Dear Purna,

 

Thank you for the posting.

 

I envy you at your accomplishment of the trek you undertook from Lhuntsi to Trashiyantsi over the high mountain passes. The high Himalayan mountain passes indeed present themselves as experiences close to heaven. I love mountain trekking. I continue to relish the memories of my own many treks over our high rocky mountains, glaciers, morraines, lakes and alpine pastures. I hope an opportunity will arise for me one day to make that trip you undertook.

 

Now coming over to one of the subjects you touched, Cordyceps, I want to discuss it further. I have heard this before that now the yak herders have become very rich from the sale of Cordyceps that they will buy up properties in the lower valleys, and they will give up their primary livelihood of yak hearding. I feel that this is not a fair comment.

 

Firstly, by implication, it is that we do not like the idea of our rural people coming out of the poverty trap. It is the right of every Bhutanese to aspire to get rich, and buy properties anywhere in the country. 

 

Secondly, what is the point of saying that we are rich in biodiversity if when it brings people economic benefit, we immediately voice concern, and want to lock it up. 

 

Thirdly, I have discussed earlier that historically, the economic shelf life of a high value natural product from the wild is short mainly due to domestication and substitution, for example, rubber is now obtained from large scale rubber plantations (domestication), and natural chewing gum has been replaced by petroleum gel (substitution). The extractors of these natural resources lost their sources of cash income, and these resources in the wild are not extracted anymore. There is therefore no guarantee that Cordyceps will continue to fetch attractive price for a long time.

 

Just the other day, I was with a prominent Cordyceps exporter during a social occassion. He said that in the two years Cordyceps business he was in, he suffered a 50% loss on his total investment, and that he is not participating in the business this year. He said that due to the current global financial crisis that the international demand may not be strong, and price received may not be attractive at all. The price last year was much less than the year before which greatly disappointed the collectors. The  'gold rush' by people to the high alpine areas may be much diminished this year, and if the price fetched this year is worse, there would certainly be less collectors next year.

 

In the natural resource management, particularly for non-timber forest products, it is important to heed to an old saying, 'Make Hay While the Sun Shines'.

 

Our concern for sustainability particularly of plant products is going little overboard. Ishall be glad to discuss it in a separate posting.

 

I must stop here for today.

 

Kind regards

 

Phuntsho Namgyel