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

Mousaab Alrhmoun, Monica Zanaria, Federico Elia, Naji Sulaiman (), Andrea Pieroni () and Paolo Corvo
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Mousaab Alrhmoun: University of Gastronomic Sciences, Piazza Vittorio Emanuele II 9, 12042 Pollenzo, Italy
Monica Zanaria: Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology, Facultad de Filosofía, Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia (UNED), Paseo Senda del Rey 7, 28040 Madrid, Spain
Federico Elia: University of Gastronomic Sciences, Piazza Vittorio Emanuele II 9, 12042 Pollenzo, Italy
Naji Sulaiman: University of Gastronomic Sciences, Piazza Vittorio Emanuele II 9, 12042 Pollenzo, Italy
Andrea Pieroni: University of Gastronomic Sciences, Piazza Vittorio Emanuele II 9, 12042 Pollenzo, Italy
Paolo Corvo: University of Gastronomic Sciences, Piazza Vittorio Emanuele II 9, 12042 Pollenzo, Italy

Sustainability, 2025, vol. 17, issue 17, 1-17

Abstract: Truffle hunting in the Piedmontese landscapes of Northern Italy is not merely a foraging practice but a deeply embodied and multispecies relationship grounded in intergenerational knowledge, sensory attunement, and emotional connection to forest ecologies. This study draws on qualitative interviews with local truffle hunters ( Trifulau ) to examine how socio-ecological transformations driven by land privatization, vineyard expansion, monocultural hazelnut plantations, and tourism disrupt these traditional practices. Thematic analysis reveals five dimensions of transformation: ecological estrangement, dispossession and exclusion, erosion of knowledge transmission, commodification and spectacularizing, emotional and ontological loss. Hunters describe a loss of sensory orientation, access to ancestral commons, and a breakdown of the human–dog forest relational web, accompanied by feelings of grief, alienation, and identity erosion. We argue that these changes undermine ecological sustainability and threaten emotional, cultural, and epistemological sustainability. The findings call for a broadened understanding of sustainability, one that recognizes affective, multispecies, and place-based knowledge systems as vital to sustaining cultural landscapes. This study contributes to debates on rural transformation, non-material heritage, and the invisible costs of commodifying traditional ecological practices in globalizing economies.

Keywords: cultural sustainability; ecological estrangement; emotional heritage; knowledge transmission; multispecies ethnography; Piedmont; rural transformation; truffle hunting (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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