Version 1
: Received: 20 April 2017 / Approved: 21 April 2017 / Online: 21 April 2017 (12:18:11 CEST)
Version 2
: Received: 24 May 2017 / Approved: 24 May 2017 / Online: 24 May 2017 (17:01:57 CEST)
Serra, R.; Rodrigues, E.; García-Barrios, R. Mushrooming Communities: A Field Guide to Mycology in the Community Forests of Portugal. Sustainability2017, 9, 924.
Serra, R.; Rodrigues, E.; García-Barrios, R. Mushrooming Communities: A Field Guide to Mycology in the Community Forests of Portugal. Sustainability 2017, 9, 924.
Serra, R.; Rodrigues, E.; García-Barrios, R. Mushrooming Communities: A Field Guide to Mycology in the Community Forests of Portugal. Sustainability2017, 9, 924.
Serra, R.; Rodrigues, E.; García-Barrios, R. Mushrooming Communities: A Field Guide to Mycology in the Community Forests of Portugal. Sustainability 2017, 9, 924.
Abstract
Forest community connections are crucial to ensure forest stewardship and sustainability. We explored the potential of mushrooming to enable such connections in contexts where these connections have been historically broken, alienating local people from forests. Taking the case of the recent devolution of a community forest (baldios) in central Portugal to the local population, we present a five-year pilot project to rework mycology from a mushroom-centered approach to a mushroom-in-baldios approach. Mushrooms were used as an entry-point to connect the forest ecology with the challenges of governance and community building. The devised activities provided an opportunity for people inside and outside the local community to adventure into the woods and find out more about their socio-ecological history, develop communal and convivial relationships and engage in the responsible gathering of wild mushrooms. However, the hosting of mushroomers to know, value and engage with the community forest recovery has constantly working against the enclosure of mushrooms to provide marketable forms of leisure. The outcome of these activities depends on the relationships established between mushrooms, mycologists, local administrators, commoners and poachers, all operating within a framework that favors the eradication of resources instead of long-term relationships that sustain places.
Keywords
common lands; baldios; wild mushrooms; non-timber forest products; Portugal; community; community forestry; forest governance
Subject
Biology and Life Sciences, Forestry
Copyright:
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
