Indigenous Fire Management in the <Emphasis Type="Italic">cerrado</Emphasis> of Brazil: The Case of the Krahô of Tocantíns

Indigenous peoples have been using fire in the cerrado (savannas) of Brazil as a form of management for thousands of years, yet we have little information on why, when and how these fire practices take place. The aim of this paper was to explore the traditional use of fire as a management tool by the Krahô indigenous group living in the north-eastern region of Tocantíns state, Brazil. The results indicate that the Krahô burn for a variety of reasons throughout the dry season, thereby producing a mosaic of burned and unburned patches in the landscape. The paper discusses this burning regime in the context of contemporary issues regarding fire management, and in the face of changing perceptions to fire by the Krahô themselves.     

Indigenous Burning as Conservation Practice: Neotropical Savanna Recovery amid Agribusiness Deforestation in Central Brazil

International efforts to address climate change by reducing tropical deforestation increasingly rely on indigenous reserves as conservation units and indigenous peoples as strategic partners. Considered win-win situations where global conservation measures also contribute to cultural preservation, such alliances also frame indigenous peoples in diverse ecological settings with the responsibility to offset global carbon budgets through fire suppression based on the presumed positive value of non-alteration of tropical landscapes. Anthropogenic fire associated with indigenous ceremonial and collective hunting practices in the Neotropical savannas (cerrado) of Central Brazil is routinely represented in public and scientific conservation discourse as a cause of deforestation and increased CO₂ emissions despite a lack of supporting evidence. We evaluate this claim for the Xavante people of Pimentel Barbosa Indigenous Reserve, Brazil. Building upon 23 years of longitudinal interdisciplinary research in the area, we used multi-temporal spatial analyses to compare land cover change under indigenous and agribusiness management over the last four decades (1973–2010) and quantify the contemporary Xavante burning regime contributing to observed patterns based on a four year sample at the end of this sequence (2007–2010). The overall proportion of deforested land remained stable inside the reserve (0.6%) but increased sharply outside (1.5% to 26.0%). Vegetation recovery occurred where reserve boundary adjustments transferred lands previously deforested by agribusiness to indigenous management. Periodic traditional burning by the Xavante had a large spatial distribution but repeated burning in consecutive years was restricted. Our results suggest a need to reassess overreaching conservation narratives about the purported destructiveness of indigenous anthropogenic fire in the cerrado. The real challenge to conservation in the fire-adapted cerrado biome is the long-term sustainability of indigenous lands and other tropical conservation islands increasingly subsumed by agribusiness expansion rather than the localized subsistence practices of indigenous and other traditional peoples.     

Evidence for indigenous selection and distribution of the shea tree, Vitellaria paradoxa, and its potential significance to prevailing parkland savanna tree patterns in sub-Saharan Africa north of the equator

Aim Woody vegetation patterns in African savannas north of the equator are closely connected to human presence, but the distinctions between natural and anthropogenic landscapes have not been clear to many observers. Criteria for identifying savanna landscapes on a continuum of intensity of anthropic impact are explored. Methods A key savanna tree species, Vitellaria paradoxa (Sapotaceae), was used as model for evaluating anthropic impact. Fruits harvested from tree populations across the species range were analysed for variation in traits valued by indigenous peoples. A simple selection index was used to scale tree populations from a hypothetical wild state to a hypothetical domesticated state. Index values were compared with trait values along climate zone gradients and evaluated in the context of indigenous savanna management practices and historical species distribution reports. Results Trait values such as fruit size and shape, pulp sweetness, and kernel fat content show a significant influence of temperature and rainfall. At the same time, the mean values of groups of traits vary perpendicular to the general climatic zone gradient. Selection index values between Vitellaria populations vary up to sixfold, with highest values in central Burkina Faso. Comparison of present day Vitellaria distribution with historical range limits show range expansion by human migration. Main conclusions The prevalence of major economic tree species in the savannas of Africa north of the equator is a strong indicator of human involvement in tree dispersal. This conclusion is supported by paleobotanical evidence and by recent Vitellaria range expansion as a result of human migration. The presence of high mean values of several Vitellaria fruit traits in central Burkina Faso suggests that selection for desired characteristics has occurred. The impact of indigenous savanna peoples on woody species composition and spatial distribution is probably much greater than usually thought and is the result of a deliberate strategy of altering the landscape to provide needed human resources.     

