Authors: Schunko, Christoph; Brandner, Anjoulie;

Urban wild food foraging can enhance health and well-being of urban residents and educate them about food, nutrition and biodiversity conservation. However, public authorities in charge of managing public urban green spaces tend to be sceptical about potential negative ecological impacts of foraging on urban plant populations. We conducted a mixed-methods study in Vienna, Austria, to understand whether this scepticism can be shown to have an empirical basis. First, we conducted twenty-one semi-structured expert interviews with urban foraging stakeholders and then 458 structured interviews with Viennese residents. Stakeholders reported that many urban foragers apply a range of practices that prevent and limit negative ecological impacts. The predominant share of Viennese foragers indeed had good knowledge about foraging with care. However, foraging rare species and inconsiderate foraging in foraging hotspots by some foragers can still be problematic. These findings suggest that, in Vienna, a general skepticism towards foraging is unjustified. However, monitoring of foraging activities and targeted information to raise awareness about good foraging practices are needed. If this is done, public authorities can use urban foraging to strengthen urban residents’ interaction with nature, and to educate them about biodiversity conservation.