Digital Commons Network^™

Natural Resource Access Rights And Wrongs: Nontimber Forest Products Gathering In Urban Environments, Susan Charnley, Rebecca J. Mclain, Melissa R. Poe

Institute for Sustainable Solutions Publications and Presentations

This article uses research about non-timber forest products (NTFP) gathering in Seattle, Washington, USA to examine how people gain access to natural resources in urban environments. Our analysis focuses on gathering in three spaces: parks, yards, and public rights of way. We present a framework for conceptualizing access, and highlight cognitive mechanisms of access associated with foragers’ internal moral judgments about harvesting. Key findings are: (1) internal moral calculations about whether it is right or wrong to harvest a particular NTFP in a particular place are an important but previously unacknowledged mechanism governing resource access; and (2) these calculations may …