Sustainable harvest, people and pandas: Assessing a decade of managed wild harvest and trade in Schisandra sphenanthera

Author’s Accepted Manuscript Sustainable harvest, people and pandas: assessing a decade of managed wild harvest and trade in Schisandra sphenanthera J.A. Brinckmann, W. Luo, Q. Xu, X. He, J. Wu, A.B. Cunningham www.elsevier.com/locate/jep

PII: DOI: Reference:

S0378-8741(18)30401-X https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jep.2018.05.042 JEP11388

To appear in: Journal of Ethnopharmacology Received date: 1 February 2018 Revised date: 29 May 2018 Accepted date: 29 May 2018 Cite this article as: J.A. Brinckmann, W. Luo, Q. Xu, X. He, J. Wu and A.B. Cunningham, Sustainable harvest, people and pandas: assessing a decade of managed wild harvest and trade in Schisandra sphenanthera, Journal of Ethnopharmacology, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jep.2018.05.042 This is a PDF file of an unedited manuscript that has been accepted for publication. As a service to our customers we are providing this early version of the manuscript. The manuscript will undergo copyediting, typesetting, and review of the resulting galley proof before it is published in its final citable form. Please note that during the production process errors may be discovered which could affect the content, and all legal disclaimers that apply to the journal pertain.

Sustainable harvest, people and pandas: assessing a decade of managed wild harvest and trade in Schisandra sphenanthera J.A. Brinckmanna,*, W. Luob, Q. Xuc, X. Hec, J. Wud and A.B. Cunninghame,f a

Traditional Medicinals, 4515 Ross Road, Sebastopol, California 95472 USA Pingwu Shuijing Traditional Chinese Medicinal Material Planting Specialised Cooperative, No. 100 Ronghua Street, Shuijing Town, Pingwu County, Sichuan Province 622564 China c WWF Chengdu Programme Office, Room 103, Building 42 Langtingyuan, Chengdu Huayuan, 8 Qingyang Avenue, Qingyang District, Chengdu Province 610071 China d Draco Natural Products / Shanghai Tian Yuan Botanicals Products Company, 18 He Xiang Road, Baihe, Qing Pu, Shanghai 201709 China e School of Life Sciences, University of KwaZulu-Natal, King Edward Avenue, Pietermaritzburg, 3209, South Africa; and f Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 132# Lanhei Road, Heilongtan, Kunming, Yunnan, China b

Key words: biodiversity, branding, certification, Giant Panda habitat, sustainable trade Abbreviations: CNCA, Certification and Accreditation Administration of the People's Republic of China; CNY, Chinese Yuan Renminbi; ECBP, EU-China Biodiversity Programme; ICDP, Integrated Conservation and Development Project; IMO, Institute for Market Ecology; IUCN, International Union for Conservation of Nature; MEP, Chinese State Ministry of Environmental Protection; NOP, National Organic Program; PES, Payment for Environmental Services; SFM, Sustainable Forest Management; UNDP, United Nations Development Programme; TCM, traditional Chinese medicine; USDA, United States Department of Agriculture; WWF, World Wide Fund for Nature. *Corresponding author. E-mail address: [email protected] (J.A. Brinckmann).

Contents ABSTRACT .................................................................................................................................................................................. 2 1.

Introduction ..................................................................................................................................................................... 2

2.

Methods ........................................................................................................................................................................... 5

3.

Results and discussion...................................................................................................................................................... 7 3.1.

Nan wu wei zi guidelines for harvesters and traders .............................................................................................. 8

3.2.

Pre-certification audit completed in 2009 ............................................................................................................ 10

3.3.

Project receives Outstanding Contribution award in 2011 ................................................................................... 11

3.4.

5-year letter of intent signed by the California and Chinese companies at end of project ................................... 11

3.5.

Cooperative receives USDA NOP organic-wild certification for schisandra .......................................................... 12

3.6.

Standards for Giant Panda Friendly Products drafted in Chengdu ....................................................................... 14

3.7.

Project receives UNDP Equator Prize in 2012 ....................................................................................................... 14

3.8.

FairWild Standard authorised by CNCA in 2016 ................................................................................................... 15

3.9.

Standards for Giant Panda Friendly Products authorised by CNCA in 2017.......................................................... 15

3.10. 4.

