Volume 56, January 2015, Pages 83–94
Habitat modeling for health sovereignty: Increasing indigenous access to medicinal plants in northern Maine, USA
Highlights
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- Indigenous communities can benefit from broader applications of geospatial technology.
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- Habitat models that also include sociocultural parameters can address tribal needs.
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- Road networks play an important role in community health.
Abstract
Medicinal
plants and fungi play important roles in the health of Maliseet people
of northern Maine, USA. A critical aspect of exercising choice in health
care for this community is the ability to locate and have access to
these plants. Habitat suitability modeling is a form of geospatial
technology that can enhance health sovereignty by identifying locations
in which populations of medicinal plants can be conserved or
established. However, use of this technology within indigenous
communities has been limited. Focusing on the medicinal plant muskrat
root, Acorus americanus (Raf.) Raf., we generate a habitat
suitability model for eastern Aroostook County, Maine (1,055,653.659 ha)
that also takes community needs into consideration. Drawing on
participatory ethnographic data as well as environmental
characteristics, our model combines ecological and sociocultural
parameters to identify previously unknown populations of A. americanus that are accessible to tribal elders. Our model successfully predicted 95% of A. americanus
locations in our field validation data set of ∼71,000 ha. Results
suggest that approximately 0.6% of our study area contains suitable
habitat to plant muskrat root that could also meet tribal members'
gathering needs for the future. Increasing the number of potential
collection sites gives communities options for gathering, thereby
enhancing health sovereignty. Broadly, our work suggests that, when done
in partnership with communities, different forms of geospatial
technology can be beneficial tools for efforts to promote health
sovereignty.
Keywords
- Habitat modeling and sociocultural parameters;
- Indigenous communities;
- Health sovereignty;
- Maliseet
- Corresponding author. Tel.:
+1 207 540 4988.
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