The Ministry of Agriculture organized the National Cordyceps Workshop
on 5th May 2008.

Cordyceps trading has so much research, political and economic value,
I said I must make this effort to share this information to the
eForest members. Anyway, with the election over,it is not so
difficult for me now to snatch some time to devote to other passions.

Hope you find this post useful and relevant, and more importantly it
generates once again life in our eForest group.

The Workshop was attended by policy makers, resource managers,
researchers, security personnel, buyers, and law makers and local
leaders from the Cordyceps growing areas. The participants numbered
over 100.

What heartened me as an observer at the Workshop was that a wild
product has for the first time in the history of forestry in the
country assumed a national significance. There was in attendance at
the Workshop of three cabinet ministers who included the Agriculture
Minister, Trade Minister and Foreign Minister, and the eight members
of the National Assembly.

The Agriculture Minister said that even though Cordyceps was a
totally protected species as per the Forest Act 1995, the Royal
Government, being mindful of the difficult life conditions of the
people living in Cordyceps growing areas, legalized the collections
of Cordyceps in 2004. He noted that Cordyceps trading has brought
about significant improvement in the living conditions of the people
in Alpine region.

Dorji Rinchen from Agriculture Marketing gave an overview of
Cordyceps marketing which included the following statistics:

Year Vol (Kg) Value (Nu. in million) Avg. Price/kg (Nu.)

2004 178 10.68 60,000.00

2005 200 13.00 65,000.00

2006 506.66 42.91 84,691.00

2007 140.36 41.15 293,160.00

Dophu Dukpa who undertook a study on socio-economic impact of
Cordyceps said that Cordyceps has taken over as the dominant source
of cash income for the people in the Alpine areas. People have used
the cash income to install CGI roof sheets, buy more number of yaks
and buy compound bows.

There was no paper distributed, but only power point presentation.
Dophu, as I knew yesterday, is no more with the Agriculture Ministry
but with the Anti-Corruption Commission.

I was also asked to make a presentation. I titled my paper as "NTFP
Commercialization. What lessons can we learn from Cordyceps
legalization? "

In the paper, I challenge our pre-occupation with the concept of
forest protection and sustainable management for NTFPs. I identify
these two factors being responsible for poverty of local people who
live in the middle of rich natural resource. Cordyceps, a highly
valued product, prior to 2004, was a resource curse for the local
people as they were subjected to harrashment by forestry and park
people in the field.

Taking the cue from the legalization of Cordyceps picking, I propose
that we legalize now agar-wood extraction. Agar wood is another
valuable product found in the sub-tropical belt of the country where
poverty is most severe, but currently it is listed in the Schedule 1
of the Forest Act, thus totally protected. Agar wood is fast growing
pioneer species and easy to raise in the nursery. It is not a matter
of conservation issue at all.

The last presentation was by Chado Tshering of the Department of
Forests. The presentation touched on the issues and management of
Cordyceps. The issues discussed included the start and end time of
Cordyceps picking, defining the collection rights and auction system.

The discussions were lively. I enjoyed it thoroughly, and I wished I
was a researcher again.

Karma Dukpa, Director of Forests, chaired the discussions.

He said to me over lunch that he is working on re-branding the
Department of Forests as people and economy friendly.

The future looks bright. I cannot wait to see the end of 10th FYP
with the new political system and the new direction in forest policy
formulation.

This post has turned up longer than I thought. I hope you don't mind.

Phuntsho Namgyel