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Children Foraging in a Changing World
keywords:
food and nutrition
children and youth
climate change
Understanding how and when children participate in food production plays a key role in debates regarding human life history theory, climate change, child agency, and health and nutrition. As communities around the world become increasingly interconnected, children’s participation in foraging is changing in intensity and nature. This is especially true in hunter-gatherer and mixed-subsistence societies, where changes in subsistence strategies reduce reliance on wild foods, in favor of agricultural products from various sources. Environmental changes, such as ecological degradation, the establishment of national parks, and migration to urban centers, reduces children’s access to natural resources. Other competing activities, such as school attendance, may limit children’s ability to participate in foraging, and can offer new types of reward. During this widely attended roundtable, we will discuss the implications of these changes to children’s foraging from several angles, including demography, nutrition, food security, access to formal and traditional education, conservation, and biodiversity. We will also discuss how shifts in subsistence affect children's physical and mental well-being. Finally, we will address policies which aim to support children’s foraging, and the implications of these programs for preserving traditional knowledge, promoting biodiversity, and child nutrition.