Biodiversity conservation in home gardens: traditional knowledge, use patterns and implications for management

Figures & data

Figure 1. Map showing location of the study sites.

Table 1. Measures of home garden species uses among informants in a phytochorological zone (adapted from Byg and Balslev 2001; Monteiro et al. 2006).

Index	Calculation	Description	Reference
Interviewee diversity value (ID) ID=Ux/Ut	ID, number of use citations by a given informant (Ux) divided by the total number of uses (Ut).	Measures how many informants used a given species and how this knowledge is distributed among the informants. Values range between 0 and the number of informants using it	Byg and Balslev (2001)
Interviewee equitability value (IE) IE = ID/IDmax	IE, diversity value (ID) divided by the highest value diversity index found (IDmax).	Measures the degree of homogeneity of the informant’s knowledge. Values range between 0 and 1	Byg and Balslev (2001)
Consensus value of use types (CTU) = (TU/Ut)/S	CTU, number of times a given use is reported (TU) divided by the total number of uses (Ut). This value is then divided by the types of use separated within each category (food, coal, firewood, etc.) (S).	Measures the degree of concordance among the informants with regard to the uses of a given species. Values range between 1and +1	Monteiro et al. (2006)

Table 2. Sociolinguistic characteristics of the informants.

			Phytochorological zones
Characteristics			Guineo-Congolean zone	Sudano-Guinean Zone	Sudanian Zone
Number of informants			80	80	75
Number of men	<30 years		10	5	4
	30 years < age < 60 years		34	31	12
	>60 years		15	18	3
	Total		59	54	19
Number of women	<30 years		1	5	8
	30 years < age < 60 years		15	15	44
	>60 years		5	6	4
	Total		21	26	56
Age of men (m ± SE)			45.93 ± 2.88	51.93 ± 2.52	40.20 ± 1.42
Age of women (m ± SE)			46.19 ± 1.96	45.31 ± 3.24	38.68 ± 3.32
Dominant sociolinguistic groups			Fon (65.25%), Holli (11.87%), Adja (9.37%)	Itcha (25.62%), Nago (20%), Anii (19.37%)	Ditamari (27%), Waama (20%), Gourmantche (11%)
Education level of men	No education		28	24	7
	Educated	Alphabetization	4	3	0
		Primary	16	18	7
		Secondary	7	9	5
		University	4	0	0
		Total	31	30	12
Education level of women	No education		17	19	27
	Educated	Alphabetization	2	0	3
		Primary	1	6	22
		Secondary	1	1	4
		University	0	0	0
		Total	4	7	29

Table 3. Measures of the local use and knowledge on HG species across phytochorological zone.

Measured variables	Corresponding values
	GCZ	SGZ	SZ
Total number of informants	80	80	75
Types of use	8	6	7
Diversity value of the informant (ID)	m ± SE	m ± SE	m ± SE
Total ID	0.43 ± 0.09	0.66 ± 0.02	0.59 ± 0.00
Total ID for men	0.31 ± 0.10a	0.65 ± 0.00a	0.58 ± 0.00a
ID young men (<30 years)	0.28 ± 0.08a	0.67 ± 0.20a	0.64 ± 0.09a
ID adult men (30< i <60 years)	0.31 ± 0.11a	0.72 ± 0.08a	0.58 ± 0.15a
ID old men (>60 years)	0.33 ± 0.11a	0.61 ± 0.09a	0.52 ± 0.08a
Total ID women	0.24 ± 0.06a	0.61 ± 0.00a	0.68 ± 0.00a
ID young women (<30 years)	0.17 ± 0.07a	0.50 ± 0.26a	0.55 ± 0.09a
ID adult women (30< i <60 years)	0.25 ± 0.05a	0.68 ± 0.15a	0.59 ± 0.18a
ID old women (>60 years)	0.25 ± 0.00a	0.62 ± 0.15a	0.28 ± 0.00a
Total IE	0.47 ± 0.16	0.79 ± 0.02	0.68 ± 0.00
Total IE for men	0.49 ± 0.16a	0.70 ± 0.00a	0.28 ± 0.00a
IE young men (<30 years)	0.44 ± 0.13a	0.60 ± 0.32a	0.68 ± 0.00a
IE adult men (30< i <60 years)	0.50 ± 0.17a	0.82 ± 0.21a	0.28 ± 0.00a
IE old men (>60 years)	0.52 ± 0.17a	0.74 ± 0.18a	0.68 ± 0.00a
Total IE for women	0.38 ± 0.09a	0.78 ± 0.03a	0.28 ± 0.00a
IE young women (<30 years)	0.27 ± 0.12a	0.80 ± 0.24a	0.68 ± 0.00a
IE adult women (30< i <60 years)	0.40 ± 0.08a	0.88 ± 0.10a	0.28 ± 0.00a
IE old women (>60 years)	0.40 ± 0.00a	0.74 ± 0.10a	0.68 ± 0.00a

