Bilberry (Vaccinium myrtillus) pickers on forest landscape: implications for sustaining a non-timber value

Non-timber-forest-products can offer provisioning services as well as cultural values for a wide range of people. In developed countries gathering of the NTFP has decreased, mostly because of socio-economic changes, but depletion or damaging of key resources can also play a role. Bilberry stands out because of its high anthocyanin content and sensitivity to forest management. We focus on a tradition of bilberry picking in Estonia, where wild berries are gathered by locals both for recreational and commercial purposes and for home use. The most bilberry-rich forests grow on Podzols as well as on paludified and peat soils; silviculture modifies this distribution through clear-cutting and artificial drainage. Based on 53 interviews with regular berry-pickers, we modelled their picking site preferences, established knowledge sources, movement habits, and reactions to forestry. We used availability sampling among recreational and commercial pickers. The absolute values of the results should not be extrapolated, but we think that the trends reflect the real situation in Estonia. A strong majority of respondents agreed to show us their berry picking sites on the condition of confidentiality. The gatherers used clearly delineated picking areas, which constituted a subset of bilberry-rich habitats. The highest preference for dry forests suggested that in addition to the amount of resource, the movement complexity and landscape aesthetics are important factors. Knowing good bilberry places in divergent habitats also stabilises the gathering possibilities regardless of weather-driven yearly variations. Similar conclusions have been deduced from Scandinavian studies. We are not aware of any studies about the behaviour of berry pickers in relation to forest management. In our study, site loss through clear-cutting was experienced as major disturbance (60% of respondents had been forced to find new sites), while bilberry spread in regenerating forests or after drainage was hardly noticed. The last, together with low preference for drained peatland forest, was surprising, as in general drainage increases the bilberry cover in those forests. Berry-pickers preferred public forests, but had no preference for protected areas. However, in protected areas, site abandonment due to forest management was a very rare case. This appeals for acknowledging the values of protected areas more widely, which could also direct the gatherers to more stable sites. Our study and the pickers' observations distinguished participatory spatial planning of continuous-cover forestry and gap-felling systems in state forests as a priority approach for sustaining traditional bilberry-gathering. Using a representative sample of gatherers to compile a model for spatial planning, could be effective and low-cost approach beside stakeholder involvement, as the knowledge about good bilberry places emerged to be perceived as relatively private information, which value decreases if shared.peerReviewe