The “banana tree at the gate”: Perceptions of production ofPiper nigrum (Piperaceae) in a seventeenth century malay state

This study is based on a remarkable seventeenth-century Malay court chronicle, in which the kingdom’s rulers issue injunctions on their death-beds against cultivating pepper (Piper nigrum Piperaceae) for the colonial trade. The rulers say that pepper cultivation will lead to expensive food stuffs, malice, government disorder, pretensions on the part of the subject peoples, and inevitably the destruction of the kingdom. The “fatal attraction” of pepper cultivation is likened, in an indigenous metaphor, to having a flourishing banana tree in front of one’s gate. Analysis of historic as well as contemporary evidence from Borneo suggests that this is a remarkably astute analysis of the relations of production in pepper cultivation, especially in the transition from small-scale household cultivation to larger-scale production with state involvement. This analysis demonstrates the potential value of historic, indigenous texts for the study of economic plants, and it also shows the value of historical depth for understanding contemporary issues.     

Panicum sonorum in Sonoran Desert agriculture

Evidence of prehistoric domestication of plants native to southwestern United States is rare. Presented here are archaeological, historic and contemporary ethnobotanical data suggesting that a native grain, Panicum sonorum,was harvested, sown and culturally selected in the Sonoran Desert Region. This indicator crop, other new clarifications of indigenous crops, and water management practices all point to the distinctiveness of the region’s agricultural complex. As redefined here, the Sonoran Desert Agricultural Region is diverse in both native crops and in cultivars of introduced crops originating elsewhere.     

The Emergence of Waterfowl Conservation Among Yup'ik Hunters in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, Alaska

This paper presents evidence of emerging waterfowl conservation practices and attitudes among certain groups of contemporary Yup'ik subsistence hunters in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, a remote, wetlands dominated region of western Alaska crucial to several species of Pacific migratory birds. By examining what factors motivate hunters to follow restraint practices and evaluating how federal goose management policies impact these factors, I argue that recent policy has succeeded not by enforcement of regulations but by providing minimum necessary conditions for voluntary conservation to emerge as a cultural practice. This example of cooperative management may serve as a model for future, sustainable wildlife policies that involve indigenous resource users.     

Shamanism, Christianity and Culture Change in Amazonia

Among many indigenous peoples of Amazonia, shamanism and Christianity co-exist as central cultural elements shaping the ways in which people interpret and interact with the world. Despite centuries of co-existence, the relationship between shamanism and Christianity has entered an especially dynamic era as many of Amazonia’s indigenous peoples abandon Catholicism for Evangelical and Sabbatarian churches. Testing the relationship between Christian church affiliation and shamanism in 23 Makushi and Wapishana communities in southern Guyana, we found that Evangelicals and Sabbatarians are less likely to visit shamans or accept their legitimacy than are Anglicans and Catholics. However, conversion does not necessarily imply a complete rejection of indigenous religious systems as many self-identified Evangelicals and Sabbatarians continue to adhere to some indigenous beliefs and practices. We conclude by positing possible implications of religious conversion for natural resource use on indigenous lands.     

