Socio-spatial dynamics in the use of wild natural resources: Evidence from six rapidly growing medium-sized cities in Africa

Urban Foraging: A Ubiquitous Human Practice Overlooked by Urban Planners, Policy, and Research

“…Hunter-gatherers, past and present, obviously relied on foraging, but so did (and often do) settled farming communities, whether to supplement their own consumption or for small-scale trade [14]. The harvesting of wild resources in rural areas is relatively well known, as described for the developed world from several countries in Europe [15][16][17], and for the developing world in areas such as India and sub-Saharan Africa [4,[18][19][20][21]. Foraging in rural areas is done by rural residents as well as people living in towns and cities, as exemplified by studies on the harvesting of berries and mushrooms in Finland [22], a variety of non-timber forest products in Scotland [23], and multiple edible species in Argentina [24], among many other examples.…”

“…These ecological dynamics are affected by social processes, along with the direct and indirect effects of climate change on species prevalence and abundance [48]. In addition to the conversion of greenspace to hardscape [21,32], remaining greenspaces may be privatised or reconceptualised as spaces for non-consumptive recreation and nature watching, resulting in the closure of de facto commons where foraging previously occurred unhindered [49,50]. Clark and Nicholas [51] surveyed 30 urban forestry master plans from North America and found an underlying prioritisation of wildlife habitat over food security that shapes urban forest planning in most cities.…”

“…The length of residence in the city may affect foraging behaviour, where an individual forager may fall anywhere on a temporal continuum from episodic and recent to permanent and multigenerational. Thus, some urban foragers are intra-and international migrants recently settled in the city, while others are nomadic peoples whose annual cycle of movement includes time spent in the city [37], and still others are long-term or lifetime residents [21,37,46]. In many cities, children and adolescents are active participants in foraging activities, either in peer groups foraging together or with adults, and they may also be targeted as students by urban ecology or urban agricultural and food growing programmes in formal educational institutions.…”

“…At any given time, individuals and communities of foragers may obtain multiple benefits from foraging in urban environments, including resources for self-provision, sale to provide supplemental income, ceremonial or spiritual observations, and a sense of peace and well-being. In addition to this multifunctionality, at any one time, the relative magnitude and importance of values also may change over individuals' and households' lifetimes [21,42] in response to factors such as natural disasters and armed conflict [53]. Understanding the dynamics of urban foraging's values in relation to household livelihoods and external contexts is a fruitful area for future research.…”

“…In the developing world, research has clearly demonstrated that poor urban communities make use of products from trees and other plants growing in or at the fringe of urban areas. Examples range from several studies in South Africa [20,31] to towns in Zimbabwe [34], Botswana [35], Tanzania and Cameroon [21]; Kampala in Uganda [4], Santa Cruz in Bolivia [36], and Bangalore in India [37]. The plants or plant parts that these studies show are commonly collected have a wide range of uses, including: berries or fruit for home consumption or sale; leaves, roots, and bark for medicines; poles for construction; and reeds for craft.…”