Coping mechanisms include modifying subsistence activity patterns in gathering culturally important species and incorporating a diversity of species use at varying intensities across habitats. Adaptive strategies include the integration of fallback foods still used today as well as a local economy of gathering. The use of traditional foods is an expression of regional, socio-ecological resilience. Traditional foods are an integral part of Hutsul community life, as seen in culture and ritual, stewardship of landscapes, gathering practices, economies, nesting TEK in place. The Carpathian Mountains span several countries including the Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Serbia, Romania, and Ukraine. Containing Europe’s largest remaining old growth forest ecosystems outside of Russia, the Carpathians are a biodiversity hotspot, harboring one-third of all European vascular plant species. Considered the “Amazon of Europe”, this region is one of Europe’s last fully undeveloped landscapes, a rich refuge for large carnivores and a principal source of subsistence to 16 million people . The Carpathian region in Ukraine covers 3.5% of Ukraine’s area and 10.3% of total area of the Carpathian Mountains . The flora species composition of the Carpathian alpine forest provides key indicators of ecosystem health in response to climate change . As an ancient corridor and refuge for humans, the cultural landscape mirrors the breadth and depth of the biological landscape. Beginning over 2,000 years ago, many tribes have established cultural roots in this region . In Ukraine, there are various Indigenous, ethnographic groups, ranging from the Tatars in Crimea, who are currently facing intensified persecution due to Russian occupation , to the highlanders in the eastern Carpathian Mountains: including Hutsuls in Hutsulshchyna , Boykos,cannabis growing equipment in the Bystrytsia Solotvynska River Basin, and Lemkos, in the Low and Middle Beskyd Mountains .
Archaeological evidence points to human existence in the region dating back to 100,000 years before present . This study is centered in the cultural, historical center of Hutsulshchyna, which translates to “Land of Hutsuls”, a mountainous area of the Carpathian Mountains in southeastern Ukraine and northern Romania . This territory covers three administrative regions in Ukraine as well as a portion in northern Romania. At a landscape scale, Hutsuls, traditional pastoral highlanders of the Ukrainian Carpathians, have maintained alpine grasslands through mountain shepherding of cows and sheep . Currently, there is a continuing threat of cultural loss of this practice due to low economic competitiveness and increasing disinterest among younger generations . Maintenance of these alpine grasslands is declining quickly with newer pressures including tourism infrastructure and emigration of younger generations to cities. This recent decline of grazing on secondary grasslands has led to reforestation of previously cleared areas . However, mountain shepherding and other traditional ecological practices, such as gathering of NTFP , like wild edible plants and mushrooms, although threatened, have survived. NTFPs, typically refer to substances, materials or non-woody species that provide economic value to rural communities . Forests and a multitude of other habitats , tolokas , and alpine areas) bordering various village settlements provide an integral zone of nourishment through the gathering of wild and cultivated species. Flowers, birch sap, resin, honey, mushrooms, and berries gathered in these diverse habitats form an essential part of the social fabric and political economy of Ukrainian culture , particularly in forest-dependent Hutsul communities. In the Ukrainian Carpathians, 59-91% of the population lives in rural areas ; this broad range is due to the socioeconomic inequality between rural and urban areas in the region .
The interdependence between nature and need is explicit. While most houses have electricity, most water is taken from nearby wells and rivers and most villages have no sewage system . People trek to natural mineral water springs, which is an old spiritual tradition. There are over 800 natural mineral sources in this region . Communities are self-sufficient in terms of their nutritional needs, relying on a diversity of habitats nearby. Food is grown, gathered, and stored . Many households in this region rely on subsistence-based agriculture with homes surrounded by chickens, pigs, cows, goats, and additional income derived from family members going abroad for work. Low salaries demand multiple avenues of revenue from subsistence farming, gathering, and selling of culturally important wild species, as well as opening one’s home to tourist stays . For centuries, local Hutsul people have creatively and effectively managed culturally important species in the Carpathian Mountains maintaining their productivity and availability, thus creating a socioeconomic safety net to sustain them in times of scarcity. As Ukraine continues to face political crisis , financial insecurity, food scarcity and increasingly expensive medical care, trade and direct consumption of NWFPs in local diets has increased in the Carpathian region . According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, 80% of developing countries rely on NWFPs for nutrition and health purposes . NTFPs, like wild plants and mushrooms, contribute to a growing local economy, diversify diets, present possibilities for genetic research and development in new domesticated crops, and provide a lens for understanding cultural identity. Hutsulshchyna has been a place of extensive ethnographic work starting in the early 1800s and continuing well into the 1930s, when this region was under various colonial regimes .
