Fruits of the Veld: Ecological and Socioeconomic Patterns of Natural Resource Use across South Africa
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Fruits of the Veld: Ecological and Socioeconomic Patterns of Natural Resource Use across South Africa Mallika Sardeshpande 1
&
Charlie Shackleton 1
Accepted: 11 October 2020 # Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract Wild edible fruits (WEFs) are important non-timber forest products (NTFP) that are commonly grouped with other wild foods or NTFPs in general. We hypothesize that WEFs, other wild foods, and non-food NTFPs contribute in different ways to household economies. Using data collected through a survey of 503 households in South Africa, we describe patterns of use of WEFs across socioeconomic and geographical gradients and compare them to the patterns of use of other wild foods and non-food NTFPs. WEFs were used by one-fifth of all sampled households, independent of economic and urbanisation gradients and were grown in or collected mostly from surrounding areas. More households, usually in rural areas, used other wild foods and non-food NTFPs, which were often purchased from other collectors. We suggest improving access to WEFs through planting to extend their nutritional, medicinal, cultural, and livelihood value to the public. Keywords Natural resources . Non-timber forest products . Socioeconomic survey . Urbanisation gradient . Wealth . Wild edible fruits . Wild foods . Biomes . South Africa
Introduction Non-timber forest products (NTFPs) contribute significantly to human well-being and livelihoods around the world (Angelsen et al. 2014; Wunder et al. 2014a). These wild resources, often extracted from but not restricted to forests, provide food, shelter, fuel, medicine, as well as other utility and cultural values (Shackleton et al. 2011). Beneficiaries of NTFP trade range from vulnerable sections of society such as those affected by climatic, economic, or political shocks (Adam et al. 2013; Woittiez et al. 2013; Weyer et al. 2018), to traders and intermediaries in widespread, well-established supply chains and networks (Brokamp et al. 2011; Sakai et al. 2016; da Silva et al. 2017). Wild foods are an important subset Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s10745-020-00185-x) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. * Mallika Sardeshpande [email protected] Charlie Shackleton [email protected] 1
Department of Environmental Science, Rhodes University, Makhanda (Grahamstown) 6140, South Africa
of NTFPs, including bushmeat (Ingram et al. 2010; Nasi et al. 2011), honey, wild fungi (Vaughan et al. 2013; Shrestha and Bawa 2014), wild edible plants (Turner et al. 2011; Termote et al. 2012), and wild edible fruits (WEFs). WEFs are among the most widely used type of wild foods and NTFPs (Hickey et al. 2016; Welcome and Van Wyk 2019), but while other wild foods such as leafy vegetables and mushrooms are wellstudied, literature specific to WEFs is limited (Sardeshpande and Shackleton 2019). In terms of nutritional value, pharmaceutical studies have found many WEFs to be rich
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