Annual increases in sales of sustainable schisandra and expanding the range of panda-friendly offerings.... 17

Conclusions .................................................................................................................................................................... 18

Declaration of interest ............................................................................................................................................................. 19 Author's contributions ............................................................................................................................................................. 19 Acknowledgements ................................................................................................................................................................. 19

ABSTRACT Ethnopharmacological relevance: Endemic to China, the distribution of Schisandra sphenanthera Rehder & E.H.Wilson includes giant panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca David, 1869) habitats in forests of the Minshan and Qinling Mountains, both inside and outside conservation areas. The fruit is used in indigenous medicines of the Qiang, Tibetan and Yi ethnic minorities of Sichuan. Also used in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), indications for use are prescribed in the Chinese Pharmacopoeia. For continued access and medical use, survival of healthy populations depends on forests. Biodiversity conservation programmes implemented in forests within the panda landscapes that also benefit rural and indigenous communities, link future access to wild medicinal plants with survival of the panda and resilient rural economies. Aims of the study: This study aimed at assessing the project activities, institutional-level outcomes and achievements, 10 years on, of the 5-year (2007-2011) UNDP- and WWF- supported EU-China Biodiversity Programme for sustainable, “panda-friendly” schisandra. Materials and Methods: Our study combined analysis of quantitative data such as purchase records coupled with qualitative data obtained from field work, project documents, site-visit reports, certification documents and published articles about the project. Results: At start of project, interested companies were identified to support economic viability of the sustainable wild harvesting and a “panda friendly” pro-conservation model that provided an incentive to maintain habitat outside formal protected areas. Criteria of relevant sustainability standards, the Organic Wild-crop Harvesting Practice Standard and FairWild Standard, were applied while a new standard was drafted, the Giant Panda Friendly Products Standard. The initial pilot project involving 1 village determined feasibility leading to formation of the Pingwu Shuijing TCM Cooperative which, by 2016, scaled out to membership of 22 villages. From the cooperative’s first commercial sale of S. sphenanthera Rehder & E.H.Wilson fruits of 0.5 MT in 2009, annual quantities steadily increased up to 30 MT sold in 2017. The cooperative achieved organic certification in 2012. In 2016, governmental authorisation for the certification of Chinese operations implementing the FairWild Standard was granted. In 2017, the Giant Panda Friendly Products Standard became an official Chinese standard with the cooperative becoming the first panda-friendly certified operation in 2018. Conclusions: A decade after the project first started, there is strong evidence for the proconservation micro- and small enterprise model. For example, through the establishment of a TCM cooperative with members in 22 villages engaged in sustainable resource management, harvesting and equitable trade of TCM ingredients with organic and panda-friendly branding. The project benefited from multi-disciplinary collaboration of experts in ethnoecology, TCM, panda biology and habitat, nature conservation, sustainability standards and international trade. Inviting interested companies at the start enabled a transition from a funded-project to annual contracts for sustainably harvested TCM herbal drugs. At end of project (2011), the companies and NGOs remained engaged and motivating for completion of activities started during the project. Major eventual outcomes rooted in the initial project included Chinese government authorisation of the FairWild Standard (2016) and Giant Panda Friendly Products Standard (2017).

1. Introduction At a global scale, China is the largest exporter of medicinal plants (Brinckmann, 2016), the majority of which are wild harvested, often unsustainably. Several examples of unsustainable wild harvest, such as of Fritillaria cirrhosa D. Don (Cunningham et al., 2018b) and Paris polyphylla Smith (Cunningham et al., 2018a) are given in this special issue. In contrast, this study evaluates the outcomes of a 10-year partnership that developed a commercial, value-added export trade based on

sustainable harvest of fruits from the medicinal plant, Schisandra sphenanthera Render & E.H. Wilson (Schisandraceae). Southern schisandra (S. sphenanthera) fruit, referred to as “nan wu wei zi” (南五味子) in pinyin transliteration, is used in indigenous medicines of the Qiang, Tibetan and Yi ethnic minorities of Sichuan. Also used in the codified national system of TCM, the Pharmacopoeia of the People’s Republic of China prescribes its therapeutic uses for the treatment of chronic cough and dyspnoea (shortness of breath) of deficiency type, nocturnal emission and spermatorrhoea (involuntary discharge of semen without orgasm), enuresis (urinary incontinence) and frequent urination, chronic diarrhoea, spontaneous sweating and night sweating, thirst caused by fluid consumption, interior heat-wasting thirst, palpitations, and insomnia (Chinese Pharmacopoeia Commission, 2015). An endemic species to China, S. sphenanthera is a perennial scandent (climber) woody liana occurring in broad-leaved deciduous mountain forests (Du et al., 2012; Saunders, 2000) including Giant Panda habitat areas, both inside and outside conservation areas (Figure 1). A stem twiner, S. sphenanthera uses its stems to climb and twine around host trees. Depending on the height of the host tree, S. sphenanthera vines may climb 6 meters or higher (Figure 2).

Figure 1. Map showing network of panda conservation areas, panda habitat outside those core conservation areas and potential habitat.

Figure 2. Left: Wild S. sphenanthera vines climb to envelope a tall tree near the Huangyang River, Caoyuan Village, Pingwu County, Sichuan Province. Centre: Cluster of S. sphenanthera fruits on the vine. Right: Close-up of harvested cluster of S. sphenanthera fruits.

