| Abstract Detail
The Hills are Alive: Ecology and Evolution of the Intermountain West Flora Ahmed, Selena [1], Dupuis, Virgil [2], Smith, Erin [1], Warne, Teresa [1]. Conservation for Nutrition: Importance of Conserving Wild Edible Plant Habitat for Food Security, Cultural Identity, and Planetary Health in the Northern Rocky Mountains. Habitat loss poses a threat to all species, including to food security for humans. Wild edible plants contribute to food security and sustainable diets globally through enhancing the availability of local, diverse, and nutrient-dense food sources. Here, we present the concept of "conservation for nutrition": the need to conserve wild habitats and associated traditional ecological knowledge, values, and relationships that communities have with wild food environments for supporting food security and nutrition. We present this concept drawing on two case studies regarding the contribution of wild edible plants to diets, food security, and cultural identity through interviews in tribal and rural communities in the Northern Rocky Mountains of Montana. Findings indicate that communities harvest a diversity of wild edible plants from surrounding wild food environments for multiple purposes and values including: (1) being a traditional practice linked to cultural identity; (2) contribution to dietary quality; (3) sensory attributes including taste and freshness and; (4) providing a sense of self-sufficiency for food sovereignty. Interview and survey findings further suggest that wild edible plants are vulnerable to global change on the basis of perceptions and experiences of study participants including adverse impacts from climate change and land-use change. We conclude with recommendations for community-based strategies and policies to conserve biocultural resources that foster the transmission of wild plant knowledge and practices toward enhancing food sovereignty in rural and tribal communities in the context of global change for supporting both human and planetary health.
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1 - Montana State University
2 - Salish Kootenai College
Keywords:
Planetary Health.
Presentation Type: Symposium Presentation
Session: SY5, The Hills are Alive: Ecology and Evolution of the Intermountain West Flora
Location: /
Date: Thursday, July 22nd, 2021
Time: 12:30 PM(EDT)
Number: SY5007
Abstract ID:769
Candidate for Awards:None |
