consumption in the main cities of the state (La Paz and Los Cabos): its mountains and creeks are the only places in the region where superficial water streams are found during most of the year (Conanp 2003). The inhabitants of Sierra la Laguna are themselves identified as South-Californian ranchers. The culture of these ranchers was originated in the Jesuits’ missions who had been established in the peninsula since 1
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