Landscape Ethnoecology of Forest Food Harvesting in the Talamanca Bribri Indigenous Territory,Costa Rica

Abstract

There is a vast literature on Bribri people's food harvesting, but this literature has largely overlooked how Bribri people interpret their food harvesting practices. Using a landscape ethnoecology approach, we worked with Bribri colleagues to describe forest food harvesting in one community (Bajo Coen) within the Talamanca Bribri Indigenous Territory in Costa Rica. Sylvester spent nine months living and harvesting food with Bribri people, and carried out semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions to gather information. Our study revealed that harvesting food requires interacting with non-human beings to ensure harvesting is respectful of other Bribri worlds and Sibö's (the Creator) teachings. We also illustrate how harvesting and cultivating food in the forest is important to keep the land alive. Our study further revealed how farm and forest land patches are linked through Bribri harvesting. People plant cultivated species in forests and transplant wild species into farms. These practices are important to access food, to encourage animals in spaces near dwellings, and to keep the land alive. Lastly, we illustrate spatial and temporal links among the following activities: 1) polyculture and wild harvesting (of both plants and animals), 2) shifting agriculture and harvesting wild edible greens, and 3) hunting and harvesting wild greens. Our results are relevant to forest management because we provide information about Bribri harvesting practices that forest managers have committed to supporting but have reported lacking the information to do so.