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.

Domestication of new plants is one of the key (ongoing) phenomena in the history of agriculture. Wild plants are the ancestors of current and future crops and the largest reservoir of genetic diversity for crop breeding and improvement. Wild food species have been used for human nutrition since ancient times and are often the object of human strategies for coping with emergency situations, such as natural disasters and conflicts. We analyzed qualitative data collected through ethnobotanical field studies conducted in recent years in five selected Eurasian regions (Afghanistan, Kurdistan region of Iraq, Pakistan, Syria, and Ukraine) that have been recently affected by wars and/or socio-political turbulence. Data were collected through participant observation and semi-structured interviews with local people. We identified five taxa for each region, which are culturally very salient in the local food systems, that retain an important economic value in local markets, and that, therefore, could be good candidates for becoming novel crops. The cultivation of the reported species may significantly help local communities in their post-war livelihoods and especially in terms of food security and domestic nutritional care. Future studies should focus on the agronomic feasibility of the highlighted species within their regional ecosystems.

The study of migrants’ ethnobotany can help to address the diverse socio-ecological factors affecting temporal and spatial changes in local ecological knowledge (LEK). Through semi-structured and in-depth conversations with ninety interviewees among local Pathans and Afghan refugees in Kohat District, NW Pakistan, one hundred and forty-five wild plant and mushroom folk taxa were recorded. The plants quoted by Afghan refugees living inside and outside the camps tend to converge, while the Afghan data showed significant differences with those collected by local Pakistani Pathans. Interviewees mentioned two main driving factors potentially eroding folk plant knowledge: (a) recent stricter border policies have made it more difficult for refugees to visit their home regions in Afghanistan and therefore to also procure plants in their native country; (b) their disadvantaged economic conditions have forced them to engage more and more in urban activities in the host country, leaving little time for farming and foraging practices. Stakeholders should foster the exposure that refugee communities have to their plant resources, try to increase their socio-economic status, and facilitate both their settling outside the camps and their transnational movement for enhancing their use of wild plants, ultimately leading to improvements in their food security and health status.

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Background: This survey is the first extensive and large-scale spice plant assessment in four different spices marketplaces of district Bannu, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. The study offers the first significant catalog of spice prices, the chain of collection, production, trade pattern and consumption. Methods: Consultation, personal observations, and group discussions with 90 informants (10% women and 90% male) using semi-structured questionnaires were conducted.Results: A total of 45 spice taxa belonging to 21 families were documented. The data were examined using various ethnoecological indices such as UV (Use Value), RFC (Relative Frequency of Citation), UR (Use Report), and CIV (Cultural Importance Value). Amongst all the taxa, the plant having the highest Use Value were Coriandrum sativum (0.783), used as Anti-cholesterol and carminative, Ocimum basilicum (0.742) for kidney problems, insomnia, and snake bites, and Piper nigrum (0.732) for cough. The UV ranged from 0.07 (Mangifera indica) to 0.78 (Coriandrum sativum). The most used spices plant parts were fruits (35.56%), trailed by seeds (28.89%), leaves (11.11%), bulb, bark, and rhizome (4.44%). RFC ranged from 0.16 (Mangifera indica) to (Coriandrum sativum) 0.82. The maximum RFC value was documented for Coriandrum sativum (0.822), trailed by Papaver somniferum (0.788), Cuminum cyminum, Ocimum basilicum, and Piper nigrum (0.777) each. Curcuma longa (0.65) had the maximum mCI (mean Cultural Importance) while the Mangifera indica (0.04) had the lowest. The majority off spice plants parts traded was imported (41 species, 91.11%) from India, China, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iran, Brazil, and Nepal. Most of them were transported from Pakistan from different cities and provinces in Pakistan like Lahore, Karachi, Faisalabad, Gilgit, Peshawar, Quetta, and Multan into district Bannu. The minimum number of spice plants (8 species, 17.77%) were collected or cultivated locally. The spices plant having the highest trade price per kg (PKR 525000, US$ 3365) was Crocus sativus which is imported from Gilgit-Baltistan and China, while the lowest trade price was documented for Allium sativum (PKR 75, US$ 0.4) which is imported and also grown locally.Conclusions: The current study suggests that more detailed research would be highly interesting, as the district is well known for spices and medicinal plants.