“It’s Years of Walking, of Reading the Forest”: White Truffle Hunters’ Perception of Socio-Ecological Change in Langhe and Roero, NW Italy

White truffle hunting in the Piedmontese landscapes of Italy is more than a foraging practice—it embodies deep, intergenerational relationships with forests, shaped by sensory attunement and emotional connections. A study reveals that socio-ecological transformations, such as land privatization, vineyard expansion, and monocultural plantations, are disrupting these traditional practices, leading to ecological estrangement, dispossession, and the erosion of knowledge transmission. Hunters report a loss of sensory orientation, access to ancestral lands, and a breakdown in the human–dog forest relational web, accompanied by grief and identity erosion. These changes threaten not only ecological but also emotional and cultural sustainability, underscoring the need for a broader understanding of sustainability that includes affective and place-based knowledge systems.

Alrhmoun, M., Zanaria, M., Elia, F., Sulaiman, N., Pieroni, A., & Corvo, P. (2025). “It’s Years of Walking, of Reading the Forest”: White Truffle Hunters’ Perception of Socio-Ecological Change in Langhe and Roero, NW Italy. Sustainability, 17(17), 8053. https://doi.org/10.3390/su17178053