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Volume 12
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10.3390/plants12030574
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Article

Disadvantaged Economic Conditions and Stricter Border Rules Shape Afghan Refugees’ Ethnobotany: Insights from Kohat District, NW Pakistan

by
Adnan Ali Shah
1,
Lal Badshah
1,
Noor Khalid
1,
Muhammad Ali Shah
2,
Ajmal Khan Manduzai
3,
Abdullah Faiz
4,
Matteo De Chiara
5,
Giulia Mattalia
6,*,
Renata Sõukand
6 and
Andrea Pieroni
4,7
1
Department of Botany, University of Peshawar, Peshawar 25120, Pakistan
2
Department of Botany, Islamia College Peshawar, Peshawar 25120, Pakistan
3
Department of Environmental Science, COMSATS University Islamabad, Abbottabad 22060, Pakistan
4
University of Gastronomic Sciences, 12042 Pollenzo, Italy
5
National Institute for Oriental Languages and Civilizations, 75007 Paris, France
6
Department of Environmental Sciences, Informatics and Statistics, Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, 30170 Venice, Italy
7
Department of Medical Analysis, Tishk International University, Erbil 4001, Kurdistan, Iraq
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Plants 2023, 12(3), 574; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants12030574
Submission received: 21 December 2022 / Revised: 20 January 2023 / Accepted: 23 January 2023 / Published: 28 January 2023
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Plants and Peoples: Quo Vadis?)
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Abstract

The study of migrants’ ethnobotany can help to address the diverse socio-ecological factors affecting temporal and spatial changes in local ecological knowledge (LEK). Through semi-structured and in-depth conversations with ninety interviewees among local Pathans and Afghan refugees in Kohat District, NW Pakistan, one hundred and forty-five wild plant and mushroom folk taxa were recorded. The plants quoted by Afghan refugees living inside and outside the camps tend to converge, while the Afghan data showed significant differences with those collected by local Pakistani Pathans. Interviewees mentioned two main driving factors potentially eroding folk plant knowledge: (a) recent stricter border policies have made it more difficult for refugees to visit their home regions in Afghanistan and therefore to also procure plants in their native country; (b) their disadvantaged economic conditions have forced them to engage more and more in urban activities in the host country, leaving little time for farming and foraging practices. Stakeholders should foster the exposure that refugee communities have to their plant resources, try to increase their socio-economic status, and facilitate both their settling outside the camps and their transnational movement for enhancing their use of wild plants, ultimately leading to improvements in their food security and health status.
Keywords: ethnobotany; refugees; wild food plants; medicinal plants; ethnoveterinary; local ecological knowledge ethnobotany; refugees; wild food plants; medicinal plants; ethnoveterinary; local ecological knowledge

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MDPI and ACS Style

Shah, A.A.; Badshah, L.; Khalid, N.; Shah, M.A.; Manduzai, A.K.; Faiz, A.; De Chiara, M.; Mattalia, G.; Sõukand, R.; Pieroni, A. Disadvantaged Economic Conditions and Stricter Border Rules Shape Afghan Refugees’ Ethnobotany: Insights from Kohat District, NW Pakistan. Plants 2023, 12, 574. https://doi.org/10.3390/plants12030574

AMA Style

Shah AA, Badshah L, Khalid N, Shah MA, Manduzai AK, Faiz A, De Chiara M, Mattalia G, Sõukand R, Pieroni A. Disadvantaged Economic Conditions and Stricter Border Rules Shape Afghan Refugees’ Ethnobotany: Insights from Kohat District, NW Pakistan. Plants. 2023; 12(3):574. https://doi.org/10.3390/plants12030574

Chicago/Turabian Style

Shah, Adnan Ali, Lal Badshah, Noor Khalid, Muhammad Ali Shah, Ajmal Khan Manduzai, Abdullah Faiz, Matteo De Chiara, Giulia Mattalia, Renata Sõukand, and Andrea Pieroni. 2023. "Disadvantaged Economic Conditions and Stricter Border Rules Shape Afghan Refugees’ Ethnobotany: Insights from Kohat District, NW Pakistan" Plants 12, no. 3: 574. https://doi.org/10.3390/plants12030574

APA Style

Shah, A. A., Badshah, L., Khalid, N., Shah, M. A., Manduzai, A. K., Faiz, A., De Chiara, M., Mattalia, G., Sõukand, R., & Pieroni, A. (2023). Disadvantaged Economic Conditions and Stricter Border Rules Shape Afghan Refugees’ Ethnobotany: Insights from Kohat District, NW Pakistan. Plants, 12(3), 574. https://doi.org/10.3390/plants12030574

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