Mixed‐method study on medicinal herb collection in relation to wildlife conservation: the case of giant pandas in China

Abstract

Medicinal herb collection has historical and cultural roots in many rural communities in developing countries. Areas where herb collection occurs may overlap with biodiversity hotspots and crucial habitat of endangered and threatened species. However, impacts of such practices on wildlife are unknown and possibly underestimated, perhaps due to the elusive nature of such activities. We examined this phenomenon in Wolong Nature Reserve, China, a protected area in the South‐Central China biodiversity hotspot that also supports a community of Tibetan, Qiang and Han people who use herb collection as a supplementary source of livelihood. We adopted a participatory approach in which we engaged local people in outlining spatial and temporal dynamics of medicinal herb collection practices. We found that the overall spatial extent of herb collection increased in the past two decades. We then overlaid herb collection maps with localities of giant panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca) feces collected over two time points in the reserve. Using a Bayesian parameter estimation, we found evidence for declined giant panda occurrence in the areas most recently impacted by emerging medicinal herb collection. Our methodology demonstrates the potential power of integrating participatory approaches with quantitative methods for processes like herb collection that may be difficult to examine empirically. We discuss future directions for improving explanatory power and addressing uncertainty in this type of mixed‐method, interdisciplinary research. This work has implications for future attempts to understand whether and how prevalent but subtle human activities may affect wildlife conservation.

Integrating Livestock Grazing and Sympatric Takin to Evaluate the Habitat Suitability of Giant Panda in the Wanglang Nature Reserve

“…We mainly studied the impact of grazing livestock on the habitat suitability of giant pandas through habitat overlap on a large scale. However, additional human disturbances were not considered in this study such as hunting, herb collection, and tourism [ 25 , 49 , 50 ], all of which damage habitats and may reduce suitable giant panda habitat areas. As for the impact of takin on the giant panda habitat, this study only analyzed the overlap of suitable habitats for takin and giant panda, and it may be worthwhile to conduct more in-depth research in the future.…”

Complex effects of habitat amount and fragmentation on functional connectivity and inbreeding in a giant panda population

“…2015), and human activity negatively affects panda occurrence (Zeng et al. 2019). These variables influence the amount of habitat and levels of habitat fragmentation in the landscape surrounding panda occurrence locations (Liu et al 2016).…”

“…Besides forest and elevation requirements, other important habitat variables include terrain ruggedness and anthropogenic disturbance levels (Hull et al 2014). Rugged terrain induces additional energy expenditure that pandas preferentially avoid (Nie et al 2015), and human activity negatively affects panda occurrence (Zeng et al 2019). These variables influence the amount of habitat and levels of habitat fragmentation in the landscape surrounding panda occurrence locations (Liu et al 2016).…”