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Abstract Background Ethnobotanical knowledge about plant roles in fisheries is crucial for sustainable resource management. Local ecological knowledge helps understand dynamics of the lake ecosystem. Fishers use plants based on availability and characteristics while adapting to the changes in the environment. Studying fishery related uses of plants and algae and the challenges interconnected with them from local perspectives can provide insights into their beneficial uses and impacts to the ecosystem. Methods The study investigates the botanical knowledge of three fishing villages in Laguna Lake or Laguna de Bay (LB), Philippines, including Buhangin, Sampiruhan, and Mabato-Azufre, each with varying degrees of industrialization. The ethnobotanical study, which gathered 27 interviews between June 2022 and July 2024, included plant collection with the help of local collaborators, including local fishers as research guides. Results Fishers in LB highlighted positive and negative plant-fishing interactions. The most frequently mentioned plant applications were fish habitat and fish hiding places. Fish food, spawning sites, conservation, and a number of challenges such as navigational concerns and aquaculture fish deaths had been previously reported in local use reports. The remaining observations provide new insights into plant-fishing interactions, including indicators of food quality and food sources for fish, the decrease in the action of waves, and how plants help in improving the quality of the water. Conclusion These results highlight that the knowledge of fishers regarding the ecosystem in which they conduct their fishing activities provides baseline information about the positive and negative relationships between plants and fishing activities in the region, which is vital for further understanding its biodiversity and ecosystem interactions. It is crucial to consider fisher knowledge and involve them as equal partners in conservation efforts of LB.

The Earth’s vital ocean is constantly changing and is at risk due to pollution, overfishing, and climate change (Pörtner et al. 2022). Research highlights the importance of personal attachment to the sea in fostering responsible stewardship (Chawla 2020; Pyle 2003). In urban areas, opportunities for human-nature interactions are limited, making mediated experiences, i.e., indirect interactions a crucial tool for fostering ocean stewardship. Murals, a form of street art, are prevalent in many cities around the world (Schacter and MacDowall 2023) and have been suggested as tools to promote community engagement and raise environmental literacy and awareness (see Mattern 1999; Sanchez et al. 2020; Schneller and Irizarry 2014). Based on the lessons learned from the project “From Sea to Street”, we hypothesise that murals evoke emotions, thoughts and memories, thereby shaping and strengthening people’s connection to the marine environment.

Abstract Fungi have been used for medicinal purposes for many centuries. This study, based on 35 historical written sources and 581 in-depth semi-structured interviews from eight countries in the western borderlands of the former Soviet Union, investigates the medicinal use of fungi by local communities. We compared the taxa and uses obtained from fieldwork and historical sources with works that advocated fungi use within Soviet herbals, representing the centralised medical system. During fieldwork, we identified eight locally used fungi and one lichen. The highest numbers of medicinal uses were documented in Russia, Estonia and Ukraine. Studies published before the Soviet era listed 21 fungal taxa and one lichen species used in the study region. However, only six of these taxa were mentioned as used by people in our field studies (Amanita muscaria, Boletus edulis, Lycoperdon, Morchella, Phallus impudicus and Cetraria islandica). Notably, these same six taxa were consistently endorsed in Soviet herbals. Of the remaining three taxa recorded in the fieldwork, none were mentioned in historical written sources. However, they were promoted either in Soviet herbals (Inonotus obliquus, Kombucha) or later popular publications (Cantharellus cibarius). This highlights the significant influence of written sources on the use of fungi for medicinal purposes within the studied local communities.