In the last five years, a group of authors have centered their ethnobotanical research in Bukovina, the southeastern corner of Hutsulschyna with several studies focusing on Hutsul ethnobotany . Their methodologies generally consist of qualitative interviewing followed by quantitative analyses including detailed use report and calculations of the Jaccard Similarity Index to cross-culturally compare ethnobotanical uses on either side of the border. Their studies suggest that the establishment of the border between Ukraine and Romania in 1940 and the resulting impacts of Soviet policies in Ukraine contribute to differences in ethnobotanical use and knowledge transmission between Hutsuls in North Bukovina and Hutsuls in South Bukovina . Additionally, other studies analyze differences between wild and cultivated species’ use between Romanians and Hutsuls in Bukovina as well as the revitalization of ethnobotanical practices in religious holidays of Hutsuls in Northern Bukovina and Ukrainians in Roztochya, western Ukraine . The most recent study infers that Hutsuls in Northern Bukovina exhibit greater reliance and dependence on forest habitats than Hutsuls in Southern Bukovina . The splitting of Hutsulshchyna between Ukraine and Romania in 1940 and the resulting socio-political policies implemented on each side of the border guide the narrative of these studies; differences seen in species uses, range of species as well as ethnobotanical knowledge transmission are attributed to this border creation. This study builds upon previous studies to focus in the cultural, historical Hutsul center and explore the role of ethnobotanical knowledge in supporting the various coping mechanisms and adaptive strategies present within Hutsul communities. The methodologies employed in the case study were derived from extensive field seasons between 2017-2019 , employing historic and ethnographic literature reviews, participant observation , community-based participatoryaction research , and a translational approach . As discussed in Chapter 1, a translational approach was an integral part of this collaborative project, employing five key dimensions to resilience building including 1) communication and engagement, 2) policy, 3) education, 4) knowledge creation, and 5) personal actions. The main goal behind the translational approach is to produce policies based on transparent co-production of knowledge by all stakeholders impacted by those same policies . This chapter will be co-published by Hutsul scientists, Mariia Pasailiuk and Oleh Pohribnyi, facilitating dissemination of knowledge on their terms, and serving as published affirmation of the importance of Hutsul ethnobotany in regional economic development and environmental policymaking. During the first field season , the first author met both the second and third authors, Hutsul scientists Mariia Pasailiuk and Oleh Pohribnyi, to begin this collaborative research project. The development of the research presented here is generated from an attempt understand the synergistic social, economic, and eco-cultural spheres that inform Hutsul community livelihoods. By publishing this research, we show the deep interconnectedness between Hutsul communities and their own landscapes,cannabis drying trays while voicing Hutsul community members’ perspectives on regional environmental challenges. Connections and relationships with community members and colleagues were made four months prior to interviewing to facilitate in-depth participation in the research process. There were distinct considerations made when thinking about how this publication could harm and benefit communities. To address these issues, community members are not named here, unless explicit permission was granted. Oral consent was obtained prior to each interview.
However, since there is no official ethical review process regarding the protection of human participants in Ukraine, the first author obtained a local ethical review and approval of the project from the Verkhovyna National Nature Park in Ukraine . The local ethical review of the project was translated into English and then approved by the Institutional Review Board Committee at the University of California, Davis. In the first field season, between December 2017 and August 2018, the first author conducted in-depth interviews of 40 Hutsul elders, herbalists, and knowledge holders through snowball sampling in eight different villages, including Hutsul foresters, rangers, and scientists at two national parks surrounding wild species use including names, habitats found, gathering methods, ethnobotanical uses, ways of preparation. Interviews were conducted in Ukrainian, and participants responded in Hutsul and Ukrainian. All interviewees were over the age of 18 , with an average age of 53, with interviews ranging from 30 minutes to four hours. Key knowledge holders were interviewed multiple times to clarify plant names and plant uses with the aid of photographs and specimens. The first field season provided data for calculations to derive various ethnobotanical indices , frequency of citation per species , cultural importance index , number of uses per species , relative frequency of citation index , fidelity level per species for wild species and commonly cultivated plants, with a focus on the cultural importance index . During the second field season all authors participated in follow-up interviews and participant observation to further clarify TEK surrounding species use, including names, habitats and more specifically interview elders about species gathered during times of scarcity. The first round of interviews captured current species use, gathering practices and ecology, while the second round of interviews focused on species relied on in times of scarcity and emerging environmental challenges. A discussion emerges from the two rounds of interviews between species currently used and those relied upon during times of scarcity. As part of our methodology, we also conducted an extensive ethnographic literature review comparing our findings on a species-by-species basis with noted fallback foods identified in past and current studies . Throughout both field seasons , key elders and knowledge holders were interviewed multiple times to clarify plant names and plant uses with the aid of photographs and voucher specimens. Alignment of common names with botanical names, and plant identification of voucher specimens was confirmed and cross-referenced with botanists and scientists at the Hutsulshchyna National Nature Park as well as with botanist Roman Lysiuk, from Danylo Halytsky Lviv National Medical University. Taxonomic texts from the Hutsulshchyna National Nature Park library were also used to identify species including plants, mushrooms, and lichen. Additionally, throughout both field seasons, guided by elders and specialists, I participated in trips throughout the gathering season to the Chornohora Mountain range and local areas to better understand gathering practices in the region. Lastly, I organized a total of five informal group discussions with local women regarding plant use and environmental change seen in the region. Interviews were recorded, transcribed, and translated into English and data were organized in R, and the ethnobotany R packaged developed by Cory Whitney was used to calculate quantitative ethnobotanical indices . Quantitative indices, based on in-depth and multiple semi-structured interviews, assess passive knowledge and “participant consensus,” the degree of agreement among interviewees . In this study, we focus on species’ cultural importance derived from the cultural importance index , which is the sum of use reports divided by the number of participants to account for the diversity of uses for each species . The diversity of uses noted include food , medicine and other . Contextdriven components, like habitat, are valuable in understanding species’ impact on the day-to-day lives of people. A community ecology approach was incorporated in the analysis, by noting species’ presence or absence , in various habitat types including roadside, pasture, toloka, meadow, woodland, forest, field, polonyna, alpine area, garden. Each of these habitats encompasses a range and gradient of human interaction or human structuring as seen in Table 3.1.