Elephant spatial use in wet and dry savannas of southern Africa

The influence of elephants on woody vegetation cover varies from place to place. In part this may be due to the way elephants utilize space across landscapes and within their home ranges in response to the availability and distribution of food. We used location data from 18 cows at six study sites across an east to west rainfall gradient in southern Africa to test whether wet- and dry-season home-range sizes, evenness of space use within seasonal home ranges and range overlap between seasons and between years, differed between wet and dry savannas. We then tested whether the quantity, distribution and seasonal stability in vegetation productivity, a coarse measure of food for elephants, explained differences. Elephants in wet savannas had smaller wet- and dry-season home ranges and also returned to a higher proportion of previously visited grid cells between seasons and between years than elephants living in dry savannas. Wet-season home-range sizes were explained by seasonal vegetation productivity while dry-season home-range sizes were explained by heterogeneity in the distribution of vegetation productivity. The influence of the latter on dry-season home ranges differed among structural vegetation classes. Range overlap between seasons and between years was related to inter-seasonal and inter-annual stability in vegetation productivity, respectively. Evenness of elephant spatial use within home ranges did not differ between savanna types, but it was explained by seasonal vegetation productivity and heterogeneity in the distribution of vegetation productivity during the wet season. Differences in elephant spatial use patterns between wet and dry savannas according to vegetation structure and season may need to be included in the development of site-specific objectives and management approaches for African elephants.     

Adaptive Learning Networks: Developing Resource Management Knowledge through Social Learning Forums

The purpose of this paper is to explore adaptive learning networks as a contemporary means by which new resource management knowledge can develop through social learning forums. The paper draws upon recent discussions within two disparate literatures on indigenous knowledge and network theory and is grounded in fieldwork with two Anishinaabe First Nations in northwestern Ontario. The paper has three objectives. First, problematize the principle of representation as a basic way of including the knowledge of indigenous peoples within natural resource and environmental management. Second, utilize network theory as a way to weave together adaptive learning by individuals into a cross-cultural social learning process. Finally, propose an adaptive natural resources and environmental framework that brings together, through a social learning process, the different ways individuals, indigenous peoples and resource managers, perceive environmental change.     

Genetic Diversity in the Lesser Antilles and Its Implications for the Settlement of the Caribbean Basin

Historical discourses about the Caribbean often chronicle West African and European influence to the general neglect of indigenous people’s contributions to the contemporary region. Consequently, demographic histories of Caribbean people prior to and after European contact are not well understood. Although archeological evidence suggests that the Lesser Antilles were populated in a series of northward and eastern migratory waves, many questions remain regarding the relationship of the Caribbean migrants to other indigenous people of South and Central America and changes to the demography of indigenous communities post-European contact. To explore these issues, we analyzed mitochondrial DNA and Y-chromosome diversity in 12 unrelated individuals from the First Peoples Community in Arima, Trinidad, and 43 unrelated Garifuna individuals residing in St. Vincent. In this community-sanctioned research, we detected maternal indigenous ancestry in 42% of the participants, with the remainder having haplotypes indicative of African and South Asian maternal ancestry. Analysis of Y-chromosome variation revealed paternal indigenous American ancestry indicated by the presence of haplogroup Q-M3 in 28% of the male participants from both communities, with the remainder possessing either African or European haplogroups. This finding is the first report of indigenous American paternal ancestry among indigenous populations in this region of the Caribbean. Overall, this study illustrates the role of the region’s first peoples in shaping the genetic diversity seen in contemporary Caribbean populations.     

From Casta to Californio: Social Identity and the Archaeology of Culture Contact

In culture contact archaeology, studies of social identities generally focus on the colonized–colonizer dichotomy as the fundamental axis of identification. This emphasis can, however, mask social diversity within colonial or indigenous populations, and it also fails to account for the ways that the division between colonizer and colonized is constructed through the practices of colonization. Through the archaeology of material culture, foodways, and architecture, I examine changing ethnic, racial, and gendered identities among colonists at El Presidio de San Francisco, a Spanish-colonial military settlement. Archaeological data suggest that military settlers were engaged in a double material strategy to consolidate a shared colonial identity, one that minimized differences among colonists and simultaneously heightened distinctions between colonists and local indigenous peoples.     

