Non-timber forest products in the Botanical Garden of Villa Clara, a tool for Environmental Education

Abstract

Cuban forests are an important source of non-timber forest products, with a historical tradition of consumption, mainly among peasants. However, there is currently a trend towards the loss of the traditional use of plants. With the objective of disseminating knowledge about the potential use of these forest products, little diffused among current generations, a characterization of some groups of ethnobotanical interest present in the living collections of plants of the Villa Clara Botanical Garden is presented, as a tool for environmental education. The ethnobotanical information was obtained from the bibliographic review, mainly from published works on case studies in Cuba. The groups of utilities defined in the study were: food, handicraft, source of fats and oils, exudates and extracts. The forest products as a source of resources for handicrafts with ten examples, followed by those that constitute a source of food (8), extracts (7), exudates (4), and fats and oils (2), are the ones that resulted among the little diffused at present. These constitute a highly valuable collection in the Botanical Garden to maintain the patrimonial legacy for current and future generations. The application of these results is materialized through the talks incorporated into the tours with visitors.

Keywords

• biodiversity
• conservation
• ethnobotanic
• cultural traditions