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How Managing for Chestnut Honey in Turkey Salvages Trees and Lifeways under Increasing Exotic Pest and Disease Pressure

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Abstract

We utilize a dataset generated by 17 months of fieldwork, including tree health surveys and ethnobotanical questionnaires, to explore a participant-generated hypothesis that coppiced-tree honey collection is eclipsing nut collection as a strategy for the maintenance of chestnut landscapes in the face of increasingly severe pest and disease pressure. We explore this local hypothesis through quantitative analysis of a combined geographic, physiological, and ethnobotanical dataset. We verify participants’ hypothesis and forecast relative success for their projected silvicultural strategy based on outcomes from other contexts. Our findings contribute to emerging consensus in mobility ethnobotany and core flora studies that the increase in importance of plant medicinal value occurs under conditions of rapid change and that valued species enjoy heightened ecological protection in new environments. Further, we highlight the importance of “thinking with” the tension of indigeneity and adaptations required to survive extreme and ubiquitous environmental change, including migration and ecological alteration.

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Change history

  • 31 March 2021

    The original version of this paper was updated to present the missing Journal Name in reference Wall et al. 2018.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank all households and villagers for their invaluable participation in and support for our field research. We are extremely grateful to the Turkish National General Directorate of Forestry, especially their offices and personnel in Borçka, Bursa, Çanakkale, Rize, Şile, Sinop, Trabzon, and Zonguldak, for their invaluable facilitation and advice. We thank the administration of Istanbul University-Cerrahpaşa, Faculty of Forestry, for facilitation of our research efforts. Finally, many thanks to both Lynn Johnson of the Cornell Statistical Consulting Unit and Liz Bageant of Cornell Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management for invaluable statistical advice.

Funding

We sincerely thank The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TUBITAK), the American Research Institute in Turkey, the U.S. Borlaug Fellows in Global Food Security Program, and the Turkish Fulbright Commission for their generous support of this research. Research design was pre-approved by Cornell’s Institutional Review Board. Additionally, research design and implementation was undertaken in compliance with the International Society of Ethnobiology’s code of ethics.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Forestry, Forestry Economics Department, Istanbul University-Cerrahpaşa, 34473, Bahçeköy, Istanbul, Turkey

    Taner Okan

  2. Faculty of Forestry, Forest Biology and Wood Protection Technology Department, Istanbul University-Cerrahpaşa, Istanbul, 34473, Bahçeköy, Turkey

    Coşkun Köse

  3. Faculty of Forestry, Forest Botany Department, Istanbul University-Cerrahpaşa, 34473, Bahçeköy, Istanbul, Turkey

    Nesibe Köse

  4. Department of Anthropology, Literature Faculty, Hacettepe University, Beytepe, Ankara, Turkey

    Elif Başak Aksoy

  5. Department of Geography, Environment and Geomatics, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON, Canada

    Jeffrey Robert Wall

  6. Wildlife Conservation Society Canada, Toronto, ON, Canada

    Jeffrey Robert Wall

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  1. Taner Okan
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Correspondence to Taner Okan.

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Okan, T., Köse, C., Köse, N. et al. How Managing for Chestnut Honey in Turkey Salvages Trees and Lifeways under Increasing Exotic Pest and Disease Pressure. Hum Ecol 49, 205–216 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10745-021-00220-5

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