Wild food in Europe: A synthesis of knowledge and data of terrestrial wild food as an ecosystem service

Wild food is an iconic ecosystem service that receives little attention in quantifying, valuating and mapping studies, due to the perceived low importance or due to lack of data. Here, we synthesize available data on the importance of wild food as ecosystem service, its spatial distribution and relations between supply, demand and benefits in the European Union (EU), covering all terrestrial wild food groups. A wide variety of game (38 species), mushrooms (27 species) and vascular plants (81 species) is collected and consumed throughout the EU. Income, age, gender, possibilities for collecting, and cultural factors explain the importance of wild food. While the economic and nutritional values of wild food comprise a few thousands of the GDP or total consumption, over 100million EU citizens consume wild food. Collecting wild food is an appreciated recreational activity; collecting and consuming wild food provide important cultural ecosystem services, including recreation and sense of place. Because of these benefits, wild food should be included in EU ecosystem service assessments. Better estimates could be made if better data on wild food abundance and production are available and by systematic inventories of participation in wild food collecting. •Wild food is an iconic, sometimes debated but also often enjoyed ecosystem service.•Supply, demand and benefits of the ecosystem service wild food in the European Union (EU) were described and quantified.•Species richness, occurrence density, flow and demand for wild food were mapped for the EU.•65million EU citizens collect wild food, and at least 100million EU citizens consume wild food.•Wild food is an increasingly important cultural ecosystem service.