ABSTRACT

The article fills the gap in the geographical literature on foraging in a Central and Eastern European context. Its goals are to investigate the extent and character of foraging practice and the population of foragers in Czechia, as well as to uncover what motivates the practice of foraging for non-timber forest products. A mixed methods approach was used in the reported study, which combined the triangulation of data from official statistics, three waves of a representative data survey, and a case study of mushroom pickers in Prague, the capital city of Czechia. The results show that foraging is a widespread practice in Czechia with stable but fluctuating harvest volumes. Czechs gather mainly mushrooms and edible berries. The results also show that foraging is a traditional practice of people with different demographic characteristics and from diverse socio-economic backgrounds, with a myriad of diverse motivations and connotations far from mere economic ones. Strolling outside in the fresh air and in forests is clearly a dominant motive. Thus, the author concludes that foraging in Czechia is far from being limited to livelihood strategies to tackle food insecurity.

摘要

本文填补了中欧和东欧背景下有关觅食的地理文献中的空白。它的目标是调查捷克共和国觅食活动的程度和特征以及觅食者的数量，并找出激发非木材林产品觅食活动的动机。在报告的研究中使用了一种混合方法方法，该方法结合了官方统计数据的三角剖分，三波代表性数据调查以及捷克首都捷克首都布拉格的蘑菇采摘者案例研究。结果表明，在捷克共和国，觅食是一种普遍的做法，收获量稳定但波动。捷克人主要采集蘑菇和食用浆果。研究结果还表明，觅食是具有不同人口特征和不同社会经济背景的人们的传统习俗，其动机和内涵远远超出了单纯的经济动机。在新鲜空气和森林中漫步显然是主要动机。因此，作者得出结论，在捷克共和国，觅食绝不仅限于解决粮食不安全的生计策略。