When minority language persistence is not enough: the decline of foraging knowledge in German- and Ladin-speaking Alpine communities of Northern Italy

J Ethnobiology Ethnomedicine https://doi.org/10.1186/s13002-026-00906-4 Article in Press When minority language persistence is not enough: the decline of foraging knowledge in German- and Ladin-speaking Alpine communities of Northern Italy Irfan Ullah, Mousaab Alrhmoun, Syed Waseem Gillani, Julia Prakofjewa, Lei Zhang, Giulia Mattalia, Hawraz Ibrahim M. Amin, Cheikh Yebouk, Faisal Moola, Paolo Corvo, Renata Sõukand, Raivo Kalle, Naji Sulaiman & Andrea Pieroni Received: 25 January 2026 Accepted: 28 April 2026 Cite this article as: Ullah I., Alrhmoun M., Gillani S.W. et al. When minority language persistence is not enough: the decline of foraging knowledge in German- and Ladin-speaking Alpine communities of Northern Italy. J Ethnobiology Ethnomedicine (2026). https://doi.org/10.1186/ s13002-026-00906-4 A E R P S S We are providing an unedited version of this manuscript to give early access to its findings. Before final publication, the manuscript will undergo further editing. Please note there may be errors present which affect the content, and all legal disclaimers apply. E L C IN If this paper is publishing under a Transparent Peer Review model then Peer Review reports will publish with the final article. I T R © The Author(s) 2026. Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. ACCEPTED ARTICLEMANUSCRIPT IN PRESS When Minority Language Persistence is Not Enough: The Decline of Foraging Knowledge in German- and Ladin-Speaking Alpine Communities of Northern Italy Irfan Ullah1, Mousaab Alrhmoun2,3, Syed Waseem Gillani4, Julia Prakofjewa5, Lei Zhang6, Giulia Mattalia7, Hawraz Ibrahim M. Amin8,9, Cheikh Yebouk10, Faisal Moola11, Paolo Corvo2, Renata Sõukand5, Raivo Kalle12, Naji Sulaiman2*, Andrea Pieroni2,13 1 Department of Molecular Wood Biotechnology and Technical Mycology, GeorgAugust University of S S E Göttingen, Büsgenweg 2, 37077 Göttingen, Germany; (I.U.) PR 2 University of Gastronomic Sciences, Piazza Vittorio Emanuele II 9, 12042 Pollenzo, Italy; E L C IN (M.A.); (N.S.); (A.P.); (P.C.) I T AR 3 Faculty of Agricultural, Environmental and Food Sciences, Free University of Bolzano, Piazza Università 5, 39100, Bolzano, Italy 4 Department of Plant Sciences, Quaid-I-Azam University, Islamabad, Pakistan; (S.G.) 5 Department of Environmental Sciences, Informatics, and Statistics, Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, Via Torino 155, 30174 Venice, Italy; (J.P.); (R.S.) 6 Institute of Vegetable and Flower Research, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, China; (L.Z.) ACCEPTED ARTICLEMANUSCRIPT IN PRESS 7 Laboratori de Botànica–Unitat Associada CSIC, Facultat de Farmàcia i Ciències de l’Alimentació –Institut de Recerca de la Biodiversitat (IRBio), Universitat de Barcelona, 08028 Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain; (G.M.) 8 Department of Chemistry, University of Pavia, Viale Taramelli 12, 27100 Pavia, Italy; 9 Department of Pharmacy, Tishk International University, Erbil 44001, Iraq 10 Laboratory of Plant Biodiversity and Natural Resource Development, University of Nouakchott, BP 880, Nouakchott, Mauritania; 11 Department of Geography, Environment and Geomatics, University of Guelph, Guelph, Canada; 12 Estonian Literary Museum, Vanemuise 42, 51003 Tartu, Estonia; S S E (R.K.) PR 13 Department of Medical Analysis, Tishk International University, Erbil 44001, Iraq E L C Abstract IN I T AR Local ecological knowledge is an essential element of the Alpine biocultural diversity and is often linked to minority languages. However, its continuity does not necessarily correspond to the persistence of these languages. This study investigates how knowledge of wild plants (and mushrooms) is transmitted and transformed among three minority-language communities in the Italian Alps: Cimbrian, Mòcheno, and Ladin speakers. Ethnobotanical data were collected through structured interviews between 2022 and 2025 and compared with historical records from the 1980s documenting the use of wild plants for food, medicinal purposes, and herbal teas. The results reveal a marked decline in traditional plant-related practices despite the continued use and institutional support of minority languages. Plants once central to household herbal repertoires, such as Achillea millefolium L., Artemisia absinthium L., and Sambucus nigra L. which are now marginal or ACCEPTED ARTICLEMANUSCRIPT IN PRESS abandoned. However, a limited set of herbal teas remains culturally significant. Conversely, mushroom foraging and the gathering of wild fruits remain comparatively resilient, supported mainly by communal land-use institutions (usi civici) that foster ecological engagement and intergenerational learning. Overall, the study highlights a paradox of biocultural resilience: linguistic vitality alone does not safeguard embodied ecological knowledge. Sustaining Alpine cultural and environmental heritage, therefore, requires integrated approaches that address language, environment, governance, and socio-economic change together. Keywords S S E Wild food plants; ethnobotany; ethnomycology, local ecological knowledge; socioecological change; Lusern; Mocheni, Ladins, I T AR E L C IN PR ACCEPTED ARTICLEMANUSCRIPT IN PRESS Introduction Minority language vitality and local ecological knowledge are key components of Alpine biocultural diversity (Alrhmoun et al. 2024a; Mina et al. 2023). LEK encompasses the adaptive knowledge that local communities develop through lived interactions with their environment, while minority languages embody cultural identities and vernacular traditions often marginalised within broader national frameworks (Ladio 2025; Pieroni 2008; Reyes-García et al. 2016). Both are increasingly threatened by globalisation, cultural homogenization, urbanisation, and biodiversity overexploitation (Blanco and Carrière 2016; Ridanpää 2021). Yet, both remain vital to understanding how communities adapt to social and environmental change. S S E LEK is inherently dynamic and functions as an adaptive management system that PR enables communities to respond to ecological uncertainty and socioecological IN transformation (Faronny et al. 2024; Kupika et (...truncated)