Wild plant species provide a variety of ecosystem services that contribute to human well-being. However, much of the legacy of traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) in Japan is rapidly being lost because of environmental changes; therefore, it is important to study the relationship between TEK of ecosystem management practices and plant diversity. Our study area is located in the southwest of Nagano Prefecture, Japan. We compared plant diversity among three land management types including traditional, labor-saving, and land abandonment sites, where we recorded 103 useful plant species based on interviews concerning the traditional use of local ecological resources; among them, 45 species are used for horse livestock, 32 for agriculture, 16 as edible plants, and 19 for manufacture of diverse every-day life goods. Data analyses demonstrated that useful plant diversity was significantly higher in the traditional sites than in other sites. We found highly diverse traditional uses of plant species (e.g., edible plants, horse feed, and rainwear) provided by TEK of local management. These results imply that when local farmers perform traditional management practices, they increase plant species diversity. With our work we investigated the effect of the loss of cultural values and the impact of biodiversity changes on the opportunities that people have to use ecosystem resources in Japan. This aspect particularly highlights the urgency of reconnecting nature and people. Conservation planning based on TEK has been and will be vital in addressing the goal of reducing biodiversity loss on a global scale.

中文翻译：

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传统生态知识在日本木曾地区的半天然草原中保持有用的植物多样性

野生植物物种提供各种有助于人类福祉的生态系统服务。然而，由于环境变化，日本传统生态知识 (TEK) 的大部分遗产正在迅速消失；因此，研究生态系统管理实践的 TEK 与植物多样性之间的关系非常重要。我们的研究区位于日本长野县的西南部。我们比较了传统、省力和弃地三种土地管理类型的植物多样性，根据当地生态资源传统利用方式的访谈记录了 103 种有用的植物物种；其中，45种用于牲畜，32种用于农业，16种用作食用植物，19种用于制造各种日常生活用品。数据分析表明，传统地点的有用植物多样性明显高于其他地点。我们发现了由当地管理的 TEK 提供的植物物种（例如，可食用植物、马饲料和雨衣）的高度多样化的传统用途。这些结果意味着当当地农民执行传统管理实践时，他们增加了植物物种的多样性。通过我们的工作，我们调查了文化价值丧失的影响以及生物多样性变化对日本人们必须使用生态系统资源的机会的影响。这方面特别突出了重新连接自然与人的紧迫性。基于 TEK 的保护规划对于实现在全球范围内减少生物多样性丧失的目标已经并将至关重要。