scholarly journals The trauma of no-choice: Wild food ethnobotany in Yaghnobi and Tajik villages, Varzob Valley, Tajikistan

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Renata Sõukand ◽  
Julia Prakofjewa ◽  
Andrea Pieroni
Keyword(s):  
Global Change ◽  
Local Ecological Knowledge ◽  
Food Plants ◽  
Wild Food ◽  
Wild Food Plants ◽  
Ecological Knowledge ◽  
Wild Food Plant ◽  
Forced Resettlement ◽  
Migration Crisis ◽  
High Level

AbstractDue to global change and the migration crisis both needing rapid attention, there has been growing debate about the drivers of change in the diet of migrants. Our study aimed to evaluate the consequences of forced resettlement on local ecological knowledge related to wild food plants among forcefully resettled Yaghnobi people in Tajikistan. We conducted 49 semi-structured in-depth interviews and recorded 27 wild food taxa and five unidentified folk taxa used by Yaghnobis and Tajiks in the villages surrounding Yaghnob Valley (including families ressetteled from Yaghnob Valley) in central Tajikitsan. The comparision between the two considered groups showed a high level of Tajikisation among Yaghnobis, both those who live alongside Tajiks as well as those living separately. The few families that still have distinct Yaghnobi plant uses are the ones which were given the opportunity to choose the spot in which to relocate and still visit the Yaghnob Valley regularly. On the basis of our study, we suggest that affording a choice of where to relocate is better than no choice, as the loss of motivation also affects the use of wild food plants. Given the pressure of the possible relocation of many groups of people in the light of global change, we suggest focusing efforts on studying similar cases in order to minimize the damage caused to people by relocation. The trauma of forced relocation, even just a few kilometers away, directly or indirectly affects wild food plant use and with this the food security of the community.

scholarly journals Active Wild Food Practices among Culturally Diverse Groups in the 21st Century across Latgale, Latvia

Biology ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (6) ◽  
pp. 551
Author(s):  
Baiba Prūse ◽  
Andra Simanova ◽  
Ieva Mežaka ◽  
Raivo Kalle ◽  
Julia Prakofjewa ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Culturally Diverse ◽  
Food Plant ◽  
Border Region ◽  
Food Plants ◽  
Wild Plants ◽  
Wild Food ◽  
Wild Food Plants ◽  
Ethnobotanical Study ◽  
Ecological Knowledge ◽  
Wild Food Plant

Local ecological knowledge (LEK), including but not limited to the use of wild food plants, plays a large role in sustainable natural resource management schemes, primarily due to the synergy between plants and people. There are calls for the study of LEK in culturally diverse areas due to a loss of knowledge, the active practice of utilizing wild plants in various parts of the world, and a decline in biodiversity. An ethnobotanical study in a border region of Latvia, characterised by diverse natural landscapes and people with deep spiritual attachments to nature, provided an opportunity for such insight, as well as the context to analyse wild food plant usages among different sociocultural groups, allowing us to explore the differences among these groups. Semi-structured interviews were carried out as part of a wider ethnobotanical field study to obtain information about wild food plants and their uses. The list of wild food plant uses, derived from 72 interviews, revealed a high level of homogenisation (in regards to knowledge) among the study groups, and that many local uses of wild food plants are still actively practiced. People did not gather plants as a recreational activity but rather as a source of diet diversification. The results provide evidence of the importance of safeguarding ecological and cultural diversity due to high local community dependency on natural resources.

scholarly journals Dining Tables Divided by a Border: The Effect of Socio-Political Scenarios on Local Ecological Knowledge of Romanians Living in Ukrainian and Romanian Bukovina

Foods ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 126
Author(s):  
Nataliya Stryamets ◽  
Giulia Mattalia ◽  
Andrea Pieroni ◽  
Ihor Khomyn ◽  
Renata Sõukand
Keyword(s):  
Local Ecological Knowledge ◽  
Ecological Factors ◽  
Food Plants ◽  
Wild Food ◽  
Wild Food Plants ◽  
Ecological Knowledge ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Cultural Economic ◽  
Cultivated Plant ◽  
Women's Networks

