[MPWG] ARTICLE: Explaining harvests of wild-harvested herbaceous plants: American ginseng as a case study

[De Angelis, Patricia]

By John Paul Schmidt, Jennifer Cruse-Sanders, James L.Chamberlain, Susana
Ferreira, John A.Young
In Biological Conservation Volume 231, March 2019, Pages 139-149

ABSTRACT:
Wild-harvested plants face increasing demand globally. As in many
fisheries, monitoring the effect of harvesting on the size and trajectory
of resource stocks presents many challenges given often limited data from
disparate sources. Here we analyze American ginseng (Panax quinquefolius
L.) harvests from 18 states in the eastern U.S. 1978–2014 to infer temporal
patterns and evidence of population declines, and we test the effects of
local environmental and socioeconomic factors on ginseng harvesting at the
county level 2000–2014.

Despite rising prices, annual wild ginseng harvests decreased from a high
point in the late 1980s to early 1990s, then, in most, increased after 2005
or 2010 - suggesting range-wide overexploitation notwithstanding federal
regulations that, since 1999, restrict minimum harvest age. County-level
harvest rates increased with available habitat, road density, poverty and
unemployment, but decreased when public land formed a large proportion of
county area. Harvests were largest in the Southern Appalachian region.
Poverty and accessibility were strongly related to high levels of
harvesting.

A key implication is that to conserve valuable wild native plant products
while also improving local livelihoods, wild cultivation and good
stewardship practices must be strongly promoted. Our approach to assessing
the condition of wild populations offers a broad template that could be
adapted to other wild-harvested plants.

Link:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0006320718313612
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