Pleistocene expansion and connectivity of mesic forests inside the South American Dry Diagonal supported by the phylogeography of a small lizard*

Traditionally focused on Amazonian and Atlantic rainforests, studies on the origins of high Neotropical biodiversity have recently shifted to also investigate biodiversity processes in the South American dry diagonal, encompassing Chaco, Cerrado savannas, and Caatinga seasonally dry tropical forests. The plateau/depression hypothesis states that riparian forests in the Brazilian Shield in central Brazil are inhabited by Pleistocene lineages, with shallow divergences and signatures of population expansion. Moreover, riparian forests may have acted as a vegetation network in the Pleistocene, allowing gene/species flow across the South American dry diagonal. We tested these hypotheses using Colobosaura modesta, a small gymnophthalmid lizard from forested habitats in the Cerrado savannas and montane/submontane forests in the Caatinga. We conducted phylogeographic analyses using a multi-locus dataset, tested alternative demographic scenarios with Approximate Bayesian Computation, and also employed species delimitation tests. We recovered a history of recent colonization and expansion along riparian forests, associated with Pleistocene climate shifts, and the existence of a new species of Colobosaura restricted to the Serra do Cachimbo region. We also present evidence that riparian forests have provided an interconnected network for forest organisms within the South American dry diagonal and that Pleistocene events played an important role in their evolutionary history.     

Land-Use History in Ecosystem Restoration: A 40-Year Study in the Prairie-Forest Ecotone

Land‐use history, recent management, and landscape position influence vegetation at the Rockefeller Experimental Tract (RET), a 40‐year‐old restoration experiment in northeast Kansas. RET is representative of the prairie‐forest ecotone, containing native tallgrass prairie and oak‐hickory forest, but unique in having tracts of replanted prairie, seeded in 1957, that have undergone long‐term restoration treatments: burned, grazed, mowed, or untreated. A land‐use history database for RET was compiled using a geographic information system to integrate historic and contemporary sources of information. Restoration management on the reseeded prairie has had a profound effect on forest development: mowing or burning precluded forest establishment (<3% forest cover), whereas portions of untreated or grazed areas became heavily forested (>97% forest cover). Forest colonization depends upon biotic and edaphic conditions at the time restoration was initiated: for areas replanted to prairie and managed by grazing, forestation was 6% on land in cultivation prior to replanting, 20% on former pastureland, and 98% on land deforested just before replanting. Patterns of forest colonization were also significantly associated with three landscape positions: near existing forest, along water courses, and along ridge tops. Additionally, land‐use history analyses showed that the presence of various prairie and forest species resulted from persistence and not from colonization following restoration. Because of the lasting imprint of historic land use on the landscape, our results indicate that it is essential that restoration studies be evaluated within a site‐specific historical context.     

Seasonal patterns in biomass smoke pollution and the mid 20th-century transition from Aboriginal to European fire management in northern Australia

Aim Globally, most landscape burning occurs in the tropical savanna biome, where fire is a characteristic of the annual dry season. In northern Australia there is uncertainty about how the frequency and timing of dry season fires have changed in the transition from Aboriginal to European fire management. Location In the tropical eucalypt savannas that surround the city of Darwin in the northwest of the Northern Territory of Australia. Methods Our study had three parts: (1) we developed a predictive statistical model of mean mass (µg) of particulates 10 µm or less per cubic metre of air (PM₁₀) using visibility and other meteorological data in Darwin during the dry seasons of 2000 and 2004; (2) we tested the model and its application to the broader air shed by (a) matching the prediction of this model to PM₁₀ measurements made in Darwin in 2005, (b) matching the predictions to independent measurements at two locations 20 km to the north and south of Darwin and (c) matching peaks in PM₁₀ to known major fire events in the region (2000–01 dry seasons); and (3) we used the model to explore changes in air quality over the last 50 years, a period that spans the transition from Aboriginal to European land management. Results We demonstrated that visibility data can be used reliably as a proxy for biomass burning across the largely uncleared tropical savannas inland of Darwin. Validations using independent measurements demonstrated that our predictive model was robust, and geographically and temporally representative of the regional airshed. We used the model to hindcast and found that seasonal air quality has changed since 1955, with a trend to increasing PM₁₀ concentrations in the early dry season. Main conclusions The results suggest that the transition from Aboriginal to European land management has been associated with an increase in fire activity in the early months of the dry season.     

Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal communities in sub-Saharan Savannas of Benin, West Africa, as affected by agricultural land use intensity and ecological zone

The rapid decline of soil fertility of cultivated lands in the sub-Saharan savannas of West Africa is considered to be the main cause of the increasingly severe constraints of food production. The soils in this tropical area are highly fragile, and crop yields are limited by characteristically low levels of available phosphorus. Under such preconditions, the multiple benefits of the arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) symbiosis are likely to play a pivotal role for maintaining natural soil fertility by enhancing plant nutrient use efficiency, plant health, and stabilization of a favorable soil structure. Thus, it is important to explore the impact of the commonly applied farming practices on the native AM fungal community. In the present study, we determined the AM fungal species composition in three ecological zones differing by an increasingly prolonged dry season from South to North, from the Southern Guinea Savanna (SG), to the Northern Guinea Savanna (NG), to the Sudan Savanna (SU). In each zone, four “natural” and four “cultivated” sites were selected. “Natural” sites were three natural forest savannas (at least 25–30 years old) and a long-term fallow (6–7 years old). “Cultivated” sites comprised a field with yam (Dioscorea spp.) established during the first year after forest clearance, a field under mixed cropping with maize (Zea mays) and peanut (Arachis hypogaea), a field under peanut, and a field under cotton (Gossypium hirsutum) which was the most intensively managed crop. Soil samples were collected towards the end of the wet season in each zone. AM fungal spores were extracted and morphologically identified. Soil subsamples were used to inoculate AM fungal trap cultures using Stylosanthes guianensis and Brachiaria humidicola as host plants to monitor AM root colonization and spore formation over 10 and 24 months, respectively. A total of 60 AM fungal species were detected, with only seven species sporulating in the trap cultures. Spore density and species richness were generally higher in the natural savannas and under yam than at the other cultivated sites and lowest under the intensively managed cotton. In the fallows, species richness was intermediate, indicating that the high richness of the natural savannas was not restored. Surprisingly, higher species richness was observed in the SU than in the SG and NG, mainly due to a high proportion of species in the Gigasporaceae, Acaulosporaceae, and Glomeraceae. We conclude that the West African savannas contain a high natural AM fungal species richness, but that this natural richness is significantly affected by the common agricultural land use practices and appears not to be quickly restored by fallow.     

New diversity,old anxieties in New Zealand: the complex identity politics and engagement of a settler society

Superdiversity signals the common experience in many countries and cities of the enhanced levels of diversity that are associated with contemporary immigration, yet there are a range of permutations and possibilities. One example of superdiversity – that of a particular group of settler societies represented by New Zealand – is explored, as the colonization of indigenous peoples has occurred alongside a nation-building project that centres on mass immigration, and which in turn has been layered by a more recent immigrant recruitment project that ostensibly values immigrants for the skills that they contribute to economic development. Since the 1970s, there have been limited but still important concessions made in terms of diversity recognition and group rights. This article explores the nature of this settler society superdiversity and its politics.     