Local cuisine is an important reservoir of local ecological knowledge shaped by a variety of socio-cultural, economic, and ecological factors. The aim was to document and compare the current use of wild and semi-cultivated plant food taxa by Romanians living in Romania and Ukraine. These two groups share similar ecological conditions and historically belonged to the same province, but were divided in the 1940s by the creation of a state border. We conducted 60 semi-structured interviews with rural residents. The contemporary use of 46 taxa (plus 5 cultivated taxa with uncommon uses), belonging to 20 families, for food consumption were recorded. Romanians in Romanian Bukovina used 27 taxa belonging to 15 families, while in Ukraine they used 40 taxa belonging to 18 families. Jams, sarmale, homemade beer, and the homemade alcoholic drink “socată” are used more by Romanians in Southern Bukovina, while tea, soups, and birch sap are used more in Northern Bukovina. We discuss the strong influence of socio-political scenarios on the use of wild food plants. Cross-ethnic marriages, as well as markets and women’s networks, i.e., “neighbors do so”, may have had a great impact on changes in wild food use. In addition, rapid changes in lifestyle (open work market and social migration) are other explanations for the abandonment of wild edible plants.

scholarly journals Shared but Threatened: The Heritage of Wild Food Plant Gathering among Different Linguistic and Religious Groups in the Ishkoman and Yasin Valleys, North Pakistan

Foods ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (5) ◽  
pp. 601 ◽  
Author(s):  
Muhammad Abdul Aziz ◽  
Arshad Mehmood Abbasi ◽  
Zahid Ullah ◽  
Andrea Pieroni
Keyword(s):  
Artemisia Annua ◽  
Food Plants ◽  
Wild Plants ◽  
Wild Food ◽  
Wild Food Plants ◽  
Mountain Range ◽  
Religious Groups ◽  
Wild Food Plant ◽  
North Pakistan ◽  
Islamic Faith

A wild food ethnobotanical field study was conducted in the Ishkoman and Yasin valleys, located in the Hindukush Mountain Range of Gilgit-Baltistan, northern Pakistan. These valleys are inhabited by diverse, often marginalized, linguistic and religious groups. The field survey was conducted via one hundred and eighty semistructured interviews to record data in nine villages. Forty gathered wild food botanical and mycological taxa were recorded and identified. Comparative analysis among the different linguistic and religious groups revealed that the gathered wild food plants were homogenously used. This may be attributed to the sociocultural context of the study area, where most of the population professes the Ismaili Shia Islamic faith, and to the historical stratifications of different populations along the centuries, which may have determined complex adaptation processes and exchange of possibly distinct pre-existing food customs. A few wild plants had very rarely or never been previously reported as food resources in Pakistan, including Artemisia annua, Hedysarum falconeri, Iris hookeriana, Lepidium didymium and Saussurea lappa. Additionally, the recorded local knowledge is under threat and we analyzed possible factors that have caused this change. The recorded biocultural heritage could, however, represent a crucial driver, if properly revitalized, for assuring the food security of the local communities and also for further developing ecotourism and associated sustainable gastronomic initiatives in the area.

scholarly journals Wild food plant use in 21st century Europe: the disappearance of old traditions and the search for new cuisines involving wild edibles

2012 ◽  
Vol 81 (4) ◽  
pp. 359-370 ◽  
Author(s):  
Łukasz Łuczaj ◽  
Andrea Pieroni ◽  
Javier Tardío ◽  
Manuel Pardo-de-Santayana ◽  
Renata Sõukand ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
21St Century ◽  
Food Plants ◽  
Wild Plant ◽  
Wild Food ◽  
Wild Food Plants ◽  
Land Access ◽  
Plant Use ◽  
Wild Food Plant ◽  
Access Rights ◽  
Over Exploitation

The aim of this review is to present an overview of changes in the contemporary use of wild food plants in Europe, mainly using the examples of our home countries: Poland, Italy, Spain, Estonia and Sweden. We set the scene referring to the nutrition of 19th century peasants, involving many famine and emergency foods. Later we discuss such issues as children's wild snacks, the association between the decline of plant knowledge and the disappearance of plant use, the effects of over-exploitation, the decrease of the availability of plants due to ecosystem changes, land access rights for foragers and intoxication dangers. We also describe the 20th and 21st century vogues in wild plant use, particularly their shift into the domain of haute-cuisine.