Notes: For a given index, in the same column, values with the same letter are not significantly different.

GCZ = Guineo-Congolean zone, SGZ = Sudano-Guinean zone, SZ = Sudanian zone, m = mean, SE = standard error, i = age of the informant, ID = interviewee diversity value, IE = equitability value.

Table 4. Consensus value for the usage types among informants.

Types of use	Uses
	GCZ	SGZ	SZ
Food	0.17	0.26	0.06
Medicinal	0.21	0.18	0.25
Trading	0.20	0.21	0.07
Cultural	0.17	0.00	0.00
Ornamental	0.11	0.11	0.21
Fodder	0.01	0.00	0.22
Dyes	0.02	0.00	0.04
Spice	0.00	0.05	0.00
Fence	0.11	0.00	0.00
Others	0.00	0.19	0.15

Note: GCZ = Guineo-Congolean zone, SGZ = Sudano-Guinean zone, SZ = Sudanian zone.

Figure 2. Usage types per age category across phytochorological zones.

Col: Dyes; Cult: Cultural; Fen: Fence; Foo: Food; Fod: Fodder; Med: Medicinal; Orn: Ornamental; Oth: Others; Spi: Spice; Tra: Trading.

Figure 3. Usage types per gender across phytochorological zones.

Col: Dyes; Cult: Cultural; Fen: Fence; Foo: Food; Fod: Fodder; Med: Medicinal; Orn: Ornamental; Oth: Others; Spi: Spice; Tra: Trading.

Table 5. Similarities index of Jaccard (with respect to hosted species by sociolinguistic groups) among the three phytochoria.

		GCZ			SGZ			SZ
		Adja	Fon	Holli	Anii	Itcha	Nago	Ditamari	Gourmantche
GCZ	Fon	0.30 (29)
	Holli	0.35 (23)	0.54 (53)
SGZ	Anii	0.09 (14)	0.21 (39)	0.14 (24)
	Itcha	0.13 (15)	0.25 (38)	0.17 (22)	0.38 (64)
	Nago	0.12 (12)	0.23 (33)	0.17 (20)	0.35 (55)	0.40 (51)
SZ	Ditamari	0.11 (13)	0.17 (28)	0.14 (18)	0.17 (33)	0.16 (27)	0.19 (28)
	Gourmantche	0.14 (13)	0.16 (23)	0.11 (13)	0.14 (26)	0.17 (25)	0.19 (24)	0.43 (51)
	Waama	0.11 (10)	0.13 (18)	0.10 (11)	0.10 (18)	0.12 (18)	0.13 (17)	0.39 (45)	0.39 (39)

Notes: GCZ = Guineo-Congolean zone, SGZ = Sudano-Guinean zone, SZ = Sudanian zone. Values in brackets are the number of shared species.

Figure 4. Relationships between species ecological importance value index (IVI) and their use value (UV) across phytochorological zones. (a) Guineo-Congolean zone; (b) Sudano-Guinean zone; (c) Sudanian zone.

Table 6. Top 20 species according to ecological importance value (IVI) and use values (UV) in each phytochorological zone.

