Mapping palm extractivism in Ecuador using pair-wise comparisons and bioclimatic modeling

The native palm flora of Ecuador consists of 129 taxa, including at least 69 species used by rural people, 19 of which are exploited commercially. This paper integrates bioclimatic modeling of palm distribution and quantitative ranking through pair-wise comparisons of species as a tool to evaluate and map the importance of 14 taxa of commercially exploited palms in Ecuador based on criteria of harvest values, sustainability, vegetation cover and population density. The ranking procedure could find broad application within ethnobotany and economic botany. Results show that extraction of palm products, economically speaking, is most important in the heavily deforested and populated coastal lowland.