scholarly journals Wild Food Plant Gathering among Kalasha, Yidgha, Nuristani and Khowar Speakers in Chitral, NW Pakistan

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (21) ◽  
pp. 9176
Author(s):  
Muhammad Abdul Aziz ◽  
Zahid Ullah ◽  
Andrea Pieroni
Keyword(s):  
Minority Groups ◽  
Interdisciplinary Studies ◽  
Food Plant ◽  
Food Plants ◽  
Wild Food ◽  
Wild Food Plants ◽  
Cultural Resilience ◽  
Wild Food Plant ◽  
Biocultural Heritage ◽  
Sisymbrium Irio

The documentation of local food resources among linguistic/cultural minorities is essential for fostering measures aimed at sustaining food biocultural heritage. Moreover, interdisciplinary studies on food cultural heritage represent a vital aspect of promoting environmental and social sustainability. The current study aimed to record the traditional foraging of wild food plants (WFPs) among three minority groups (Kalasha, Muslim Ismaili Yidgha, and Muslim Sunni Kamkata-vari speakers) as well as the dominant (Sunni Muslim) Kho/Chitrali people in the Kalasha and Lotkoh valleys, Chitral, NW Pakistan. A field survey recorded fifty-five locally gathered wild food plants and three mycological taxa. Most of the WFPs were used raw as snacks or as cooked vegetables, and Yidgha speakers reported the highest number of WFPs. Although the wild food plant uses of the four considered groups were quite similar, Yidgha speakers exclusively reported the use of Heracleum candicans, Matricaria chamomilla, Seriphidium brevifolium, and Sisymbrium irio. Similarly, Kalasha speakers reported the highest number of use reports, and along with Yidgha speakers they quoted a few WFPs that were frequently used only by them. The results of the study showed a remarkable degree of cultural adaptation of the minority groups to the dominant Kho/Chitrali culture, but also some signs of cultural resilience among those linguistic and religious minorities that were historically more marginalized (Kalasha and Yidgha speakers). The recorded food biocultural heritage should be seriously considered in future development programs aimed at fostering social cohesion and sustainability.

scholarly journals Wild food plants and wild edible fungi of Heihe valley (Qinling Mountains, Shaanxi, central China): herbophilia and indifference to fruits and mushrooms

2012 ◽  
Vol 81 (4) ◽  
pp. 405-413 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yongxiang Kang ◽  
Łukasz Łuczaj ◽  
Sebastian Ye ◽  
Shijiao Zhang ◽  
Jin Kang
Keyword(s):  
Chenopodium Album ◽  
Central China ◽  
Food Plants ◽  
Wild Food ◽  
Wild Food Plants ◽  
Edible Fungi ◽  
Wild Vegetables ◽  
Wild Fruits ◽  
Wild Food Plant ◽  
Wild Edible Fungi

<p>The aim of the study was to investigate knowledge and use of wild food plants and fungi in Han (i.e. Chinese) nationality villages in central China, including famine plants used in the respondents' childhood. A valley adjacent to the extremely species-rich temperate forest vegetation of the Taibai Nature Reserve was chosen. Eighty-two people from 5 villages took part in the study. Altogether, 159 wild food plant species and 13 fungi folk taxa were mentioned by informants. The mean number of freelisted wild foods was very high (24.8; median – 21.5). An average respondent listed many species of wild vegetables (mean – 17, me- dian – 14.5), a few wild fruits (mean – 5.9 and median – 6) and very few fungi (mean – 1.9, median – 1), which they had eaten.</p> <p>Over 50% of respondents mentioned gathering the young shoots or leaves of <em>Celastrus orbiculatus</em>, <em>Staphylea bumalda </em>and <em>S. holocapra</em>, <em>Caryopteris divaricata</em>, <em>Helwingia japonica</em>, <em>P</em><em>teridium aquilinum</em>, <em>Pimpinella </em>sp., <em>Amaranthus </em>spp., <em>Matteucia struthiopteris</em>, <em>Allium </em>spp., <em>Cardamine macrophylla </em>and <em>Chenopodium album</em>. Only one species of fruits (<em>Schisandra sphenanthera</em>) and none of the mushrooms were mentioned by over half of the respondents. Although very diverse, it can be noted that the use of wild vegetables has decreased compared to the second half of the 20th century, as informants listed several plants which they had stopped using (e.g. <em>Abelia engleriana</em>) due to the availability of cultivated vegetables and other foodstuffs. On the other hand, the collection of the most well-known wild vegetables is maintained by selling them to tourists visiting agritourist farms, and restaurants.</p>

