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WILD FOOD
PLANTS
AT RISK FROM
CLIMATE CHANGE
Climate warming could
reduce the range of wildharvested food plants in
southern Africa by a third.
Wild-harvested food plants are important
ingredients in the diets of millions of people,
especially during times of hardship when
staple crops fail. Although they contribute
to food security in southern Africa, little is
known about the risk that climate change
poses to these edible plants
UCT’s Carina Wessels, who at the time
was affiliated with the African Climate
and Development Initiative (ACDI), in
collaboration with ACDI’s Dr Christopher
Trisos and colleagues from the University of
Connecticut, began to fill that gap.
Examining the links between climate change,
traditional knowledge, food security and wildharvested food plants, they investigated the
climate change risk to 1 190 wild food plant
species used by 19 native language groups in
the region. These include the num-num, the
sour fig, rooibos and the marula fruit.
The team considered two future
greenhouse gas scenarios. In the lowemissions scenario, global warming is
likely to have stayed below 2°C higher than
pre-industrial levels by 2081–2100. The
high-emissions scenario represents a future
reaching more than 4°C of global warming by
the end of this century.
Results show the ranges of 40% of wild
food-plant species will probably shrink in
66% of wild food plant
species are projected
to experience range
reduction.
the low-emissions scenario. Roughly six out
of every 10 wild-food species, however, are
expected to expand their range.
This pattern is reversed in the highemissions scenario: 66% of wild food plant
species are projected to experience range
reduction, and only 34% to experience a
range increase.
“There is a mix of winners and losers in a
world that is up to 2°C warmer,” Trisos said.
“If we allow warming beyond this threshold,
however, there will be more losers than
winners.”
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