A child-focused approach to ethnobiological research has the potential to contribute to our overall understanding of human-environmental relations in at least two important ways: by improving our understanding of how children acquire knowledge and by highlighting the specificities of children's own ethnobiological knowledge. However, despite this potential, research on children's relations with their environment is scarce. To help fill this gap, this Special Section on Children and Ethnobiology compiles works that explore the many ways in which children use, think, and perceive their environment and the role children play in their own societies. Works in this special section are organized around three main topics: the dynamics of ethnobiological learning; the importance and specificity of children's ethnobiology; and suitable methods to work on children's ethnobiology. Taken together, the contributions selected for this Special Section not only expand research on children's ethnobiology, but also open new insights for future research on the topic.

Pastoralists in East Africa are well known for their abilities in effective livestock and natural resource management in the dynamic arid and semi-arid ecosystem in which they live. Their ethnobiological knowledge, manifest in their skills of managing livestock and natural resources, is generated from the daily experiences of individuals in different landscapes. Since the early twentieth century, the pastoralist Maasai have gradually experienced land fragmentation and lifestyle changes. However, how Maasai children learn ethnobiological knowledge and how their learning processes are related to the local accessibility of their land remain largely unknown. Focusing on eleven children's daily activities during long school vacations in a Maasai village, where lands are still communally owned, this paper aims to understand the children's ethnobiological knowledge learning and its relation to access to land in current social contexts. The children independently undertake work, such as livestock herding and food preparation, as well as engaging in various play activities. With access to the land, they continue generating ethnobiological knowledge in different spatial and temporal contexts during work and play. The results of this study illustrate that access to the land plays important roles in current Maasai societies in terms of children's ethnobiological knowledge learning. The study also suggests the necessity for further investigation of the relationship between land use changes and the ethnobiological knowledge learning of children in different small-scale societies.

In the last decade, researchers have reported the erosion of Traditional Medicinal Plant Knowledge (TMPK), including declines in the knowledge about which plant species are medicines and in the practical skills for using these species. Among the various drivers explaining TMPK loss, the processes governing knowledge acquisition and transmission are not clearly understood. In this study we explore whether grandparent-grandchild proximity relates to child's knowledge, namely through oblique knowledge transmission. Based on the assumption that elders are a repository of TMPK, we hypothesized that children's physical and affective proximity to their grandparents might favor the transmission of TMPK and, therefore, be associated to higher child's TMPK. We test this hypothesis using data from children attending two schools in intermediate-rural towns Guadalix de la Sierra and Figueres, Spain. Contrary to our expectations, neither physical nor affective proximity to grandparents was significantly related to children's TMPK. We provide methodological (i.e., omitted variable bias) and theoretical (i.e., intergenerational knowledge transmission is weak or null in the study area) arguments that might explain our results. We conclude by highlighting the need to create initiatives for intergenerational dialogue that foster traditional knowledge transmission.

This paper examines the relationship between children's theoretical knowledge of wild food plants in relation to sociocultural group, sex, and age in the context of social and environmental change. Theoretical knowledge was assessed by evaluating the composition of the cultural domain of “wild food plants,” naming ability, and cognitive salience. Freelistings were conducted with 57 Indigenous Shipibo-Konibo children and 57 mestizo children in Ucayali, one of the regions with the highest deforestation rates in the Peruvian Amazon. A total of 120 plants were listed by all children, with 72 listed by Indigenous and 95 by mestizo children. Most species listed as wild food plants have been classified as domesticated species by scientists. The main factor affecting variation in children's theoretical knowledge was sociocultural group. Mestizo children included more introduced crops in their lists, whereas, for Indigenous children, the most salient species were those that required specific abilities or knowledge to be consumed. Older children presented statistically significant longer lists than younger children, but there were no statistical differences in list length in relation to sex. We conclude by discussing the definition of “wild” versus domesticated plants and the effect of socioecological change on children's ethnobotanical knowledge as the landscape transforms in the forest-agriculture interface.