scholarly journals Where tulips and crocuses are popular food snacks: Kurdish traditional foraging reveals traces of mobile pastoralism in Southern Iraqi Kurdistan

2019 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrea Pieroni ◽  
Hawre Zahir ◽  
Hawraz Ibrahim M. Amin ◽  
Renata Sõukand
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Field Studies ◽  
Food Plant ◽  
Food Plants ◽  
Wild Plant ◽  
Wild Food ◽  
Wild Food Plants ◽  
Iraqi Kurdistan ◽  
Wild Food Plant ◽  
Tulip Bulbs

Abstract Background Iraqi Kurdistan is a special hotspot for bio-cultural diversity and for investigating patterns of traditional wild food plant foraging, considering that this area was the home of the first Neolithic communities and has been, over millennia, a crossroad of different civilizations and cultures. The aim of this ethnobotanical field study was to cross-culturally compare the wild food plants traditionally gathered by Kurdish Muslims and those gathered by the ancient Kurdish Kakai (Yarsan) religious group and to possibly better understand the human ecology behind these practices. Methods Twelve villages were visited and 123 study participants (55 Kakai and 68 Muslim Kurds) were interviewed on the specific topic of the wild food plants they currently gather and consume. Results The culinary use of 54 folk wild plant taxa (corresponding to 65 botanical taxa) and two folk wild mushroom taxa were documented. While Kakais and Muslims do share a majority of the quoted food plants and also their uses, among the plant ingredients exclusively and commonly quoted by Muslims non-weedy plants are slightly preponderant. Moreover, more than half of the overall recorded wild food plants are used raw as snacks, i.e. plant parts are consumed on the spot after their gathering and only sometimes do they enter into the domestic arena. Among them, it is worth mentioning the consumption of raw wild crocus corms, also still common in Turkish Kurdistan and that of wild tulip bulbs, which was documented to be popular until the beginning of the twentieth century in the Middle East. Comparison with other ethnobotanical field studies recently conducted among surrounding populations has shown that Kurds tend to gather and consume the largest number of non-weedy wild vegetables. Conclusion The collected data indicate robust traces of nomadic pastoralism in Kurdish traditional foraging. This finding confirms that studies on wild food plant gathering in the Fertile Crescent and Turco-Arabic-Iranic regions of the Middle East are crucial for understanding the possible evolution of wild food plant gathering through history within the post-Neolithic continuum between pastoralism and horticulturalism.

scholarly journals Devil Is in the Details: Use of Wild Food Plants in Historical Võromaa and Setomaa, Present-Day Estonia

Foods ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (5) ◽  
pp. 570
Author(s):  
Raivo Kalle ◽  
Renata Sõukand ◽  
Andrea Pieroni
Keyword(s):  
Healthy Lifestyle ◽  
Food Plants ◽  
Wild Plants ◽  
Wild Food ◽  
Wild Food Plants ◽  
Cross Cultural Differences ◽  
Commercial Activities ◽  
Border Zones ◽  
Wild Food Plant ◽  
Local Plant

Biodiversity needs to be preserved to ensure food security. Border zones create high but vulnerable biocultural diversity. Through reviewing scattered historical data and documenting the current use of wild food plants among people currently living in historical Setomaa and Võromaa parishes, we aimed to identify cross-cultural differences and diachronic changes as well as the role borders have played on the local use of wild plants. The Seto have still preserved their distinctive features either by consciously opposing others or by maintaining more historical plant uses. People historically living in Setomaa and Võromaa parishes have already associated the eating of wild plants with famine food in the early 20th century, yet it was stressed more now by the Seto than by Estonians. Loss of Pechory as the center of attraction in the region when the border was closed in the early 1990s brought about a decline in the exchange of knowledge as well as commercial activities around wild food plants. National support for businesses in the area today and the popularity of a healthy lifestyle have introduced new wild food plant applications and are helping to preserve local plant-specific uses in the area.

scholarly journals How Can India Leverage Its Botanic Gardens for the Conservation and Sustainable Utilization of Wild Food Plant Resources through the Implementation of a Global Strategy for Plant Conservation?

