Search

Plant foraging is an important human ecological phenomenon being studied by a number of contemporary ethnobiologists as well as by a few social anthropologists among rural communities and, more recently, in urban environments. The sustainability dimension of foraging is, however, largely unexplored. We analyse a few case studies from recent field research and qualitatively assess both the environmental and social sustainability of diverse patterns of traditional foraging practices in three distinct human ecological environments (horticulturalism-, forestry-, and pastoralism-driven) located in the Eastern Mediterranean, Eastern Europe, and North Pakistan, i.e. we address the question of when does traditional foraging become unsustainable and what factors may influence this. The main findings are multidimensional. First, in all case studies, we sometimes observed competitive foraging among the gatherers of certain wild food plants potentially causing ecological degradation; such unsustainable practices seem to be linked to the market pressure on certain species. However, also customs and norms promoted by states can be detrimental (former Soviet Union), as well as climate change (Eastern Europe), and marginalisation of some minority groups (Pakistan). Second, in the Mediterranean Syrian context, wild food plant resources are largely represented by widely available weedy "wild" vegetables, normally (but not exclusively) collected by women, and usually easily accessible; only very few wild food plants seem to be threatened due to specific market demands or to disequilibria created by household economic instabilities due to the recent war. We also argue that unsustainable foraging is enhanced by the abandonment of daily practices and continuous interaction with the natural environment and by the increasingly uneven distribution of active practical knowledge on wild food plants among the middle-aged and younger population. Facilitating the transmission of sustainable foraging knowledge and practices could be therefore crucial, also for coping with food insecurity in times of crisis; but for that to occur, holistic environmental and food educational frameworks, appropriate policies for fostering community-based biodiversity conservation and also social cohesion and communal management of lands should be seriously considered as well. Moreover, future gastronomic and eco-tourism initiatives, if organised in a thoughtful manner, could represent a positive turning point not only for the local small-scale economies of the considered rural communities but also for helping them to dynamically preserve the entire socio-ecological system underpinned in plant foraging and ultimately to better adapt to the current global crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We recorded local knowledge of wild food plants (WFPs) among the Palula minority in the Chitral region of northwest Pakistan through semi-structured interviews with 25 elderly participants. Data were compared with the previously published food ethnobotanical studies conducted in NW Pakistan. A total of 45 plant taxa were recorded, mainly used as cooked vegetables and raw snacks. A cross-cultural comparison of the foraging practices among the different ethnolinguistic groups revealed that the Palula shared more than two-thirds of the recorded WFPs with the other groups. This homogeneity may suggest that ecocultural homogenization occurred after the group migrated into the study area many decades ago and adapted to the more common and dominant socioecological patterns characterizing the Chitral area of the Hindukush region. We found that the original WFP nomenclature and reports among the Palula were likely affected by Kho and Pashto cultures, whose languages are widely spoken as lingua francas in Chitral. Thus, Palula foraging heritage might have been blended and osmotically mixed with that of the majority groups. The current study underscores the urgent need for policymakers to pay more attention to protecting ecocultural diversity and promoting the resilience of minority groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The foraging of wild food plants (WFPs) is an important sociocultural and human ecological phenomenon, especially in more peripheral rural and mountain areas of the world. Plant-centered local knowledge and practices are an important asset of every human community and their articulation is specific for every cultural group, although sometimes these knowldge systems can extend beyond cultural borders and be shared among diverse lingustic, ethnic, and religious groups. The current study explored the WFPss used among four cultural groups, i.e., Dawar, Mehsood, and Wazir Pathans, and Ormur speakers, living in North Waziristan, NW Pakistan. A total of 47 WFPs were used by the studied groups, most of which were used as snacks (35 species) or cooked vegetables (23 species). Fruits and aerial parts were frequently consumed. Cross-cultural analysis revealed that only 11 species were commonly used by the four studied groups and a high overlap of plant use was observed between the Mehsood and the Ormur peoples, and the Mehsood and the Wazir communities. More particularly, the WFP use of the Ormur has been completely homogenized with the three different Pathan cultural groups, which indicates a possible cultural assimilation of the Ormur to the dominant Pathan culture, which in turn may have affected their plant use. The study also reports some food and herbal ingredients that are new or rarely used for/in the NW Pakistani ethnobotanical literature, such as Chenopodium botrys, Iris hookeriana, Marrubium vulgare, Pistacia khinjuk, Polygonum verticillatum, Tamarix aphylla, and Tricholepis furcata. It is advisable that the recorded food biocultural heritage be properly revitalized for imporving the food security of the local communities as well as seriously considered in future development programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cross–cultural food studies among various ethnic groups are crucial for understanding patterns of food preferences. The study recorded wild food plants (WFPs) gathered among Baloch, Brahui, Dehwar, Hazaras, and Pathans living in northwest Balochistan, Pakistan. A total of 68 taxa were recorded, of which only one–fifth were commonly used among the various groups. Hazaras and Pathans differed in their WFP foraging patterns while the other groups shared considerably more commonalities in the gathering of WFPs. The distinctiveness of Hazara–foraged ingredients can be explained by the fact that they still rely on foraging conducted over the border in the Afghan mountains, and thus their food knowledge is to some extent less "mixed" with that of the other groups. Slight differences in patterns of wild plant preferences are also shaped by the importance of certain plant tastes, especially sour and bitter ones, among Hazaras and Pathans. The complex mosaic patterns of WFP gathering among the researched groups indicate the prevalence of different ecological attitudes, as well as social customs. Future research trajectories will also have to consider the sensory acceptance of WFPs among groups and generations in order to articulate strategies for incorporating local food biocultural heritage into development programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]