Understanding the socio-economic characteristics of mushroom hunter communities and various wild edible mushrooms in Southeast Sulawesi, Indonesia

Forests provide various benefits for many people in Indonesia, one such benefit is the presence of mushrooms that grow in certain seasons and are used as food for local communities. Some types of mushrooms that grow wild have not been mass-produced, but have been consumed (wild edible mushrooms) and traded. The purpose of this study was to describe the socio-economic characteristics of forest mushroom hunters and identify the various mushroom found by local communities. The research location is in Besulutu Sub-district, Konawe Regency, Southeast Sulawesi, Indonesia. This location was chosen purposively that part of the Besulutu Sub-district is the Lalonona Forest area which is overgrown with mushrooms every year. The population in this study are the local people who look for mushrooms. Sampling was undertaken using the snowball technique, the interviewed sample sized was 41. The results of the study showed that the socio-economic characteristics of forest mushroom hunters were those of productive age, generally male, with secondary education, quite experienced, with a moderate number of dependents. The mushrooms are used for family consumption, and traded. Furthermore, there were seven types of mushrooms found, namely taa’u, tabosi, tangare bonata, tasulingga, tamokupa, taluwi, and tawuti.