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
pp. 586-599
Author(s):  
Ajay Kumar
Keyword(s):  
Plant Conservation ◽  
Indigenous Communities ◽  
Global Strategy ◽  
Food Plants ◽  
Wild Food ◽  
Wild Food Plants ◽  
Botanic Gardens ◽  
Plant Resources ◽  
Wild Food Plant

Wild food plants (WFPs) are consumed by the indigenous communities in various parts of the world for food, nutrition, and medicinal purposes. They are usually collected from the wild and sometimes grown in the vicinity of the forests and the dwellings of the indigenous people in a way such that they are not far from their natural habitats. WFPs are important for the food and nutritional requirements of the indigenous communities. The WFPs are seasonal and collected from the wild whenever they are available. Therefore, the food menu of the tribal co mmunities changes with the seasons. A number of studies have demonstrated various WFPs consumed by indigenous communities including India. The results show that an enormous diversity of WFPs is consumed by the indigenous people of India. However, a few studies also suggest that the consumption of WFPs among the indigenous communities is declining along with the dwindling of traditional ethnobotanical knowledge linked to the collection, processing, cooking, storage, and limited cultivation of WFPs. India can leverage the network of its botanic gardens for the conservation of its wild food plant resources, the traditional and indigenous knowledge linked to it, and its popularization among the citizens within the framework of Global Strategy for Plant Conservation (GSPC). This article provided an overview of the need to focus on WFPs, limitations of current studies, and role of botanic gardens in the conservation of wild food plants through the implementation of GSPC. This article further provided a framework for the role of botanic gardens in the popularization of WFPs, increasing the awareness about their importance, documentation, and preservation of the traditional knowledge linked to various aspects of WFPs within the GPSC framework.

scholarly journals The importance of choosing appropriate methods for assessing wild food plant knowledge and use: A case study among the Baka in Cameroon

PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. e0247108
Author(s):  
Sandrine Gallois ◽  
Thomas Heger ◽  
Amanda Georganna Henry ◽  
Tinde van Andel
Keyword(s):  
Dietary Diversity ◽  
Food Plant ◽  
Congo Basin ◽  
Food Plants ◽  
Ex Situ ◽  
Wild Food ◽  
Wild Food Plants ◽  
Plant Knowledge ◽  
Wild Food Plant

In tropical rainforests, access to and availability of natural resources are vital for the dietary diversity and food security of forest-dwelling societies. In the Congo Basin, these are challenged by the increasing exploitation of forests for bushmeat, commercial hardwood, mining, and large-scale agriculture. In this context, a balanced approach is needed between the pressures from forest exploitation, non-timber forest product trade and the livelihood and dietary behavior of rural communities. While there is a general positive association between tree cover and dietary diversity, the complex biocultural interactions between tropical forest food resources and the communities they sustain are still understudied. This research focuses on the knowledge and use of wild food plants by the forest-dwelling Baka people in southeast Cameroon. By using two different sets of methods, namely ex-situ interviews and in-situ surveys, we collected ethnographic and ethnobotanical data in two Baka settlements and explored the diversity of wild edible plants known, the frequency of their consumption, and potential conflicts between local diet and commercial trade in forest resources. Within a single Baka population, we showed that the in-situ walk-in-the-woods method resulted in more detailed information on wild food plant knowledge and use frequency than the ex-situ methods of freelisting and dietary recalls. Our in-situ method yielded 91 wild edible species, much more than the ex-situ freelisting interviews (38 spp.) and dietary recalls (12 spp.). Our results suggest that studies that are based only on ex-situ interviews may underestimate the importance of wild food plants for local communities. We discuss the limitations and strengths of these different methods for investigating the diversity of wild food plant knowledge and uses. Our analysis shows that future studies on wild food plants would profit from a mixed approach that combines in-situ and ex-situ methods.

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