The Milliennium Ecosystem Assessment identifies four classes of ecosystem services: supporting, regulating, provisioning, and cultural. Economic values have been calculated for supporting and regulating services in many cities. Provisioning and cultural ecosystem services have gone largely unexamined. A small but growing body of literature indicates human foraging for plant materials in urban environments supports material and cultural wellbeing in cities throughout the world. Drawing on this literature and that demonstrating the contributions of urban community gardens to social-ecological memory and resilience, we undertook research on foraging in New York, New York by two immigrant communities: Chinese/Chinese American and Mexican residents. Using semi-structured interviews conducted in interviewees’ preferred language (Cantonese, English, Mandarin, or Spanish) and participant observation, we sought to answer the questions: What species and spaces are foraged? What knowledge supports these practices? and What is their significance for foragers? In particular, we examined the qualitative contributions of foraging to household consumption and wellbeing in the face of novel ecologies and the dislocations of migration.
Results/Conclusions
Results show 44 and 27 species foraged by members of the Chinese/Chinese American and Mexican communities, respectively, nearly all for food and/or health support. A majority of species foraged by each community may be characterized as weedy. However, there is little overlap in the species sought by the two groups. Urban green spaces in which foraging occurs include parks, sidewalks, vacant lots, and institutional campuses. The majority of individuals in our sample learned to forage from older family members in their country of origin but some also rely on less traditional information sources. For many, foraging is a means of staying connected to or renewing connections with family and culture, as well as with nature. Contributions to wellbeing include motivation to exercise and reduced feelings of sadness and depression.
Our results show urban green infrastructure is a source of provisioning and cultural ecosystem services, which contribute to the physical and emotional wellbeing of city residents. We identify four opportunities for future research, policy, and management: (1) valuing provisioning and cultural ecosystem services, (2) evaluating the risks and benefits of consuming plants and fungi foraged in urban areas, (3) sustainable, just governance of these practices, and (4) design and management to enhance provisioning and cultural ecosystem services.