A rain forest in the Caura reserve (Venezuela) and its use by the indigenous Ye'kwana people

This dissertation investigates different aspects of the vegetation and its use in a tropical lowland rain forest in the watershed of the Caura, a southern tributary to the Orinoco in the Venezuelan Guayana. The research concentrated on the forest within a 15 km radius of a village of the indigenous Ye'kwana people. The first chapter describes the current use of wild plants by the Ye'kwana in the lower Caura watershed. More than 300 useful species are presented with their Ye'kwana names, scientific names, and descriptions of their uses. The second chapter characterizes the floristic composition and structure of the forest based on the inventory of 3719 trees (...