Uses, Cultural Importance, and Fire Threat to Pseudocedrela Kotschyi (meliaceae): Evidence for the Availability Hypothesis in Benin (west Africa)

Pseudocedrela kotschyi is one of the most widely exploited species in Benin. Therefore, populations of the species are faced with the issue of human disturbance. This study investigated the ethnobotanical knowledge of the species in order to set sustainable management strategies. Individual face-to-face semi-structured interviews were conducted with 324 respondents in the three climatic zones of Benin according to two levels of abundance (low and high abundance) of the species per zone. Reported use values (RUV), importance score (IS), overall use values for each use category (UV), and overall cultural importance indices (CI) were calculated. Poisson family generalized linear models were used to identify the socio-environmental factors that determined the uses and the importance of the species. The results showed that climatic zone had a significant influence (p < 0.001) on the reported use values of P. kotschyi, whereas climatic zone (p = 0.032) and abundance status (p = 0.025) were the two factors that had a significant effect on the cultural importance of P. kotschyi. These findings support the availability hypothesis in ethnobotany. According to local knowledge, fire was the main threat to the species in natural habitats, and such local knowledge depended on ethnicity and education level. Overall, the results of this study can be used for the sustainable management of P. kotschyi.