Historical Indigenous use of aquatic resources in Australia's Murray-Darling Basin, and its implications for river management

Summary Indigenous people demonstrably lived along rivers and around lakes and wetlands of Australia's Murray‐Darling Basin in pre‐European times. Waterways were, and continue to be, of major significance to the society and culture of Aboriginal peoples throughout Australia. Historically, they exploited most of the fauna – from mussels and crayfish, to fish and birds – and either ate, or used for other purposes, many species of aquatic plants. Such practices placed them in the role of environmental modifiers, a role played by all human groups from both past and present. They built sophisticated fish traps, cut gaps in river banks to allow fish to move on to floodplains, and there is evidence that they practised a form of fish culture by creating small impoundments in which small fish could live and grow in normally ephemeral tributary streams away from predatory larger fish. Knowledge of the numbers of Aboriginal people inhabiting the riverine regions of the Murray‐Darling Basin are sketchy, but at times large groups congregated for cultural reasons, facilitating fishing with extensively engineered fish traps, such as that at Brewarrina, on the Barwon River in New South Wales. At other times, densities may have been about 0.5 person per river kilometre, although this was certainly not evenly distributed and the calculation postdated deaths from smallpox. From archaeological and anthropological evidence, aquatic fauna and flora would have constituted between about 30% and 100% of the diets of Indigenous people historically, depending on season and location. As such, Indigenous people were very much a part of the ecology of aquatic ecosystems and their effects may have been profound. Despite this, their role in influencing these ecosystems has largely been ignored by contemporary freshwater ecologists and managers. Current management practices do not seem to have considered the loss of this component of riverine ecosystems, and there is little debate about how the historical part that Indigenous people played in shaping these systems and their biota might be incorporated into management generally.     

Market Incorporation, Agricultural Change, and Sustainability Among the Machiguenga Indians of the Peruvian Amazon

By marshaling empirical data from five Machiguenga communities studied over 20 years, this paper disputes two common assumptions about the behavior of indigenous peoples in the face of increasing commercialization. First, many Amazonian researchers suggest that the social and ecological deterioration confronting native populations results from externally-imposed political, legal and market structures that compel local groups to pursue short-term, unstable economic strategies. Second, these structural explanations are combined with the increasing recognition that indigenous peoples possess a substantial agroecological knowledge to suggest that, if indigenous people receive control of adequate land and resources, they will implement their traditional knowledge in conservative resource management practices. In contrast to these assumptions, this analysis shows that the Machiguenga are not compelled by external forces (such as land tenure, migration policies or economic trends), but instead are active enthusiastic participants seeking to engage the market in order to acquire western goods. Further, despite highly adaptive traditional subsistence patterns and a vast agroecological knowledge, households and communities facing increasing degrees of market integration are progressively altering their traditional cropping strategies, planting practices, labor allocation and land use patterns toward a greater emphasis on commodity crop production and domesticated animal breeding. This increasing concentration on income generating activities subverts the environmentally-friendly nature of traditional productive practices and creates a socially, economically, and ecologically unsustainable system.     

Drought effects on fine-root and ectomycorrhizal-root biomass in managed Pinus oaxacana Mirov stands in Oaxaca, Mexico

The effects of a severe drought on fine-root and ectomycorrhizal biomass were investigated in a forest ecosystem dominated by Pinus oaxacana located in Oaxaca, Mexico. Root cores were collected during both the wet and dry seasons of 1998 and 1999 from three sites subjected to different forest management treatments in 1990 and assessed for total fine-root biomass and ectomycorrhizal-root biomass. Additionally, a bioassay experiment with P. oaxacana seedlings was conducted to assess the ectomycorrhizal inoculum potential of the soil for each of the three stands. Results indicated that biomasses of both fine roots and ectomycorrhizal roots were reduced by almost 60% in the drought year compared to the nondrought year. There were no significant differences in ectomycorrhizal and fine-root biomass between the wet and dry seasons. Further, the proportion of total root biomass consisting of ectomycorrhizal roots did not vary between years or seasons. These results suggest that both total fine-root biomass and ectomycorrhizal-root biomass are strongly affected by severe drought in these high-elevation tropical pine forests, and that these responses outweigh seasonal effects. Forest management practices in these tropical pine forests should consider the effects of drought on the capacity of P. oaxacana to maintain sufficient levels of ectomycorrhizae especially when there is a potential for synergistic interactions between multiple disturbances that may lead to more severe stress in the host plant and subsequent reductions in ectomycorrhizal colonization.