Engaging students in research to obtain ethnobotanical insights: Exploring ecosystem services in an urban park in Rimini (Emilia-Romagna, Italy)

Urban foraging has recently become popular as a way for people to reconnect with nature and to apply the traditional ethnobotanical knowledge in an urban context. In this study a two-year ethnobotanical survey was conducted in an urban park in Rimini, Italy, through a citizen science approach involving high school students as interviewers. The aim of the study was to assess the willingness to forage in an urban context and to document the local knowledge of wild plants. A total of 176 informants were interviewed, providing data on plant uses across eight distinct categories. The majority of informants (53.4%) are willing to forage in urban parks, but a significant proportion (30.7%) was unfavourable to this practice, citing concerns about plant pollution and potential legal issues, among other reasons. Knowledge of gathering was mainly acquired from family members and friends, although one-fourth of the respondents learned to forage through self-learning. Within the sample, there were differences in the willingness to forage based on gender, age and learning groups, but these were not statistically significant. A total of 90 plant species belonging to 45 families was reported in the survey, and the most cited plants were in the food category. The engagement of high school students as co-researchers turned effective for collecting ethnobotanical data, even though some limitations emerged. Addressing the critical issues raised by foragers and investigating the effects of these measures opens up future prospects for continuing research.