Rapid Vulnerability Assessment of Yartsa Gunbu (Ophiocordyceps sinensis [Berk.] G.H. Sung et al) in Pithoragarh District, Uttarakhand State, India

• Main Authors: Chandra S. Negi, Paras Joshi, Sachin Bohra
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: International Mountain Society 2015-11-01
• Series: Mountain Research and Development
• Subjects: Ophiocordyceps sinensis; rapid vulnerability assessment; sustainability; yartsa gunbu
• Online Access: http://www.bioone.org/doi/full/10.1659/MRD-JOURNAL-D-14-00005.1

Any resource of high value and relevance to rural livelihoods is at risk of overexploitation. The anthropogenic pressure on the caterpillar fungus, Ophiocordyceps sinensis (Berk.) G.H. Sung, J.M. Sung, Hywel-Jones & Spatafora 2007, commonly referred to as yartsa gunbu, is intense, especially given the absence of traditional sustainable collection techniques. Stable harvests are the result of 2 factors: more people searching more intensely and extensively and the ongoing discovery of new areas for harvest. Increasing international demand and prices (presently around US$ 20,000 per kg) have resulted not just in overexploitation but also in the degradation of the fungus’s habitat, thus endangering its future viability. This article reports on a rapid vulnerability assessment involving 2511 harvesters in 9 broad study sites and 110 villages in the Pithoragarh district in Uttarakhand state, India, in the central Himalaya, and recommends ways to lessen the pressure on this valuable species.