GCZ				SZ				SGZ
Top 20 species	IVI	Top 20 species	UV	Top 20 species	IVI	Top 20 species	UV	Top 20 species	IVI	Top 20 species	UV
Ipomoea aquatica	0.139	Musa spp.	1.000	Abelmoschus esculentus	0.132	Abelmoschus esculentus	1.413	Solanum lycopersicum	0.084	Carica papaya	0.963
Senna occidentalis	0.114	Vernonia amygdalina	0.775	Hibiscus asper	0.100	Carica papaya	1.125	Mangifera indica	0.065	Mangifera indica	0.938
Nicotiana tabacum	0.106	Citrus aurantifolia	0.688	Capsicum frutescens	0.099	Corchorus olitorius	1.113	Zea mays	0.064	Ocimum gratissimum	0.888
Musa spp.	0.097	Carica papaya	0.650	Hibiscus cannabinus	0.093	Capsicum frutescens	1.025	Musa sapientum	0.063	Musa sapientum	0.688
Vigna unguiculata	0.095	Ocimum gratissimum	0.463	Solanum annuum	0.091	Solanum annuum	1.013	Anacardium occidentale	0.062	Citrus aurantium	0.650
Stachytarpheta indica	0.090	Colocasia esculenta	0.413	Corchorus olitorius	0.076	Hibiscus asper	1.000	Strychnos innocua	0.055	Vernonia amygdalina	0.600
Zea mays	0.086	Mangifera indica	0.388	Soja hispida	0.074	Adansonia digitata	0.900	Ocimum gratissimum	0.051	Cymbopogon citratus	0.513
Vernonia amygdalina	0.084	Jatropha multifida	0.350	Nicotiana tabacum	0.071	Hibiscus cannabinus	0.863	Newbouldia laevis	0.050	Psidium guajava	0.500
Colocasia esculenta	0.078	Kalanchoe crenata	0.338	Zea mays	0.069	Nicotiana tabacum	0.663	Ficus thonningii	0.050	Adansonia digitata.	0.500
Hibiscus sabdariffa	0.070	Elaeis guineensis	0.338	Manihot esculentus	0.060	Zea mays	0.550	Ipomoea involucrata	0.048	Anacardium occidentale	0.463
Solanum lycopersicum	0.066	Ipomoea aquatica	0.325	Hyptis suaveolens	0.059	Hyptis suaveolens	0.538	Alocasia amazonica	0.047	Vitellaria paradoxa	0.463
Leucaena leucocephala	0.065	Caesalpinia bonduc	0.325	Phaseolus vulgaris	0.054	Solanum macrocarpa	0.450	Colocasia esculentum	0.046	Lawsonia inermis	0.400
Kalanchoe crenata	0.062	Newbouldia laevis	0.313	Talinum triangulare	0.053	Amaranthus cruentus	0.450	Allium cepa	0.043	Blighia sapida	0.400
Capsicum annuum	0.061	Psidium guajava	0.300	Amaranthus cruentus	0.051	Vernonia colorata	0.450	Carica papaya	0.042	Borassus aethiopum	0.363
Abelmoschus esculentus	0.058	Corchorus olitorius	0.300	Solanum macrocarpa	0.048	Talinum triangulare	0.388	Combretum micranthum	0.042	Jatropha cucurba	0.325
Argemone mexicana	0.057	Cassia occidentalis	0.300	Heliconia psittacorum	0.042	Cucurbita maxima	0.363	Citrus aurantium	0.041	Elaeis guineensis	0.325
Lactuca taraxacifolia	0.057	Chrozophora tinctoria	0.288	Diplolophium africanum	0.040	Mangifera indica	0.325	Culcasia scandens	0.041	Combretum micranthum	0.300
Ipomoea batatas	0.055	Abelmoschus esculentus	0.275	Tithonia diversifolia	0.040	Psidium guajava	0.325	Ipomoea batatas	0.040	Parkia biglobosa	0.263
Morinda lucida	0.048	Jatropha curcas	0.275	Vigna unguieulata	0.039	Soja hispida	0.300	Jatropha cucurba	0.039	Colocasia esculentum	0.250
Corchorus olitorius	0.048	Citrus aurantium	0.263	Celosia argentea	0.038	Citrus sinensis	0.288	Parkia biglobosa	0.037	Ocimum canum	0.250

Note: Phytochorological zones in which the species were recorded: GCZ = Guineo-congolean zone, SGZ = Sudano-Guinean zone, SZ = Sudanian zone.

Figure 5. Most used organs of home garden species per phytochorological zone.

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