Knowledge, use and valuation of vascular plants from Tierra del Fuego: the Example of karukinka

Abstract

Biodiversity conservation requires knowledge and valuation of the preserved entity. Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) is leading a conservation program in southern Tierra del Fuego, in the private park Karukinka that expects to preserve globally important ecosystems for the benefit of the present and future, local and global community. The overall objective of this research is to know the current and potential use of plants contained in Karukinka, to determine the degree of knowledge among local people on this flora and their uses, as well as the level of valuation of the latter. Therefore, we expect to contribute to the valuation of the biota of the area, making suggestions for future environmental education programs, possible to be implemented by WCS. This work has evaluated the potential use for vascular plants of Karukinka through an exhaustive checking of botanical, ethnobotanical and others kinds of literature. Current use was estimated using specific surveys on the population of the area of Porvenir and Punta Arenas. The polls were conducted in two strata of the Magallanes region population: schoolchildren and professionals. These surveys dealt with the knowledge about vascular plants of Tierra del Fuego, its uses, and their valuation. They were analyzed combining qualitative and quantitative methods with general descriptive statistics. The survey results confirm the initial hypothesis of the existence of a large gap of knowledge about flora of Tierra del Fuego, especially alarming in the case of schoolchildren and adults of Porvenir.