Wild foods are an important part of indigenous cultural heritage and identity. Harvesting wild foods connects indigenous communities to the land and fosters responsibility for caring for ecosystems and species. However, some policies discourage traditional practices like shifting cultivation, hunting, and gathering of wild foods and promote industrial agriculture instead. This can undermine indigenous food systems and threaten food security and access to traditional diets for some communities in places like Ethiopia, Indonesia, and Tanzania. Overall, land use and conservation policies need to be more attentive to indigenous food practices and rights.

1. Wild foods as cultural heritage and cultural
ecosystem services in Indigenous Food Systems
Bronwen Powell
Pennsylvania State University, USA

2. • Wild foods are not only healthy nutritious options,
they are also cultural important, providing:
• Cultural ecosystem service
• Intangible cultural heritage
• Harvesting wild food is linked to attachment to place
and thus cultural identity (Richmond et al. 2005; Loring and
Gerlach 2009; Urquhart and Acott 2014).
The harvesting of wild food, and the act of caring for the land or water during harvesting is central to the strong attachment to place that many comm

3. Kyle Powys Whyte and other Indigenous scholars and
activities note that:
Indigenous relationships with ecosystems, places, and all
species are an interwoven set of responsibilities that
foster the collective continuance of all species, including
people.
East Usambara Mountains, Tanzania

4. The Gumuz people of Ethiopia:
• Unlike most other communities in Ethiopia, consume a lot of wild
foods (e.g. bamboo shoots)
• Locally preferred traditional lablab bean thrives in shifting
cultivation, now discouraged/ banned
• Hunting, although illegal, remains common in west Ethiopia (Erena
et al. 2020). High rates of livestock disease and low access to
extension services, mean loss of wild could have sig. implications
Gumuz woman collecting bamboo shoots, Ethiopia

5. Indigenous communities of Papua, Indonesia:
• Traditional diet based on sago and wild fish and meat
• State narratives about “food security” heavily focused on rice,
forest land seen as “unproductive”
• Increased production of oil palm in the region has led to influx of
non-Indigenous people and greater access to processed foods
Emilina, with fishing pole, sago palms in background, Papua Province, Indonesia

6. • Indigenous and minority communities around the world are
vulnerable to policies that are not attentive to the unique
aspects of their food systems
• Land-use and conservation policy has, and continues to, infringe
of the right to food for many Indigenous communities (Holen 2004;
Sylvester et al. 2016, Sunderland 2020; Turner and Curran forthcoming).
Thank You!
Bronwen Powell: bxp15@psu.edu