The sustainability of trade in wild plants—A data-integration approach tested on critically endangered Nardostachys jatamansi

While the demand for many products from wild-harvested plants is growing rapidly, the sustainability of the associated plant trade remains poorly understood and understudied. We integrate ecological and trade data to advance sustainability assessments, using the critically endangered Nardostachys jatamansi in Nepal to exemplify the approach and illustrate the conservation policy gains. Through spatial distribution modeling and structured interviews with traders, wholesalers, and processors, we upscale district-level trade data to provincial and national levels and compare traded amounts to three sustainable harvest scenarios derived from stock and yield data in published inventories and population ecology studies. We find increased trade levels and unsustainable harvesting focused in specific subnational geographical locations. Data reported in government records and to CITES did not reflect estimated trade levels and could not be used to assess sustainability. Our results suggest that changing harvesting practices to promote regeneration would allow country-wide higher levels of sustainable harvests, simultaneously promoting species conservation and continued trade of substantial economic importance to harvesters and downstream actors in the production network. The approach can be applied to other plant species, with indication that quick and low-cost proxies to species distribution modeling may provide acceptable sustainability estimates at aggregated spatial levels

Creating, enhancing, and capturing environmental product values:Medicinal and spice plant trade in the Himalayan foothills

There is a substantial trade in renewable environmental products, including medicinal and spice plants. Yet, their production networks remain largely unknown. Here, using a global production network approach, we unravel the trade for such products in the Himalayan foothills of Nepal, focusing on how values are created, enhanced, and captured. We conducted quantitative interviews with harvesters (n = 25), traders (n = 12), and central wholesalers (n = 2) in 2014–15 and with traders (n = 5) in 2021–22 in Kailali District of Sudurpaschim Province, Nepal. All traders from the district were interviewed in both case years. We found that harvesters created and enhanced value by wild-harvesting, cultivating, and air-drying 10 products from nine species in 2014–15 and 14 products from 13 species in 2021–22. The total annual trade increased from 151 to 340 tons in the period, and the value rose from USD 103,939 to USD 125,800 (in 2021–22 prices). The trade was dominated by the cultivated tejpat leaves (Cinnamomum tamala) and the leaves of kadipatta (Murraya koenigii) in 2021–22. Traders and central wholesalers enhanced value through transport, not processing. Secondary processing in the district was limited, resulting in missed opportunities for added value through processing. Non-firm actors captured value in connection to issuing collection, trade, and export permits. An average of 68 % of volume and 86 % of harvester value were sourced from cultivation, showing the growing importance of these species for supplementary rural income in the lowlands. The process of increased commercialisation reflects similar changes in the neighbouring countries. Finally, we conclude that the global production network approach can be applied to examine the dynamics of South-South trade in renewable environmental products, even in the absence of a lead firm.</p

Theorising and analysing the forest-based bioeconomy through a global production network lens

There is a multiplicity of bioeconomies and transition pathways, many of which are radically different from the biotechnological approach dominating in Western and Northern Europe. While the empirical basis for understanding this diversity is growing, also in the Global South, there is a lack of bioeconomic learning from existing allied theories. This paper applies global production network theory to the forest-based bioeconomy. Specifically, we focus on internationally traded renewable environmental products and identify an analytical framework for empirical investigation of the forest-based bioeconomy. We then apply the approach to the case of commercial medicinal plants in Nepal, using the example of the trade in air-dried bulbs of the Himalayan herbaceous plant Fritillaria cirrhosa in 2014–14 and 2021–22 with empirical data from structured interviews with traders (n = 65 and n = 79 for the two observation years) supplemented with interviews in the first period with harvesters (n = 540), central wholesalers (n = 73), processing industries (n = 79), and regional wholesalers in India and Tibet (n = 78). We find that global production network theory, and the associated array of analytical devices, can inform empirical investigation of the forest-based bioeconomy by operationalising the bioeconomy concept and grounding findings within an established theoretical frame and its associated emerging body of literature. The empirical application also demonstrated the possible policy outcomes from such empirical analyses.</p

Global production networks and medicinal plants:Upstream actor dynamics in Nepal

Knowledge of spatial and temporal actor dynamics in global production networks (GPNs) based on renewable natural resources remains rudimentary. This article contributes to reducing this knowledge gap by showing how upstream actors shape the territorial embeddedness and value dynamics (creation, enhancement, and capture of value) of GPNs. Empirically, we present a fine-grained analysis of the upstream section of the global production network for commercial medicinal plants harvested in and traded from Nepal. In particular, the paper investigates the within-group and between-group dynamics of key actors (traders and wholesalers). Empirical data was generated through 257 quantitative and 121 qualitative interviews with harvesters, sub-local traders, local traders, central wholesalers and regional wholesalers, supplemented with focus-group discussions. Analysis focuses on three key areas of interaction: infrastructural and ecological variations; territorial embeddedness and development; and institutional power and network reconfiguration. The findings help to understand the role of upstream actors in reconfiguring GPNs and enhancing the explanatory power of the GPN approach by adding organizational supply-side insights, thereby facilitating identification of pro-poor interventions.</p