Abstract Background Ethnobotanical knowledge about the role of plants in fisheries provides valuable ecological information vital for sustainable management of local resources; however, it is diluted and understudied globally. This literature review aims to map the knowledge of plant use within traditional fishing communities. Methods Through the PRISMA method, we identified and selected 34 articles reporting the use of plants in fisheries, and including 344 taxa of plants and algae. Uses of plants and algae were grouped into different categories. Results In the novel categorization of fishery-related uses we proposed, the most mentioned were for fishing and building/repair of fishing artifacts and habitat-related uses, while the records of plants related to fiber uses, providing aid in fishing management and species causing problems, were among the least mentioned. Semi-structured interview is most commonly used with local resource users, especially fishery experts, in exploring perceptions on plant use within traditional fishing communities. Diversity was high in all the recorded families, but most were reported locally. Conclusion Ethnobotanical studies with fishers are not common in the documented literature but they provide a large number of use reports. On the basis this review, in most of the world, the information is of a casual and sporadic nature. Fishers can provide information on aquatic plants and algae that create problems and aid in fishing management, which are crucial in understanding the ecosystem of a region experiencing environmental challenges. This knowledge is greatly understudied globally and undergoing a rapid decline, as highlighted in several of the reviewed articles. Thus, further systematic research on fishery-related uses of plants by fisherfolk is needed considering its potential contribution to the sustainable management of fishery resources.

IntroductionForests play a crucial role in the lives of millions of people worldwide by providing material and non-material contributions. Despite forests’ paramount importance from ecological, economic, and cultural perspectives, the long-term relationship between forests and local communities living in their proximity is often an undervalued contribution to our understanding of local ecological knowledge systems and forest changes.MethodsWe studied the interrelationships between the Mandinka peoples and forests in an understudied area of West Africa, the Gambia’s Lower River Region (LRR). Through 35 semi-structured interviews, we documented the forests’ contributions to local Mandinka peoples and their perception of forest changes. We also used geographic information systems (GIS software) for remote sensing satellite imagery to establish a baseline for these complex connections and changes.ResultsThis research revealed the crucial importance of the forest’s contributions to Mandinka communities and specifically to their psychological well-being. In addition, the interviewees revealed how ongoing socio-economic changes are affecting the human-forest relationship and possibly eroding the local ethnoforestry knowledge in the LRR of the Gambia. The most common forest contributions are those that provide material goods, serving as the driving force in connecting people with the forest, while non-material contributions are eroding due to complex socio-economic changes. Major socio-economic changes are also believed to drive the shift from dense forest to mixed forest and grassland.DiscussionIn line with the state of the art, the knowledge and perception of changes documented in this article underline the quintessential need to include local communities’ views in shaping forest management, in order to better fine-tune the strategies to safeguard biocultural diversity across forest areas.

Abstract Several coastal communities rely heavily on wild-caught fish for personal consumption and their livelihoods, thus being sensitive to the rapid global change affecting fish availability. However, in the last century, aquaculture has been increasingly adopted. To understand the uses and changes of wild-caught fish, we conducted 30 semi-structured interviews with fishers of Laguna Lake, Philippines. Fishermen, with up to 60 years’ experience, reported catching 31 fish species as a staple food. The taxa with the greatest variety of food uses were the farmed Oreochromis aureus, and the wild Channa striata and Cyprinus carpio. Fish was boiled, fried, grilled and dried, and over 20 different local dishes were reported. Fishers reported that local communities previously relied more on wild fish, while today a greater proportion of consumed fish comes from aquaculture fish species such as Oreochromis aureus and Hypophthalmichthys nobilis. Wild fish remains a crucial aspect of local gastronomic diversity, underpinning the biodiversity of the Laguna Lake, while also representing an important element for food sovereignty. The study stresses the need to sustain local ecological knowledge to ensure the ecological, social and economic sustainability of the communities.

