Ethnobotanical study of the coconut tree in communities of the municipality of Baracoa.

Abstract

The research was developed with the aim of evaluating, through Ethnobotany, the current state of ancestral knowledge about the cultivation of the coconut tree. It was carried out during 2018 in the communities of Guandao and Mabujabo, Baracoa municipality, and it had an exploratory, descriptive and non-experimental nature. It was based on the principles of Action-Research-Participation, articulated with the methodology of popular education; Ethnographic basic techniques were used in the field of Ethnobotany, such as personal and group interviews and surveys directed to the members of the communities. The knowledge and traditional uses of coconut farming are varied and interesting, hence the importance of knowing and socializing them. The study made possible to raise awareness about the cultivation of coconut trees in order to rescue the empirical knowledge held by social actors and, at the same time, to recognize the ancestral values ​​that persist for the introduction of new technologies.