‘I used to be ashamed’. The influence of an educational program on tribal and non-tribal children's knowledge and valuation of wild food plants

·The locally contextualized educational program has enhanced children’s ability to identify selected wild food plants.·Children’s participation in the program effectively countered social stigma related to wild food plant gathering.·The program developed children’s self-confidence on the importance of wild food plants for their diets and cultures.·The encouraged tribal and non-tribal children to learn from each other.

This study examines the influence of an extra-curricular educational program on children's knowledge and cultural valuation of wild food plants, which are an important component of their diets. This program aims to reinforce children's traditional knowledge and values around biological resources in Wayanad, India's Western Ghats, encouraging tribal and non-tribal children to learn from each other and from their own communities. Results show that the educational program has enhanced children's ability to identify selected wild food plants. Moreover, strong social stigma related to wild food plant gathering also appears to have been effectively countered, and the program seems to have created more self-confidence among the children about (a) the perceptions of others' social attitudes towards their gathering practices, and (b) the importance of these plants as part of their diets and cultures.