Challenges in the Conservation of an Over-Harvested Plant Species with High Socioeconomic Values

Abstract

Overexploitation to meet commercial demands has threatened the existence of many species. In theory, one can adopt a portfolio of policies and measures from both the supply (i.e., encourage cultivation while punishing poaching) and demand (i.e., education of consumers) sides to achieve sustainable use. Here we examine the effects of governmental policies and measures towards the utilization of Aquilaria sinensis, a threatened species with high cultural and economic values. We found that, despite national protected status and a suite of government initiatives and granted projects to implement cultivation of the species, poaching persisted and even intensified. From the consumer side, current cultural education related to the species was not coupled with equally strong conservation education, which might have inadvertently reinforced the notion that wild-sourced materials are better, and facilitated a luxury goods-like market for wild products. It appeared that the current government portfolio of initiatives was highly skewed towards utilization, and therefore not effective for promoting the long term ecological persistence of the species. This finding is likely not unique to A. sinensis, nor limited to China. A more balanced portfolio of government initiatives to include stronger and more direct conservation measures towards highly exploited species is needed to achieve sustainable use of this species and related species.

An Assessment of the Implementation of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora in Kenya

“…This could be attributed to inadequate training as well as poor mapping of actors. Some enforcement officials, such as customs officers, cannot identify wildlife products, and many ports and border crossings lack expertise from the scientific authorities in many countries [8,12]. This calls for better staffing and more elaborate and strategic training to match skills with enforcement-related demands.…”

“…Elsasser et al [9] suggest that this is especially true if political and socio-economic priorities lay elsewhere, which is the case for many environmental issues [10,11]. The proper implementation of CITES calls for parties to establish monitoring and enforcement capacity as well as prohibition and punishment measures [3], yet countries are frequently faced with changing political environments in striving to comply with supranational laws [12]. For instance, some interest groups can make compliance difficult in order to foster their own economic advantages [13], and some exemptions within the law can complicate enforcement [2].…”

Temporal characteristics of agarwood formation in Aquilaria sinensis after applying whole-tree agarwood-inducing technique

“…However, the natural formation process of agarwood is time-consuming, and excessive commercial demand has resulted in its overexploitation. Owing to the difficulties in plant regeneration under adverse human influence, several natural Aquilaria populations are on the verge of extinction ( Chen, Liu, & Heinenm, 2019 ). All species of Aquilaria and Gyrinops appear in the Appendix II list of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora , since 2004 (Amendments to appendices I and II of CITES, 2004 ).…”

Population genomic analyses of protected incense trees Aquilaria sinensis reveal the existence of genetically distinct subpopulations

“…Although the cultivation of A. sinensis for the agarwood industry in Hong Kong ceased since the last century given pirates activities, remaining populations persist in the countryside of Hong Kong, including lowland, broad-leaved forests, and fung shui woods (Yip and Lai, 2004). Nevertheless, these natural populations are under threats of illegal felling and harvesting (Jim, 2015;AFCD, 2018;Chen et al, 2019).…”

“…210) with a maximum of 10-year imprisonment (AFCD, 2018). On the other hand, governments in both mainland China and Hong Kong have also expanded the cultivations and active planting of A. sinensis seedlings at different places (Yin et al, 2016;AFCD, 2018;Chen et al, 2019).…”