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Indigenous utilization of termite mounds and their sustainability in a rice growing village of the central plain of Laos

BACKGROUND: The objective of this study was to investigate the indigenous utilization of termite mounds and termites in a rain-fed rice growing village in the central plain of Laos, where rice production is low and varies year-to-year, and to assess the possibility of sustainable termite mound utili...

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Autores principales: Miyagawa, Shuichi, Koyama, Yusaku, Kokubo, Mika, Matsushita, Yuichi, Adachi, Yoshinao, Sivilay, Sengdeaune, Kawakubo, Nobumitsu, Oba, Shinya
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2011
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3174111/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21849087
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1746-4269-7-24
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author Miyagawa, Shuichi
Koyama, Yusaku
Kokubo, Mika
Matsushita, Yuichi
Adachi, Yoshinao
Sivilay, Sengdeaune
Kawakubo, Nobumitsu
Oba, Shinya
author_facet Miyagawa, Shuichi
Koyama, Yusaku
Kokubo, Mika
Matsushita, Yuichi
Adachi, Yoshinao
Sivilay, Sengdeaune
Kawakubo, Nobumitsu
Oba, Shinya
author_sort Miyagawa, Shuichi
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: The objective of this study was to investigate the indigenous utilization of termite mounds and termites in a rain-fed rice growing village in the central plain of Laos, where rice production is low and varies year-to-year, and to assess the possibility of sustainable termite mound utilization in the future. This research was carried out from 2007 to 2009. METHODS: The termites were collected from their mounds and surrounding areas and identified. Twenty villagers were interviewed on their use of termites and their mounds in the village. Sixty-three mounds were measured to determine their dimensions in early March, early July and middle to late November, 2009. RESULTS: Eleven species of Termitidae were recorded during the survey period. It was found that the villagers use termite mounds as fertilizer for growing rice, vegetable beds and charcoal kilns. The villagers collected termites for food and as feed for breeding fish. Over the survey period, 81% of the mounds surveyed increased in volume; however, the volume was estimated to decrease by 0.114 m(3 )mound(-1 )year(-1 )on average due to several mounds being completely cut out. CONCLUSION: It was concluded that current mound utilization by villagers is not sustainable. To ensure sustainable termite utilization in the future, studies should be conducted to enhance factors that promote mound restoration by termites. Furthermore, it will be necessary to improve mound conservation methods used by the villagers after changes in the soil mass of mounds in paddy fields and forests has been measured accurately. The socio-economic factors that affect mound utilization should also be studied.
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spelling pubmed-31741112011-09-16 Indigenous utilization of termite mounds and their sustainability in a rice growing village of the central plain of Laos Miyagawa, Shuichi Koyama, Yusaku Kokubo, Mika Matsushita, Yuichi Adachi, Yoshinao Sivilay, Sengdeaune Kawakubo, Nobumitsu Oba, Shinya J Ethnobiol Ethnomed Research BACKGROUND: The objective of this study was to investigate the indigenous utilization of termite mounds and termites in a rain-fed rice growing village in the central plain of Laos, where rice production is low and varies year-to-year, and to assess the possibility of sustainable termite mound utilization in the future. This research was carried out from 2007 to 2009. METHODS: The termites were collected from their mounds and surrounding areas and identified. Twenty villagers were interviewed on their use of termites and their mounds in the village. Sixty-three mounds were measured to determine their dimensions in early March, early July and middle to late November, 2009. RESULTS: Eleven species of Termitidae were recorded during the survey period. It was found that the villagers use termite mounds as fertilizer for growing rice, vegetable beds and charcoal kilns. The villagers collected termites for food and as feed for breeding fish. Over the survey period, 81% of the mounds surveyed increased in volume; however, the volume was estimated to decrease by 0.114 m(3 )mound(-1 )year(-1 )on average due to several mounds being completely cut out. CONCLUSION: It was concluded that current mound utilization by villagers is not sustainable. To ensure sustainable termite utilization in the future, studies should be conducted to enhance factors that promote mound restoration by termites. Furthermore, it will be necessary to improve mound conservation methods used by the villagers after changes in the soil mass of mounds in paddy fields and forests has been measured accurately. The socio-economic factors that affect mound utilization should also be studied. BioMed Central 2011-08-18 /pmc/articles/PMC3174111/ /pubmed/21849087 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1746-4269-7-24 Text en Copyright ©2011 Miyagawa et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Research
Miyagawa, Shuichi
Koyama, Yusaku
Kokubo, Mika
Matsushita, Yuichi
Adachi, Yoshinao
Sivilay, Sengdeaune
Kawakubo, Nobumitsu
Oba, Shinya
Indigenous utilization of termite mounds and their sustainability in a rice growing village of the central plain of Laos
title Indigenous utilization of termite mounds and their sustainability in a rice growing village of the central plain of Laos
title_full Indigenous utilization of termite mounds and their sustainability in a rice growing village of the central plain of Laos
title_fullStr Indigenous utilization of termite mounds and their sustainability in a rice growing village of the central plain of Laos
title_full_unstemmed Indigenous utilization of termite mounds and their sustainability in a rice growing village of the central plain of Laos
title_short Indigenous utilization of termite mounds and their sustainability in a rice growing village of the central plain of Laos
title_sort indigenous utilization of termite mounds and their sustainability in a rice growing village of the central plain of laos
topic Research
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3174111/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21849087
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1746-4269-7-24
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