Natural Resource Use and Cultural Change: Nipa Hut Shingle Processing with Nypa fruticans, Arecaceae, in Palawan, Philippines
Keywords:
Palm products, Palmyra palm, Palms --Classification, Palawan (Philippines) --Population, Palawan (Philippines) --Maps, Mangrove plants --Asia, Deforestation --Philippines, Environmental degradation --Social aspects --Philippines, Fish trade --PhilippinesAbstract
Geographers have long been interested in how people utilize resources (e.g. Denevan 1992; Sayre 2008). This study looks at the nipa palm (Nypafruticans Wurmb.; Arecaceae), a unique palm in that it is the only species in the Arecaceae family considered a mangrove. This palm is important for communities throughout South and Southeast Asia, and now grows in parts of Africa. In all of these areas, nipa plays a central role for coastal and riverine people as part of maintaining a healthy coastal ecosystem, and for the goods that people make from the palm material (Hamilton and Murphy 1988; Havemann 2003). This study will focus on how women are connected to, and depend upon, the nipa palm.
