Repositories of biocultural diversity: Toward best practices for empowering ethnobotany in digital herbaria

Societal Impact Statement: As herbaria digitize millions of plant specimens, ethnobotanical information associated with them is becoming increasingly accessible. These biocultural data include plant uses, names, and/or management practices of Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities (IPLCs). However, the absence of shared curatorial standards limits accessibility and use by IPLCs and others. We estimated and characterized ethnobotanical data associated with herbarium specimens and provide here key considerations for future work. We identified a proportionally small, yet collectively significant, number of ethnobotanical specimens, and call for coordinating best practices among global herbaria to locate, acknowledge, and responsibly share this information, together with source communities. Summary: As herbaria digitize millions of plant specimens, those containing biocultural information are becoming increasingly accessible. This information — also known as ethnobotanical data — holds both cultural and scientific value, and may include plant uses, vernacular names, local species concepts, cultural values, and plant management practices of Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities (IPLCs). However, the lack of coordinated curatorial standards currently limits both the accessibility and effective use of this information by IPLCs, ethnobotanists, and others. To address this gap, we quantitatively estimated and characterized ethnobotanical information associated with herbarium specimens and offer key considerations to guide future work. We identified a proportionally small —yet collectively significant— number of ethnobotanical specimens, comprising approximately 1.6% of all specimen records and representing hundreds of thousands of specimens in the surveyed herbaria. We advocate for coordinating best practices to locate, acknowledge, and ethically share this information among herbaria, working together with source communities and through global cooperation.