Implementação de uma plataforma para a exposição de pesquisas, catálogo de espécies em extinção e interação com os intervenientes do ecossistema de etnobotânica em Moçambique: o Centro de Investigação e Desenvolvimento em Etnobotânica

Abstract

The Center for Research and Development in Ethnobotany, abbreviated as CIDE, is a public institution with legal personality, administrative and scientific autonomy, founded on January 2, 1999, with its headquarters in Maputo Province, in the district of Namaacha, which works under the supervision of the Minister who oversees the area of Science and Technology. The guardianship comprises, namely, the power to authorize or approve the following acts: Approval of programs, activity plans, budget, including annual reports, inspection of CIDE bodies, services, documents and accounts. Like other southern African countries, Mozambique is an important repository of plant diversity. Home to around 5,500 plant species, it is estimated that at least 800 are used for medicinal purposes. Before the creation of CIDE, one of the largest databases of ethnobotanical information in Mozambique was created by the Missão Botânica de Moçambique (MBM) between 1942 and 1948, in the colonial context. This mission carried out a phytogeographic reconnaissance that resulted in more than 7,600 herbarium collections that led to the description of 25 new plant species. Alongside the herbarium collections, the documentation produced by MBM includes cartographic, photographic and written materials. Among these, the field notebooks of the different collectors stand out, in which references to the local medicinal uses of the harvested plants are listed, but whose information was never properly compiled and disseminated. Currently, the catalog and exhibition of ethnobotanical information follows a process that begins with the design of ethnobotanical research projects, followed by the funding and execution of such projects. The execution of such projects consists of deploying teams to collect and process the information collected. After processing the information, it is published in scientific journals and CIDE organizes talks with the communities in order to make them aware of the results of the studies carried out. ix This work aims to propose a solution to minimize the financial and time costs for the catalog and dissemination of ethnobotanical information on Mozambique.