Paper short abstract:

A review on the sustainability of wild plant use in the Andean Community revealed the need for context-specific conservation and collaboration with local communities. We discuss how this is informing a socio-ecological approach to identify Important Plant Areas for useful plant species in Colombia.

Paper long abstract:

Overexploitation is the second biggest driver of global plant extinction. Meanwhile, useful plant species are vital to millions of livelihoods, with global conservation efforts increasingly applying the concept of 'conservation-through-use.' We conducted a literature review on the sustainability of wild-collected plant use across Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia—a region of global importance for its biological and cultural richness. Based on 68 articles, results showed that the sustainability of outcomes are context-dependent, with five key themes: plant biology; land tenure; knowledge, resource, and capacity; economics and market pressures; and institutional structures, policy, and legislation. In this presentation, we discuss how these findings are informing a socio-ecological approach to identify and conserve Important Plant Areas (IPAs) for useful plant species in Colombia. Based on a checklist of useful plants of Colombia (>7,000 species), over 300 useful species of conservation concern have been highlighted and potential IPA areas identified. We will outline ongoing research to compare local knowledge and use of plants with IPA conservation prioritisation using social science methods in three case study areas in Colombia.