Works on historical ethnobotany can help shed light on past plant uses and humankind’s relationships with the environment. We analyzed medicinal plant uses from the historical regions of Livonia and Courland in Northeast Europe based on three studies published within the 19th century by medical doctors researching local ethnomedicine. The sources were manually searched, and information extracted and entered into a database. In total, there were 603 detailed reports of medicinal plant use, which refer to 219 taxa belonging to 69 families and one unidentified local taxon. Dominant families were Asteraceae (14%), Solanaceae (7%), Rosaceae (6%), and Apiaceae (5%). The majority of use reports were attributed to the treatment of four disease categories: digestive (24%), skin (22%), respiratory (11%), and general (11%). The small overlapping portion (14 taxa mentioned by all three authors and another 27 taxa named by two authors) contained a high proportion of taxa (46%) mentioned in Dioscorides, which were widespread during that period in scholarly practice. Despite the shared flora, geographical vicinity, and culturally similar backgrounds, the medicinal use of plants in historical Courland and Livonia showed high biocultural diversity and reliance on wild taxa. We encourage researchers to study and re-evaluate the historical ethnobotanical literature and provide some suggestions on how to do this effectively.

This report aims to enhance our understanding of stakeholder mapping for co-created citizen science initiatives. It presents and discusses findings from an international two-day stakeholder mapping workshop with researchers, event organizers, communication experts, and artists realizing citizen science activities. Participants identified examples of co-creation in their work and mapped stakeholders for three co-creation initiatives from the “Doing It Together Science” project. For each case, we provide an overview of the stakeholder groups involved and the lessons derived from identifying actual and potential stakeholders in different phases of each activity and using different ways for mapping them. We demonstrate that not only stakeholder mapping can be diverse, but it may take different angles depending on the characteristics and project timescales, nevertheless adding significant value to any project. We argue that a better understanding of stakeholder involvement may contribute to more effective stakeholder communication, more successful implementation, and a greater impact for citizen science initiatives.

Local ecological knowledge (LEK), including but not limited to the use of wild food plants, plays a large role in sustainable natural resource management schemes, primarily due to the synergy between plants and people. There are calls for the study of LEK in culturally diverse areas due to a loss of knowledge, the active practice of utilizing wild plants in various parts of the world, and a decline in biodiversity. An ethnobotanical study in a border region of Latvia, characterised by diverse natural landscapes and people with deep spiritual attachments to nature, provided an opportunity for such insight, as well as the context to analyse wild food plant usages among different sociocultural groups, allowing us to explore the differences among these groups. Semi-structured interviews were carried out as part of a wider ethnobotanical field study to obtain information about wild food plants and their uses. The list of wild food plant uses, derived from 72 interviews, revealed a high level of homogenisation (in regards to knowledge) among the study groups, and that many local uses of wild food plants are still actively practiced. People did not gather plants as a recreational activity but rather as a source of diet diversification. The results provide evidence of the importance of safeguarding ecological and cultural diversity due to high local community dependency on natural resources.

Abstract Ethnobiology and ethnomedicine investigate the continuously changing complex and inextricable relations among culture, nature, and health. Since the emergence of modern ethnobiology a few decades ago, its essence and mission have been the study of biocultural diversities and the centers of its inquiries have been and are local communities and their co-evolutionary interrelationships between natural environments and social systems. At the core of ethnobiologists’ work there are not only conceptualizations of and reflections on others' views about nature and the universe, but also a robust commitment to advocacy in defense of these assemblages of local ecological knowledge, practices, and beliefs (LEK). Homogenization processes and therefore erosion of LEK have occurred throughout history in different ways: from colonialism to industrialization, and from financialization to globalization; however, we cannot forget the role played by centripetal states and even dictatorships in this process, nor the associated political ideology of nationalism, which has often elicited and justified policies aimed at standardizing diversities within state borders. Our research groups have been working since eight years together with local communities in Ukrainian rural areas and documented a remarkable erosion of LEK during the Soviet times, yet an extraordinary surviving biocultural diversity occurs; the ongoing military occupation of Ukraine could further threaten this heritage. While citizens’ attention now should be on effectively supporting those who are experiencing hardships during this traumatic time, ethnobiologists will be called hopefully soon to directly participate in rebuilding the biocultural “cobwebs” damaged by the military operations.