Data/hora: 01/06/2024 18:29:28

Provedor de dados: | Ecology and Society
País: | Canada
Título: | Development of a Compendium of Local, Wild-Harvested Species Used in the Informal Economy Trade, Cape Town, South Africa
Autores: | Petersen, L. M.; University of Queensland, Australia; Sustainable Livelihoods Foundation, South Africa; Leif.petersen@livelihoods.org.za; Moll, E. J.; Department of Biodiversity and Conservation Biology, University of the Western Cape, South Africa;; Collins, R.; School of Agriculture and Food Sciences, University of Queensland, Australia;; Hockings, Marc T.; Department of Geography, Planning and Environmental Management, University of Queensland, Australia; m.hockings@uq.edu.au.
Data: | 2012-06-19
Ano: | 2012
Palavras-chave: | Biodiversity; Cape Town  South Africa; Cash-based economy; Compendium; Conservation; Illicit harvesting; Informal economy; Urbanization; Wild harvesting; Wild harvest trade.
Resumo: | Wild harvesting has taken place over millennia in Africa. However urbanization and cash economies have effectively altered harvesting from being cultural, traditional, and subsistence activities that are part of a rural norm, to being a subculture of commonly illicit activities located primarily within the urban, cash-based, informal economy. This paper focuses on Cape Town, South Africa where high levels of poverty and extensive population growth have led to a rapidly growing informal industry based on the cultural, subsistence, and entrepreneurial harvesting and consumption of products obtained from the local natural environment.  Through a process of literature reviews, database analysis, and key informant interviews, a compendium of harvested species was developed, illustrating the breadth of illicit harvesting of products from nature reserves, public open space, and other commonage within the City. The compendium records 448 locally occurring species (198 animals and 250 plants) that are extracted for medicinal, energy, ornamental, sustenance, nursery, and other uses. The sustainability of harvesting is questionable; nearly 70% of all harvested flora and 100% of all collected fauna are either killed or reproductively harmed through the harvesting processes. Furthermore, for the 183 indigenous flora species currently recorded on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List, 28% (51) hold assessments ranging from Declining through to Critically Endangered. With respect to the more poorly assessed fauna (46 spp.), approximately 24% (11) have Declining or Threatened status.
Tipo: | Peer-Reviewed Reports
Idioma: | Inglês
Identificador: | vol17/iss2/art26/
Editor: | Resilience Alliance
Formato: | text/html application/pdf
Fonte: | Ecology and Society; Vol. 17, No. 2 (2012)