Correlates of ethno- and biodiversity loss in Tropical Andes: A case study in Loja (Ecuador)

Ecuadorian Andes are one of the hot spots of biodiversity on Earth. Local indigenous people have traditionally benefited from this rich biodiversity and have built a vast compendium of uses and applications for thousands of plants. Among the main components of global change, deforestation is the most compelling threat to the conservation of biodiversity but globalization of culture and, locally, over-exploitation of some species are also threatening the conservation of biocultural diversity (the diversity of uses and applications of natural resources). We try to identify and model the effects of the social and environmental correlates of ethnodiversity and biodiversity loss in Loja province (south of Ecuador). With photo-interpretation and CART modelling we find that the dynamic of deforestation in the last 30 years can be completely decribed on the basis of anthropic variables such as the distance to buildings and roads, irrespective of environmental correlates such as altitude, inclination, lithology, etc. On the other hand, more than 700 interviews among mestizos and indigenous inhabitants (Saraguro) show that most of the c. 600 useful plants are gathered in local forest and forest remnants and, in conjunction with the deforestation data, reveal a trade-off between easy access to and risk of loss of the resource. Analysis of the interviews also shows that although c. 75 % of the useful species are native, among the 20 most frequently used a 50 % are exotic. The analysis also reveals that there is a correlation between the access to foreign products and facilities and the rate of loss of the traditional knowledge that, for instance, is prevalent among the youngster, showing the effects of the globalization of culture over biocultural diversity.