English language
The Salween Peace Park is home to the diverse mushroom taxa, which are considered an important species for the local tradition of natural resources. They are used as food, medicine and a tool that helps the community live a healthy life. However, the method of oral traditional knowledge of mushroom identification is disappearing. The lack of knowledge in identifying mushrooms from the ancestors’ land nowadays has cost some lives in some community, necessitating documentation of precise identification methods used traditionally crucial to protect life.
For these reasons, the women’s research team in Salween Peace Park has carried out research, approaching traditional knowledge on mushroom and mushroom richness in the region to rebuild the lost “database”, to help a generation come to learn and value this traditional wisdom, to promote mushroom conservation and to enhance food security and safety inside the community.
The result showed that there are 160 known species and 28 other unknown species. Of these 160 known species, some are used by the local people, with 98 species as food, 6 species as food and medicine, 20 species as traditional medicines, 1 species for making fire, 21 species are not eaten locally and 14 species are of unknown uses. Please see the report for details.
The original Karen language version is available here.