I would like to poi9nt out to two factors. One, indeed, as you say, biodiversity. For indigenous people do have a long wisdom -even if not formalized in western terms- about their environmemnt and nature as a whole. Hence, biodiversity. And a second key factor is precisely their wisdom about natural phenomena and the place they themselves occupy in nature. An outcome of both factors is that naturally those people do not suffer form the current western diseases that people in the main western countries suffer from. It is my (personal) contention that we all could learn a lot from the traditional customs, habits and yes dietary patterns from the people in rural areas.

I think Carlos already said everything. It seems to me, that your question, Wahyudi, has one important flaw: if you use the term "culture", dietary patterns and the relation towards biodiversity is -in my understanding of culture, that is, the "wide one"- already included. Culture is defined by the way of living of a people - that is, also by what they eat and from where they get it. So, maybe it would be worthwhile to break down culture to more concrete things.

Thanks Carlos and Philipp... My research study in Sumatra Rainforest (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kubu_people) . I will put in mind the local wisdom as well...

I would say you should also take into acccount the shifting availability of and people´s access to and rights over natural resources. Of course many indigenous groups living close to forest areas have abundant knowledge of free-growing plants and other food sources and often had "usufruct" rights over these in the past, and so were pretty self-sufficient, obtaining a rich diet base at litte cost (supplemented by their own cultivation), but this may be changing due to deforestation, forest protection and conservation and state control over and sale of traditionally available forest land. At least this was my experience when conducting ethnographic research in the Cambodian highlands. It would be interesting to track dietary patterns through these changes.

Thanks Joanna....

There are 6 key factors in food choice and you mention 2 in your question - economics and culture. The remaining 4 are: individual preferences, availability, health, and convenience. I suspect with indigenous peoples preferences and availability are key, taking into account that they will only choose from foods that are safe. Of these 6 I would guess that convenience is the least important, but still maintains some level of importance in terms of access and preparation methods.

The issue of biodiversity relates to many of the 6 factors. The local bio system will make certain foods available and not others which impacts the cultural choices that have developed over time, the individual preferences, the availability, the cost of those foods, and health issues as understood by the culture.

I think geographical factor could be included. Perhaps, topography of their places; e.g. highland, lowland etc. or maybe it could be merged as accessibility/convenience. Another factor is environment such as temperature. From my previous study (comparison between interior and coastal population), we expected that location and food availability have major effect on the population food intake. Coastal people may have higher salty food intake and perception but it was wrong. Interior population had higher intake even the coastal population have high access to seafood and also better access to the 'food accommodation' ;grocery, shop etc. After further observation, we found out that environmental effect - low temperature/ cold environment make the interior population consumed more high salty food like hot soup, instant noodle etc. which triggered them to have such food intake pattern.

I think availability needs to take account. As choice of foods among the indigineous people are limited, they will go for foods that are more available to them. Of course the culture and geographical factors will influenced them also. In my study among rural populations, it shows that besides culture,availabilty of foods and cheaper to them were important in their dietary pattern.

Dear Edgar, Ammat and Shamsul, thank you for your valuable suggestion

To add in all this

- Social Concern

- Religion

Availability of Food is foremost important factor that suggest dietary pattern. Some religious factor also effect the choice of food. For instance, Muslim will not take pig meat and alcholoic product, Hindu preferably take vegetarian foods etc.

Thank you @ Paul and Ahmad

The indigenous people have their own dietary habits based on the crops that they cultivate and other seasonally available food produces.For example minimum forest food products have an important influence on the dietary habits of the people residing near to forest areas.Indian Gooseberry,some fruits and roots from the forests,Bamboo shoots and seeds,Amaranth seeds,Honey, some rodents found in the forests ,some insects are among the few which form the part of the diet of Indigenous people residing near to forest land.

However since there is reduction in the area under forest land and dramatic climatic changes due to global warming and allied issues the food availability and household food security of these people were reduced leading to increased maternal and infant mortality due to malnutrition and low birth weight.

Even though Govt. has many food and nutrient supplementation programs the adherence to such programs of these people are poor due to lack of nutrition education.Also the food items supplied to these people are not related to their traditional cuisine.For such people along with food supplementation , demonstrations related to how to prepare and cook food deliciously and hygienically also to be included.