The Amazonas region in Colombia is political administrative divide in 6 departments with 40,494,267 Ha, the Amazonas has 1,000,000 inhabitants approximately. This region represents about 10% of the Amazon basin, covers 43% of the Colombian territory, has 80% in tropical humid forests (Bht). It has an annual precipitation between 2500 and 4000 cubic millimeters by year, 30 Degrees centigrade average temperature, relative humidity up to 80%. In a year there are two periods of rains, an intense one in the months of January and February and one of less intensity, during September and December (Maldonado, 2012; Jimenez, 2013) .

The Amazon trapeze is located in the Amazonas department (Colombia), it is bounded on the north by the Putumayo River, on the south by the Amazon River, to the east by the border line with Brazil from Tarapacá to Leticia, and to the West by the borderline with the Peru, from the Yaguas river in the Putumayo department to the Atacuari River in the Amazon. In this area the Putumayo River with its main tributary, the Cotuhé, and the Amazon River with its tributaries Uassú, Atacuari, Loretoyacu and Amacayacu stand out. The Amazon trapeze comprises the Municipality of Leticia and Puerto Nariño. There are the indigenous communities Tikuna, Cocama, Yagua, Uitoto, Muinane, Tanimuca located in several resguardos (Izquierdo, 2010) .

The Tikuna community extends from the Atacuari River between Colombia and Peru to the Jutaí River in Brazil. In Colombia, they inhabit the entire Amazon trapeze with 8000 people. They share a “unique” language, with three dialects and live mainly on the banks of the Amazon river, they practice tomb and burning horticulture (chagras), fishing, hunting and tourism activities. Its resguardos are: San Antonio de los Lagos, San Sebastián, El Vergel, Macedonia, Mocagua, San Martin de Amacayacu and Cothué-Putumayo, in the Department of Amazonas (Ministerio de Cultura, 2009; Lopez, 2005) .

TICOYA resguardo, has indigenous communities of the Tikuna, Cocama and Yagua tribes, that make up a population of 5620 people, distributed in 22 communities along the Amazon rivers and its tributaries the Atacuari, Boyahuasú, Loretoyacu and Amacayacu (ATICOYA, 2007) . This resguardo was created as a conservation area by decree No. 021 of March 13, 1990. The San Martin de Amacayacu community is formed mostly of Tikunas (600 people, according to Curaca Mamerto Gregorio Vasquez 2019) (Figure 2).

The distribution of the saltlicks into this resguardo does not have cartographic information, or documents that indicate its location and biophysical characteristics. Table 1 identifies the saltlicks in prohibited and enchanted spaces. Figure 3 and Figure 4 illustrate the approximate location of some saltlicks reported by secondary information and field work carried out in the years 2015, 2016, 2017.

The methodological framework allow to identify and approximate the structure, composition and richness of the forest community in 6 saltlicks and its control forest in Tikuna community, TICOYA resguado—San Martín de Amacayacu (SMA)² village (Colombia Amazon Trapeze).

This was done in three stages: 1) Identification and analysis of relevant information about saltlicks, its flora composition and structure, which particular value was given to the information on the Tikuna and Uitoto life plans³. 2) Visit and recognition of 6 saltlicks and 6 control forest in the years 2015, 2016, 2017 with the permission and the attendance of Tikuna⁴ people in San Martin de Amacayacu, about the status and structure of trees and the current management of these sacred spaces. 3) Analysis of biodiversity indicators, statistical analysis and conclusions.

The visit and identification of the saltlicks and control forest was carried out with the company of local knowledgeable indigenous. With them, the approximate area was calculated to establish transects of (4 × 50 m) with a distance between each transect of at least 60 meters.

In the data forest sampling were taken 21 transects in saltlicks and 21 transects in control forests see Figure 5 and basic information in Table 2.

Trees with diameters at breast height that have more or 10 cm were characterized, species data (local name) and approximate total height were recording. See Table 3.

Trees data with their respective identified species were analyzed using the Diversity, Dominance, Equity and Richness indices, described in Aguirre Ramírez (2013) and Naidu & Kumar (2016) . Which is done in order to determine the differences between the saltlicks and control forest. The indices used were

Diversity Index of Shanon-Weaver (1949)

H = − ∑ ​ n i N ∗ ln ( n i N )

H: is Shannon-Weaver’s diversity index; n i : is the number of individuals of each species; N: is the total number of individuals; ln: it is the natural logarithm.

Values between 0 and 1.0 of H indicate slightly biodiverse environments, between 1.0 and 3.0 correspond to moderately biodiverse environments and, of 3.0 or onwards, environments of good biodiversity (Naidu & Kumar, 2016) .

Simpson’s dominance index7 (1949)

D = ∑ n i ( n i − 1 ) N ( N − 1 )

D: is Simpson’s dominance index; n i : is the number of individuals of each species; N: is the total number of individuals.

The values for this index are between 0 and 1.0. As dominance increases, diversity decreases.

Equity index

J = H ln ( S )

J: is the equity index of Pielou; H: it’s the Shanon-Weaver diversity index; S: is the number of species; ln: is the natural logarithm.

This index is between 0 and 1.0, where the value of 0 represents the minimum equity and 1.0, the maximum equity

Margalef’s richness index (1968)

R = S ln ( N )

R: is Margalef’s richness index; S: is the number of species; N: is the total number of individuals; ln: is the natural logarithm.

