VULNERABILITY AND MARGINALISATION OF SNAIL HARVESTING RURAL GYPSY FAMILIES IN TURKEY

Year 2020, Volume: 4 Issue: 3, 107 - 136, 31.12.2020

Dilek Eroglu Nurcan Atalan-helicke

Abstract

Turkey has been a major exporter of terrestrial snails (Helicidae) for food, mainly to European Union countries and to some extent to the United States. It is mainly the marginal communities like the gypsies in Turkey who are employed in the collection of land snails. There has been a decline in the total volume of snail harvests and snail collecting communities in recent years. The article discusses the socio-economic and ecological factors, agricultural chemicals as well climate change, that enhance the vulnerability of gypsy communities and land snails. Based on qualitative data collected in in northwest Turkey that involve focus groups with snail collecting gypsy communities, interviews with middlemen, and processing facility owner and staff, the article argues that the changing climate of lived environments due to socio-economic and ecological changes make gypsy communities and their livelihoods more vulnerable. The marginal communities have made minor adjustments in their collection practices over the years, by shifting times and places of collection. Yet, contemporary regulatory changes and climate change may undermine the collective knowledge of snail collecting gypsy communities and their livelihoods in Turkey.

Keywords

Gypsy Livelihoods, Snail Collection, Marginal community, Climate Change, Turkey

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