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Understanding cultural preferences toward different ecosystem services is of great importance for conservation and development planning. While cultural preferences toward plant species have been long studied in the field of plant utilisation, the effects of ethnicity on ecosystem services identification and valuation has received little attention. We assessed the effects of ethnicity toward different ecosystem services at three similar forest islands in northern Kenya inhabited by Samburu and Boran pastoralists. Twelve focus groups were organised in each mountain, to evaluate the ecosystem services provided by the forest, and assess which plant species are most important for provisioning different ecosystem services. While water was always identified as the most important ecosystem service, the second most important differed; and some were only mentioned by one ethnic group or in one location. Preferred plant species for food, fodder, medicine resources, poles and firewood followed the same pattern. Our results showed that ethnicity and location affect ecosystem services' identification and importance ranking. This should be taken into account by decision-makers, e.g. as restricted access and regulated extraction is likely to affect people differently. Conservation and development projects would be more effective if they were initiated with an understanding of how people already use and value their forests.

The AFlora (an abbreviation for "African Flora") project, "A study on the traditional use of plants in Africa, " has been operated by the Center for African Area Studies at Kyoto University since late 1980s. This project has involved many researchers interested in the ethnobotany of tropical Africa. It aims to accumulate the ethnobotanical knowledge on plant use and nomenclature collected by field researchers working in Africa to provide an effective information-retrieval system. Since 1997, the AFlora database has been available to the public as a web-based database. In 2012, the system was updated, and it now relies on the most recent web technology. It currently contains more than 6, 000 records. In this paper, I describe the structure, mode of operation, and benefits offered by this database. I also discuss issues related to the intellectual property rights with respect to ethnobotanical knowledge, which have become serious considerations in recent decades. Means of sharing scientific information are also addressed.

Ethnobotanical research conducted among four groups of the Mbuti and Efe huntergatherers in the Ituri Forest of the Republic of Congo (former Zaire) has revealed their extensive acquaintance with the plant world. A comparison of the plant vernacular names and use shows a cultural diversity and inter-group differences in the knowledge of plants among the groups, although they share a similar overall use pattern and the knowledge of certain important species. The factors affecting such similarities and differences in plant use are discussed in relation to the natural and social conditions.

Ethnobotanical and ethnozoological surveys have been conducted from the 1970s among Ituri forest hunter-gatherers, the Mbuti and Efe, revealing interesting points on the relationships between the hunter-gatherers and the flora and fauna. In this paper, names, use and attributes given to plants and animals by the foragers are described and compared. Although the Efe and the Mbuti use completely diiferent languages now, not a few names, uses and attributes of plants and animals are common to both groups. It has become clear that the use of plants and attributes given to animals are more durable than the names in the transition of their culture through contact with farmers. The common names, uses and attributes may suggest the existence of original Pygmy words and plant and animal culture in the Ituri forest.

Interrelationship among man, plants and animals in the Ituri forest is described and analyzed. Plants contribute mainly to establish the material world of forest foragers, and their eternity gives man and animals living in the forest a sense of security and certainty of life. Animals are characterized by an ontological duality. They are like man and differ from it. They interact with man actively, emotionally and ambivalently. Animal meat is highly prized as food but it is often connected with food toboo. Animals bring joys and happiness to man, but also perform as agents of various diseases. Both plants and animals provide many possibilities of uses on which forest people construct their material, social, symbolic and spiritual life. Finally the cosmology of forest foragers concerning the relationship between man and nature is compared with that of Western people and Buddhism.