Wood energy plants (dendroenergetic) used by an indigenous Piapoco community in Guainía, Colombia

Abstract

This work contains botanical and ethno-botanical aspects of dendroenergetic species, used by the Piapoco indigenous of the Red Lagoon (Laguna Colorada) in Guainía, Colombia. It studies their use pattern and their handling ways, in connection with the ecological, socio-economic and cultural characteristics of the region. It is demonstrated that the use of the firewood involves learning, preparation and administration, in other words, a management of the resource. It exist a very precise and complex knowledge of the species, its properties and characteristics during the combustion process, which has implicit an empiric concept of the firewood quality. Moreover, it is established that this important knowledge continue being transmitted from generation to generation inside this indigenous community.