The need to include wild foods in climate change adaptation strategies

Declining wild food use has been reported around the world for decades, with important implications for nutrition and wellbeing. Commonly listed threats include land-use change and overharvesting. Climate change acts to compound these. Herein, we examine the importance of wild foods around the world and the impact of climate change on wild food species. We highlight large variations between regions, both in terms of climate impacts on wild foods and their importance. The emerging evidence suggests that, in addition to the Arctic, arid regions (such as the Sahel region of West Africa) and mountain regions (such as the Himalayas) may be particularly vulnerable to the impact of climate change on wild foods. We conclude with a reflection on the role of wild foods in climate change adaptation strategies and the ways that climate change adaptation strategies could threaten or enhance availability and accessibility to wild foods.