Local Knowledge on Plants and Domestic Remedies in the Mountain Villages of Peshkopia(Eastern Albania)

Ethnobotanical studies in the Balkans are crucial for fostering sustainable rural development in the region and also for investigating the dynamics of change of Traditional Ecological Knowledge(TEK),which has broad-sweeping implications for future biodiversity conservation efforts.A survey of local botanical and medical knowledge and practices was conducted in four mountainous villages of the Peshkopia region in northeast Albania,near the Macedonian border.Snowball sampling techniques were employed to recruit 32 informants for participation in semi-structured interviews regarding the use of the local flora for food,medicinal,veterinary and ritual purposes.The uses of 84 botanical taxa were recorded as well as a number of other folk remedies for the treatment of both humans and livestock.Comparison of the collected data with another ethnobotanical field study recently conducted among Albanians living on the Macedonian side of Mount Korab shows a remarkable divergence in medicinal plant uses,thus confirming the crucial role played by the history of the last century in transforming TEK.Most noteworthy,as a legacy of the Communist period,a relevant number of wild medicinal taxa are still gathered only for trade rather than personal/familial use.This may lead to unsustainable exploitation of certain taxa(i.e.Orchis and Gentiana spp.) and presents some important conservation challenges.Appropriate development and environmental educational frameworks should aim to reconnect local people to the perception of limitation and renewability of botanical resources.

Transition towards sustainability in agriculture and food systems:Role of information and communication technologies

Food sustainability transitions refer to transformation processes necessary to move towards sustainable food systems.Digitization is one of the most important ongoing transformation processes in global agriculture and food chains.The review paper explores the contribution of information and communication technologies(ICTs)to transition towards sustainability along the food chain(production,processing,distribution,consumption).A particular attention is devoted to precision agriculture as a food production model that integrates many ICTs.ICTs can contribute to agro-food sustainability transition by increasing resource productivity,reducing inefficiencies,decreasing management costs,and improving food chain coordination.The paper also explores some drawbacks of ICTs as well as the factors limiting their uptake in agriculture.