BIODIVERSITAS ISSN: 1412-033X Volume 23, Number 4, April 2022 E-ISSN: 2085-4722 Pages: 2017-2024 DOI: 10.13057/biodiv/d230437 Documentation of the traditional Gayo food in Lokop Village, East Aceh, Indonesia RAMAIDANI, ZIDNI ILMAN NAVIA ♥ Department of Biology, Faculty of Engineering, Universitas Samudra. Jl. Meurandeh, Langsa 24416, Aceh, Indonesia. Tel. +62-641-426535, ♥ email: navia1529@gmail.com Manuscript received: 22 December 2021. Revision accepted: 24 March 2022. Abstract. Ramaidani, Navia ZI. 2022. Documentation of the traditional Gayo food in Lokop Village, East Aceh, Indonesia. Biodiversitas 23: 2017-2024. The Gayo Tribe community in Lokop Village, Serbajadi Sub-district, East Aceh, Indonesia, has known the traditional use of plants to meet food needs for a long time. However, this knowledge has not been widely documented. Therefore, it is necessary to conduct a study to document the typical food of the Gayo Tribe in Lokop Village, Serbajadi Sub-district, East Aceh, Indonesia. This study was conducted using the Snowball sampling method and semi-structured interviews involving 37 respondents. A total of 14 types of traditional Gayo food were documented, namely Cecah bajik, Cecah kekulit, Cecah ries, Jurung pengat, Masam jing, Apam, Berteh, Brahrum, Gutal, Lepat, Pulut berkerabu, Pulut manis, Pulut semplah, and Tumpi. In contrast, 52 plant species belonging to 46 genera and 31 families were used in traditional Gayo food. The most widely used family was Zingiberaceae with 5 species, the most widely used growth form was herb at 39%, and the most widely used plant parts were leaves and fruit, with 21% each. The frequency of using plants as the food was 100% for the species of Diplazium esculentum (Retz.) Sw. and Colocasia esculenta (L) Schott. The Gayo Tribe uses plants in their traditional food to contribute to economic value, health maintenance, and conservation efforts. Keywords: East Aceh, Gayo Tribe, Lokop, traditional food, traditional knowledge INTRODUCTION Tropical forest ecosystems store a high level of biodiversity and provide significant benefits in meeting human needs. More than 300 million people, primarily local communities, rely on the forest for life (Vinceti et al. 2013). Indonesia is known as a mega biodiversity country with enormous potential, particularly in indigenous plant research (von Rintelen et al. 2017). Furthermore, Indonesia is noted for its vast cultural diversity, with over 1300 ethnic groups inhabiting the country's territory (The Central Bureau of Statistics 2021). Each of these ethnic groups has distinct qualities in their social lives, notably environmental preservation. Traditional and cultural values are deeply ingrained in Indonesian communities, particularly in rural areas (Sutrisno et al. 2020). Cultural values comprise knowledge, belief, art, legislation, morals, conventions, and behavioral characteristics (Abdulla 2018), while cultural factors are social norms, values, and beliefs passed down from generation to generation in an ethnic group and are impacted by society's social structure, language, and religion (Cencen and Berk 2014). Aceh Province, Indonesia, has a high level of biodiversity due to its location within the Mt. Leuser National Park Ecosystem (Djufri 2015). Acehnese people have long used plant diversity in various aspects of their lives, including traditional rituals (Sutrisno et al. 2020), functional food (Elfrida et al. 2020; Suwardi et al. 2020; Navia et al. 2021a), traditional cuisine (Sutrisno et al. 2021), spices and condiments (Navia et al. 2020), and medicine (Elfrida et al. 2021; Navia et al. 2021b; Suwardi et al. 2021). In addition, forest areas are one of the potential storage locations for wild plants used as a source of daily food for people who live nearby (Setiawan and Qiptiyah 2014; Sumarlin et al. 2015; Suwardi et al. 2022; Syamsuardi et al. 2022). Lokop is located in Serbajadi Sub-district, East Aceh, Indonesia, which borders Gayo Lues, where the area is still in the Leuser Ecosystem (Djufri 2015). The majority of the people who inhabit the village are Gayo people who make a living as farmers and river fishers. According to previous studies, it is known that the Gayo people use wild plant parts as functional food, especially tubers (Suwardi et al. 2018) and fruits (Noverian et al. 2020). Until now, the people of Lokop Village still follow the traditions of their ancestors, such as ceremonies of the rice harvest, hot spring, and weddings. People carrying out their traditions cannot be separated from the traditional food served. The food source comes from the vicinity of natural resources, such as Mangifera foetida Lour., Alpinia galanga (L.) Willd., Citrus x aurantifolia, Solanum lycopersicum L., and Zingiber officinale Roscoe. Knowledge about the use of plants is usually passed down from generation to generation (Sujarwo and Caneva 2016). Plant diversity has the potential to improve nutrition and food security, food diversity and health, conservation of animals, i.e., honeybees, and the livelihoods of millions of people around the world (Jasmi et al. 2014; Dogan et al. 2017). Several studies on plant diversity as food have been conducted, including in Turkey (Dogan et al. 2017; Ceylan and Ozcelik 2018), in Ecuador (Penafiel et al. 2019), and Malaysia (Kamaruzaman et al. 2020). Similar studies have