Paper short abstract:

In NW Pakistan a complex set of sociocultural and political factors have influenced the documentation of local food knowledge, hence in this context, the proposal calls for a debate on meaningful strategies for documenting the local food heritage for future food sovereignty and cultural resilience.

Paper long abstract:

Scientists have devised methodologies for recording and disseminating food heritage of various communities across the globe, nevertheless there is a place for scientific debate considering the underlying problems of documenting food heritage in different geopolitical contexts. Our research work in NW Pakistan has revealed some prominent challenges which made it hard to better document the local knowledge on food practices. We have faced huge challenges in approaching women participants who were primarily involved in cooking practices and were considered potential knowledge holders of local food heritage. Similarly the fragile security situation has been one of the major issues among certain minority groups, for instance the sociopolitical and religious marginalization of a few groups, made them afraid of openly interacting with foreigners, and this acted as a barrier in recording their cultural food knowledge. In addition we noticed the lack of proper economic incentives for the local communities in the prevailed policy frameworks for ecosystem and resource management that have made the people less interested in sharing and caring about their local cultural knowledge. Hence, through proper community-centered conservation programs, here we propose the nomination of well-trained local representative - could be known as "food ambassadors" within each of the local communities which would not only be a step forward towards future food sovereignty but it will also work as a baseline strategy for practically revitalizing and incorporating it into the future educational and developmental programs.