Local knowledge of the impact of uncontrolled fires on ecosystem services: A case study in the Pendjari Biosphere Reserve in Benin (West Africa)

Ecosystem services are fundamental to people and are undergoing many threats such as uncontrolled fire. Local knowledge has been widely used to guide management decisions for plant biodiversity. Therefore, we assessed the knowledge of the people of Pendjari Biosphere Reserve (PBR) on the impact of fire on ecosystem services (ES). A semi-structured questionnaire with three fire impact levels (no, low and high) was used to interview 150 randomly selected households in four ethnic groups. The generalised linear model (GLM) was performed on the relative frequency of quotations to assess the effect of ethnic group, age and sex for each impact level of fire on ES and also to test the interaction among the considered factors. The local people reported that uncontrolled fire causes damage to many provisioning ES. The local knowledge concerning the impact of fire on ES was affected significantly (p < 0.0001) by ethnic group, age and sex irrespective of the impact level of fire on ES. Moreover, there was no significant interaction among the considered factors. The studied factors are benchmarks to be integrated into awareness and preservation measures of ES to mitigate the impact of uncontrolled fire practices in the study area.

Automated summary

By interviewing residents of Pendjari Biosphere Reserve, we assessed the local knowledge on the impact of fire on ecosystem services. The study found that some residents were aware of the negative effects of fire on environmental services, which were significantly influenced by factors such as ethnicity, age, and gender. Therefore, these factors should be integrated into awareness and preservation measures to mitigate the impact of uncontrolled fire practices.