Perceptions et savoirs locaux sur les espèces oléagineuses locales dans le Kénédougou, Burkina Faso

Abstract

Local oil-producing plants have many different uses and are a source of income for rural communities. The aim of our study is to understand local perceptions and knowledge of these species and the oil they produce in Burkina Faso's Kénédougou Province. The methodology used combines a participatory social approach with ethnobotanical surveys. We interviewed a total of 336 people from 4 community groups (Toussian, Siamou, Bolon and Fulani) across 14 villages. The results show that 11 oil-seed plants are well known, four of which account for 94% of all citations. Significant variations in knowledge on the rarely cited species are age-related (?2 = 8.11 ; p = 0.0173). Adults and elderly people are more knowledgeable.Women have the most knowledge of oil extraction and processing techniques (?2 = 19.79; p < 0.001). These techniques are known for seven species, but are only applied to extract oil from four of them, Vitellaria paradoxa, Elaeis guineensis, Carapa procera and Lophira lanceolata. The oils from all the 11 cited species are mainly used to prepare medicines (47%), food (37%) and cosmetics (16%). Preferences for different oils among the communities are influenced by their uses but also by knowledge of extraction techniques, their ease of use and the oil yield that can be extracted from the seeds. The figure for the informant consensus factor (68%) shows that the species that communities are willing to preserve are those that are most useful to them. Promoting the oils produced from these plants could be a key to their preservation.