Foraging for fruits: natural resource use and its conservation potential in urban environments
- Authors: Sardeshpande, Mallika
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: Non-timber forest products , Wild plants, Edible , Urban plants , Urban ecology (Biology) , Open spaces , Environmental protection -- Citizen participation
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/167465 , vital:41483
- Description: Wild edible fruits (WEFs) are a type of natural resource that humans across the world collect from diverse natural landscapes. They are among the most used non-timber forest products (NTFPs) and wild foods, and often serve more than a nutritional purpose for humans, in the form of fibre, fuel, medicine, and other products. The use of WEFs may augment household dietary diversity, food security, and income in some contexts. The prevalence of WEF species across the spectrum of natural to modified ecosystems presents the potential for integrated landscape-level conservation efforts centred on these species. The first half of this thesis investigates the state of knowledge about this versatile and ubiquitous resource in the wider context of other wild foods and NTFPs, and compares the patterns of use of WEFs with those of other wild foods and NTFPs. Through these studies, I find that WEFs are indeed a widely occurring, resilient, and useful resource along the rural-urban gradient. They are unique in that their use transcends the geographical and socio-economic criteria that influence the use of other wild foods and NTFPs. Based on these findings, in the second half of the thesis, I propose the use-based conservation of WEF species in urban landscapes through the practice of urban foraging. Through interviews with urban land managers and foragers, I describe the state of urban green space management and urban foraging, and identify synergies between the two. Green space management is increasingly devolved and well-defined in developed cities, and relatively diffused in smaller towns, but nevertheless supportive of use-based biodiversity conservation. Planting and foraging for WEFs in urban green spaces ties in with local and national objectives of urban land use management policy. However, the lack of information on species, spaces, and sustainability related to foraging are a hindrance to addressing this activity and harnessing its conservation potential. Foragers use a variety of WEF species collected from natural as well as highly used and urbanised areas in their cities. Although most foragers consider foraging as a cultural and recreational activity, many of them agreed with the prospect of commercialising or popularising it to protect and promote the biodiversity and culture associated with their foraging spaces. The synthesis of this study presents four possible pathways to conserve the diversity of WEF species, and to extend the benefits of WEF use to landscape stewardship. It identifies key stakeholders in implementing these pathways and possible collaborations between these stakeholders; the multiple conservation objectives and policies these pathways respond to; and context-specific considerations for policy and implementation related to planting and foraging of WEFs.
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- Date Issued: 2020
The role of non-timber forest products (NTFPs) in the livelihoods of communities in Alfred Nzo District Municipality, Eastern Cape Province
- Authors: Thinyane, Zingisa
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: Non-timber forest products
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MSc
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10353/14737 , vital:40077
- Description: Non-timber forest products (NTFPs) are renewable natural resources which are harvested by local communities from the surrounding homesteads, fields, grazing lands, woodlands, grasslands and natural habitats. The term NTFP may be used in reference to biological products collected from the domesticated land, semidomesticated land or from the wild. This study examined the use of NTFPs in Alfred Nzo District Municipality, Eastern Cape Province, South Africa, assessing their consumption patterns and contribution to the household well-being. Data on NTFP identity and utilization in the study area were gathered through community focus group discussions and household surveys using semi-structured questionnaires between April 2017 and May 2018. A sample of 124 participants selected via snowball-sampling technique provided detailed accounts on diversity and utilization of NTFPs in the study area. A total of 59 species and eight extractable NTFPs were utilized by the communities in Alfred Nzo District Municipality. The identified eight use categories were herbal medicine (39.0%), edible plants and mushroom (18.0%), firewood (11%), bushmeat (10.0%), forage (9.0%), construction material (6.0%), ceremonial uses (2.0%) and others with miscellaneous uses (5.0%). Popular NTFPs with use values exceeding 0.50 include Agapanthus africanus (L.) Hoffmanns, Bulbine latifolia (L.f.) Spreng., Centella asiatica (L.) Urb, Elephantorrhiza elephantina (Burch.) Skeels, Hypoxis hemerocallidea Fisch., C.A. Mey & Avé-Lall and Leonotis leonurus (L.) R. Br., all used as herbal medicines, Agapanthus africanus (L.) (herbal medicine and ornamental), Datura stromonium L. (herbal medicine, forage and firewood), Dicerothamnus rhinocerotis (L.f) Koekemoer (herbal medicine and fumigant), Aepyceros melampus Lichtenstein, Pavo cristatus L., Struthio camelus L. and Xerus inauris Hemprich & Ehnrenberg as bushmeat. Information on diversity, consumption ii patterns and contribution of NTFPs to livelihood needs of households may enable policy makers and government officers to draft policies required for sustainable management of NTFPs.
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- Date Issued: 2019