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Foods from the wild: Local knowledge, use pattern and distribution in Western Nepal

Locally harvested wild edible plants (WEPs) provide food as well as cash income for indigenous peoples and local communities, and they are of great importance in ensuring local food security. However, their uses and availability are poorly documented. This study aimed to enumerate WEP diversity and...

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Autores principales: Khakurel, Dhruba, Uprety, Yadav, Łuczaj, Łukasz, Rajbhandary, Sangeeta
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8530312/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34673823
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0258905
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author Khakurel, Dhruba
Uprety, Yadav
Łuczaj, Łukasz
Rajbhandary, Sangeeta
author_facet Khakurel, Dhruba
Uprety, Yadav
Łuczaj, Łukasz
Rajbhandary, Sangeeta
author_sort Khakurel, Dhruba
collection PubMed
description Locally harvested wild edible plants (WEPs) provide food as well as cash income for indigenous peoples and local communities, and they are of great importance in ensuring local food security. However, their uses and availability are poorly documented. This study aimed to enumerate WEP diversity and status of WEPs in a part of the Annapurna Conservation Area, Sikles region, where the population is dominated by the Gurung community. Ethnobotanical data were collected using guided field walks, semi-structured interviews, and field observation. The informant consensus method was employed and group discussions were conducted for triangulation of the information. Free listing and identification tests were performed to assess the knowledge of the informants. Both descriptive statistics and quantitative ethnobotanical methods were used for data analysis. A total of 72 wild food species belonging to 46 families and 61 genera were reported from the study area. Asparagaceae and Rosaceae were the dominant families, and herbs were the dominant life form. Fruits (34 species) were the most frequently used plant parts, followed by young shoots (16 species). Most edible plants were consumed in summer and during rainy seasons. While the age and type of informants had an influence on the number of enumerated plants, gender did not. Key informants and people aged 30–45 reported more species than other groups of respondents. Most of the knowledge about the use of WEPs was acquired from parents and relatives. The consumption of these plants was attributed to diversifying cuisine, spicing staple food, nutri-medicinal values, and cultural practices. People perceived the availability of WEPs to be gradually decreasing. However, WEPs are still abundant and diverse in the study area, and knowledge on their use is well-preserved. These resources provide food and nutrients to local people and can also be a source of cash income. Therefore, the documented information on WEPs may serve as baseline data for further studies on nutritional values and provide guidelines for safe collection. The results also revealed that many wild species are under growing pressure from various anthropogenic factors, suggesting effective community engagement is required for their conservation.
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spelling pubmed-85303122021-10-22 Foods from the wild: Local knowledge, use pattern and distribution in Western Nepal Khakurel, Dhruba Uprety, Yadav Łuczaj, Łukasz Rajbhandary, Sangeeta PLoS One Research Article Locally harvested wild edible plants (WEPs) provide food as well as cash income for indigenous peoples and local communities, and they are of great importance in ensuring local food security. However, their uses and availability are poorly documented. This study aimed to enumerate WEP diversity and status of WEPs in a part of the Annapurna Conservation Area, Sikles region, where the population is dominated by the Gurung community. Ethnobotanical data were collected using guided field walks, semi-structured interviews, and field observation. The informant consensus method was employed and group discussions were conducted for triangulation of the information. Free listing and identification tests were performed to assess the knowledge of the informants. Both descriptive statistics and quantitative ethnobotanical methods were used for data analysis. A total of 72 wild food species belonging to 46 families and 61 genera were reported from the study area. Asparagaceae and Rosaceae were the dominant families, and herbs were the dominant life form. Fruits (34 species) were the most frequently used plant parts, followed by young shoots (16 species). Most edible plants were consumed in summer and during rainy seasons. While the age and type of informants had an influence on the number of enumerated plants, gender did not. Key informants and people aged 30–45 reported more species than other groups of respondents. Most of the knowledge about the use of WEPs was acquired from parents and relatives. The consumption of these plants was attributed to diversifying cuisine, spicing staple food, nutri-medicinal values, and cultural practices. People perceived the availability of WEPs to be gradually decreasing. However, WEPs are still abundant and diverse in the study area, and knowledge on their use is well-preserved. These resources provide food and nutrients to local people and can also be a source of cash income. Therefore, the documented information on WEPs may serve as baseline data for further studies on nutritional values and provide guidelines for safe collection. The results also revealed that many wild species are under growing pressure from various anthropogenic factors, suggesting effective community engagement is required for their conservation. Public Library of Science 2021-10-21 /pmc/articles/PMC8530312/ /pubmed/34673823 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0258905 Text en © 2021 Khakurel et al https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Khakurel, Dhruba
Uprety, Yadav
Łuczaj, Łukasz
Rajbhandary, Sangeeta
Foods from the wild: Local knowledge, use pattern and distribution in Western Nepal
title Foods from the wild: Local knowledge, use pattern and distribution in Western Nepal
title_full Foods from the wild: Local knowledge, use pattern and distribution in Western Nepal
title_fullStr Foods from the wild: Local knowledge, use pattern and distribution in Western Nepal
title_full_unstemmed Foods from the wild: Local knowledge, use pattern and distribution in Western Nepal
title_short Foods from the wild: Local knowledge, use pattern and distribution in Western Nepal
title_sort foods from the wild: local knowledge, use pattern and distribution in western nepal
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8530312/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34673823
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0258905
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