Orchid gathering in the Southern Highlands of Tanzania became an income generating strategy for HIV/AIDS-affected households, particularly for children orphaned by HIV/AIDS. Being orphaned might have implications for children's local ecological knowledge leading to indiscriminate harvesting of both preferred and non-preferred orchids. Using qualitative and quantitative mixed methods, we assessed the knowledge of wild orchid species among gatherers in four categories: children orphaned by HIV/AIDS, children not affected by HIV/AIDS, HIV/AIDS-affected adults, and non-HIV/AIDS-affected adults. Data collection took place from February 2006 until February 2007. More than 70% of the children orphaned by HIV/AIDS relied on tuber taste and texture to distinguish preferred and non-preferred species. HIV/AIDS-affected adults were competent at using orchid morphology to distinguish preferred from non-preferred orchid species. Gatherers stated preferred orchid species were primarily found in restricted areas, and non-preferred species were widespread. Cramer's V analysis revealed an association between the HIV/AIDS status of a gatherer and the gatherer's views on the conservation status of preferred and non-preferred species. Gatherers perceived non-preferred species as having higher natural regeneration potential than preferred species. Cramer's V analysis also showed a difference in gathering knowledge acquisition between HIV/AIDS-affected double orphans who emigrated from urban settings, and those residing in their natal rural village under guardian care. Both types of orphans relied primarily on other children for gathering knowledge, but those with guardians also gleaned knowledge from guardians. Across categories, children also gained knowledge from middlemen, who buy and resell the preferred orchids.

Despite increasing research interest on Indigenous Peoples' food systems, the specificities of Indigenous children's diets remain largely unexplored. We analyze data on food consumption of children from three Indigenous societies with relatively little involvement in the market economy: the Tsimane' (Bolivian Amazon), the Baka (Congo Basin), and the Punan Tubu (Borneo), as such societies allow for the rare possibility to see relationships that become hard to spot once external influences become commonplace. We describe children's diets and measure dietary quality through two standard indicators: dietary diversity and dietary quality (proxied by fruits and vegetables and animal source food consumption). The diversity of Indigenous children's diets varied from one society to another but was high compared to previously reported data. Overall, children's diets were more diverse than adults' diets, without stark differences between the diets of boys and girls or between children of different ages. There was a tendency for more diverse diets amongst children who attend school compared to those who do not. Children in the sample rely on a complex mixture of locallysourced foods (mainly fruits, vegetables, and animal source foods) and products from the market (mainly oils, sweets, spices, and beverages). Findings from this work suggest that Indigenous children remain highly dependent on forest resources and subsistence agriculture for their diets. In that sense, the implications of the ongoing environmental changes on Indigenous children's diets require more scholarly attention.

Humans and other living organisms harbor disease-causing pathogenic microorganisms. These microorganisms are often transmitted through physical contact with contaminated objects, such as food, water, or other people. While some theoretical and empirical research examines the ontogeny of contamination and contagion beliefs, cross-cultural research on this topic is limited. To help remedy this paucity of data, we conducted an ethnobiological study of contagion and contamination beliefs among Maasai children (n = 42) in the Simanjiro district, Tanzania. Participants include 36 middle-aged schoolchildren and six four-year-olds. We contrast the children's beliefs with those of 12 local adults. To measure children's views of contagion and contamination, we developed sentence-framed yes/no elicitation tasks using three different stimuli—a fly, a cough, and a cough from someone with respiratory symptoms. Qualitative semi-structured interviews were conducted to further understand children's ethnotheories of contamination and contagion. Children generally reported that coughs and flies are directly contaminating, whereas they offered mixed results for associational and indirect contamination. Children discussed time, psychological contagion, saliva, wind, and the supernatural/natural as key elements to their beliefs, reasons, and personal actions taken to minimize contamination/contagion risk. We found education to be significantly positively correlated with children reporting that flies and coughs were directly contaminating, while age had no effect. Although children were more likely than adults to associate flies with contamination, their general belief pattern differs little from adults. Local cultural-ecological factors and explanatory models of disease, as well as formal religious and education institutions, shape Maasai children's ethnobiological beliefs of contagions and contamination.

Children's ethnoecological knowledge and behaviors related to the environment, health, and food can differ significantly from those of the adults around them. It can be difficult to design studies to capture these differences because standard ethnographic methods do not necessarily translate well to fieldwork with children. We review and evaluate the range of tools useful for eliciting children's (birth to age 12) cultural knowledge and behavior across the domains of health, food, and the environment, identifying the characteristics of different methods (e.g., what type of data they produce, their fit with types of research questions, ages with which they have been used, analytical tools, advantages, and disadvantages). Methods examined include systematic observation in situ (time scans or spot observations), focal follows, photo and video elicitation, artwork, photovoice, video diaries, scrapbooking, oral semi-structured interviews, focus groups, written surveys and diaries, object identification and sorting, attribution tasks, and narrative picture book tasks. We find several opportunities to strengthen ethnoecological research with children. These include regularly disclosing and discussing the challenges and details of using informed consent and conducting new research to understand the impacts of integrating technologies with other methods to collect ethnoecological data with children. Careful consideration of methods is important for rigorous research and this article serves as a tool for researchers working with or considering working with children, to expand the body of research engaging with and analyzing children's unique cultures.