Wild Foods - The Oxford Topic of Food, Politics, and Society - page 481

rural communities (Boa 2004). A total of 1,069 species of wild edible fungi are used as
food worldwide (820 of them for food alone; 249 for food and medicine combined).
Edible non-timber forest products (NTFPs) are a particularly important food
resource in tropical and subtropical regions (MEA 2005). Bushmeat and fish, for
example, provide 20 percent of protein in at least sixty developing countries (Bennet
and Robinson, 2000), and in rural areas there is a significant relationship between food
security and the contribution of NTFPs to households.
Ethnobotanical surveys of even relatively small samples of respondents can yield sur-
prisingly high numbers of species used. In addition, researchers also note that wild species
have diverse uses: 80 percent of 62 wild food plants consumed in Nepal have multiple uses
(Shrestha and Dhillon 2006). Johns et al. (1996) found that the 44 edible species reported
by the Batemi, a group of agro-pastoralists in Tanzania, are used variously as food (31 spe-
cies), as thirst quenchers (6 species), for chewing (7 species), as flavorants (2 species) and
for the preparation of honey beer (1 species). A further 35 wild food and beverage plants
are cultivated. In the Mekong Delta and central Vietnamese Highlands, several wild food
species are also used as medicine and livestock feed—a fifth of them are used for all three
purposes (Ogle et al., 2003). Within a group of five wild plants traditionally used by tribal
communities in India's Satpura hills, Jagtap et al. (2010) identify six different uses: medi-
cine for a variety of ailments, food, tonics, aphrodisiacs, fodder, and green manure.
Estimates of numbers of species used should be subject to two caveats. First, averages do
not reflect differences in wild food use between social groups, between individuals of dif-
ferent ages, or seasonal differences in availability. Second, numerical estimates of diver-
sity do not fully capture the social and cultural value that such diversity entails. Jain (2000,
459) states, “Faith, tradition, taboos and several such associations with forests and particular
plant species have helped in conservation of plant diversity. The richness of plant diversity in
any area is not evaluated merely by the number of species occurring there, but by the inten-
sity of associations and dependence of the indigenous communities on that plant wealth.”
We summarize evidence on the use of wild species in Tables 19.3 to 19.5. From 31
studies in 20 countries of Asia and Africa (Tables 19.3 and 19.4), the mean use of wild
foods (discounting country- or continent-wide aggregates) is 92 species per place and
community group. Individual country estimates can reach 300-800 species (India,

Table 19.3 The diversity of species of wild foods used in selected countries of Asia

Country Area characteristics Number of species References

Bangladesh Floodplain rice farming

communities

171 Mazhar et al. 2007

Cambodia Rice field agroecosystem,

lower Mekong basin

20 Shams et al. (n.d. )

Cambodia Rice field agroecosystem,

Tonle Sap, Mekong basin

102 Balzer et al. 2002

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