If the Margalef index is less than 2.0, is low richness in the environment, if it is between 2.0 and 5.0, there is moderate richness, if it is greater than 5.0, there is great richness in the ecosystem (Naidu & Kumar, 2016).

Statistical analysis

With the use of the SPSS statistical program⁸, an analysis was carried out to recognize if exist significant differences between the composition and structure of the saltlicks and the control forests in SMA, 673 trees and palms were used in 143 taxonomic units at the genre and species level when the tree was fully identified.

The analysis used the univariate analysis tool with the saltlick, no-saltlick (control forest) as fixed variable and the covariate area, to analyze if the species, family, genre, strata and DAP as dependent variables have significant relationships between them.

In the saltlicks, the trees that are in more proportion in the DAP A diametric class⁹ were identified in Patura, Venado, Huito and Maloka, saltlicks. In the DAP B class Piedra and Aramacia saltlicks. In the control forests, the trees that are in greater proportion in the diametric class DAP A are in Cpatura, Chuito and Caramacia, and in the diametric class DAP B in Cvenado, Cmaloka and Cpiedra.. See Graph 1.

The tallest trees are concentrated in stratum H3 in all the saltlicks. Maloka saltlick presents a little dominance in stratum H4. In control forests, chuito and cpiedra concentrate trees and palms in stratum H2; cpatura, cvenado, cmaloka in stratum H3 and caramacia in stratum H4. See Graph 2.

In general DAPA diametric class has more number of trees in saltlicks. In the

Graph 1. Distribution of the diameters under the parameters of methodology SMA. Source the authors.

Graph 2. Distribution of the heights under the parameters methodology in SMA. Source the authors.

control forests the diameters distribution are concentrated between the DAPA and DAPB classes.

Heights distribution in saltlicks, it are concentrated in strata H2 and H3, in control forests are more trees in strata H3 and H4.

The saltlicks Patura and Venado present more number of trees. However, control forests have more number of trees in cpatura and cvenado. The number of species is more into Venado and Maloka saltlicks, and in the forest control cpatura. The number of families is higher in Venado saltlick and cvenado control forest. See Table 4 and Graph 3.

More than 25 botanical families were identified in saltlicks and control forests. The drawings Figures 6-8 show the distribution of species and families in a typical transect in 3 saltlicks and its control forests¹⁰.

The following Figure 9 present the families identified in saltlicks and control forests. The most frequent families by number of trees and palms in saltlicks are Fabaceae, Arecaceae and Myristicaceae. In control forests are Arecaceae, Fabaceae and Sapotaceae.

The consolidated distribution of the principal families of saltlicks and control forests is presented in Graph 4.

In Table 5 and Figure 10, is shown a summary of the botanical genres that have more than one tree or palm in each saltlick and control forest and that are presented in 4 or more units of analysis (saltlicks and control forest) in SMA.

The genres Astrocaryum and Virola are common in saltlicks and control forests. Nevertheless the genres Ficus and Pouteria are common in the control forests with an approximate representation of 5% and 12% respectively.

With the use of the SPSS statistical program, an analysis was carried out to recognize if exist significant differences between the composition and structure of the tree in saltlicks and the control forests in SMA, 673 trees and palms were used in 143 taxonomic units at the genre and species level when the tree was fully identified.

The analysis used the univariate analysis tool with the saltlick, no-saltlick (control forest) as fixed variable and the covariate area, to analyze if the species,

family, genre, strata and DAP as dependent variables have significant relationships between them.

It can be observed that present a tendency in the forests control of trees distribution in H4 strata and in the bigger diameters. But the values are not statistically significant. See Table 6.

According to the results obtained, they have a tendency in the control forest of more species and genre, but it is not statistically significant. The variable family has more number in the saltlicks but it is not statistically significant. See Table 7.

After the significance of the families with the highest occurrence in saltlicks control forests were evaluated. The results are presented in Table 8.

The Moraceae family is representative under the statistical analysis in the control forests.

Table 9 shows the indices for the saltlicks and the control forests in SMA resguardo TICOYA.

Shannon-Weaver diversity index: all saltlicks and control forests have good biodiversity since their values are more or closer to 3. However Saltlicks Patura,

Huito and Aramacia have values close to 3.0, which indicates that their environments are biodiverse but not with highest values.

The control forests cpiedra, cvenado, cpatura, cpiedra and cmaloka have a high biodiversity, since their index is more than 3.0, while caramacia and chuito are close to 3.0, which indicates that they have good biodiversity but not the highest of the sample. The forest control cpatura is the one that has the highest value in this sample indexes.

Simpson dominance index: few dominance of species can be observed in all spaces (saltlicks and control forests), the values of this index are close to zero for all inventoried forests.

Equity index of Pielou: in all inventories forests, this index is close to 1.0, which indicates that these spaces are equitable for all species.

Margalef’s richness index: all the saltlicks and control forests have good richness, because the index is higher than 5, the richest saltlicks are Venado and Maloka and the richest control forests are Cpatura and Cvenado.

According to Graph 5, the highest values of the indices are in the forest control cpatura, conversely the lowest value in the saltlick Huito. The saltlick venado and control forest cvenado have similar values of indices. The saltlick is Huito and control forest chuito have the lowest values of the data sample.