Wild Food Harvesting and Access by Household and Generation in the Talamanca Bribri Indigenous Territory, Costa Rica

Abstract

We contribute to a growing body of literature on wild food harvesting by examining culturally specific relationships with wild food, the extent and frequency of wild food use in forests, and young people’s wild food consumption. We gathered qualitative data in the Talamanca Bribri Territory, Costa Rica, using participant observation, interviews, and household surveys. We found that wild food consumption was related to nutrition, health, religious beliefs, identity, dietary variety, and resource availability. Consumption occurred in all households and its frequency depended upon opportunities to harvest and/or access to sharing networks. In all households, younger members consumed wild plants and in most households they also ate wild meat. All households harvested their own plants but not all households harvested their own meat. Consequently, sharing was relatively more common for meat than plants. Lastly, sharing was important for older and younger generations and women who lacked opportunities to harvest food due to health, time, school, and work constraints. Our results can be used to design forest management policies that respect community access to wild food.