Regulated access to wild climbers has enhanced food security and minimized use of plastics by frontline households at a premier African protected area
The amount of food harvested, processed and stored by households determines food availability—a key dimension to food security. In developing countries, frontline households around protected areas harvest wild climbers for making food security products. When access to the wild climbers is denied, households adapt by using other available alternatives such as plastics with potential con- sequences to biodiversity. The relationships between harvesting wild climbers and: (a) food availability, (b) plastic use, and (c) wild climber populations have rarely been investigated.