The background context to the S. sphenanthera sustainable harvest and trade initiative was a field project of the EU-China Biodiversity Programme (ECBP) on “Sustainable Management of Traditional Medicinal Plants in the High-Biodiversity Landscapes of Upper Yangtze Eco-region.” The broader goal of this ECBP project was to develop and build capacity for implementation of a strategic model for biodiversity conservation and sustainable development in China, in particular in the giant panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca (David 1869); Family: Ursidae) habitat areas in forests of the Upper Yangtze Eco-region. Giant panda habitat refers to the natural ecological systems that satisfy the core behavioural needs of giant pandas (United Nations Development Programme, 2006, 2011; WWF China, 2012). The effectiveness of the government of China’s strategies to conserve the giant panda is evident from the Fourth National Survey (2011-2014), which showed the giant panda population had stabilised and was beginning to increase in many parts of the range (Sichuan Forestry Department, 2015). As a result, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List reduced the conservation status of the giant panda from Endangered to Vulnerable (Swaisgood et al., 2016). Nevertheless, habitat corridors between protected areas and incentives to maintain giant panda habitat are essential for long-term conservation of this species. For example, although the giant panda population is growing, climate change is predicted to reduce more than a third of giant panda's bamboo habitat over the next 80 years, with consequent population declines if this occurs (Li et al., 2015; Tuanmu et al., 2012). And with panda habitat degradation also recorded within core conservation areas (Liu et al., 2001; Xu et al., 2017; Zhen et al., 2018), economic incentives to maintain forest habitats in this region are crucial. This is a complex task in populated landscapes anywhere in the world. And there are 870 townships in 41 counties with panda habitat in Sichuan, with about 10,848,000 residents living in this area. The per capita income in these 41 counties (including seven national poverty alleviation counties) is 1715.6 CNY, which is much lower than the average fiscal revenue of Sichuan (2998 CNY) (Sichuan Forestry Department, 2015). This study documents progress with a project using improved income linked to sustainable wild harvest of TCM ingredients as an incentive to maintain secondary forest habitat outside of Giant Panda conservation areas. The giant panda occurs in parts of six isolated mountain ranges (Minshan, Qinling, Qionglai, Liangshan, Daxiangling and Xiaoxiangling) in south-central China (Swaisgood et al., 2016) (Figure 1), with the highest density of wild pandas found in Pingwu County, Sichuan Province, in the Minshan Mountains (WWF, 2017). Although the diet of the giant panda is comprised almost exclusively of

different plant parts of over 60 different species of bamboo (Wang et al., 2017), the S. sphenanthera habitat intersects much of the panda habitat. The sustainable schisandra project also envisaged that value addition through implementation of international sustainability standards such as the “Organic Wild-crop Harvesting Practice Standard” (United States Department of Agriculture, 2011) and the “FairWild Standard” (FairWild Foundation, 2010) would attract to the project the types of companies that would make long-term equitable trade agreements leading to increased community income associated with sustainable resource management. The project’s early identification of socially responsible companies, inviting their participation as stakeholders, was believed to be a way to sustain the project results well into the future, after the external funding and technical cooperation would cease at end of project in 2011 (Brinckmann and Morgan, 2012). The project scope also involved the development of the “Standards for Giant Panda Friendly Products” with a panda-friendly branding concept. For continued access and use of southern schisandra in Chinese ethnic minority medicines as well as in TCM, survival of healthy populations depends on forests. Biodiversity conservation programmes implemented in forests within the panda landscapes that also benefit rural and indigenous communities, link future access to wild medicinal plants with survival of the panda and resilient rural economies.

2. Methods Assessing the outcomes and achievements of an initiative that aimed to link commercial trade with managed wild harvest of S. sphenanthera not only required an assessment of both quantitative data related to increased participation by local villagers in managed harvest and expanding trade, but also the effectiveness (or lack thereof) of the design of the sustainable harvest project. From the start of the project, we recognised that in many ways, the term ‘natural resource management’ is misleading since it has more to do with ‘people management’ than with managing natural resources. A baseline survey, carried out by ECBP project participants of mixed backgrounds, from skilled foresters and botany professors to nature reserve field staff and representatives from local minority groups, resulted in the selection of Schisandra sphenanthera as the first medicinal plant species to test in the new model (Cunningham and Brinckmann, 2010). For good science to become good management, however, what was needed was wide social acceptance of management plans or regulations. For this reason, the ‘design principles’ for community-based resource management developed by Wade (Wade, 1987) and Ostrom (Ostrom, 1990) and available in Chinese (Cunningham, 2004) were applied. The most important design principles were firstly, the need for clear, accepted, controllable boundaries around the area managed by the community. Secondly, building local villager's knowledge on sustainable yields and the status of the resource in each village management area. This then formed the basis for a third principle: the need for simple, practical and enforceable rules for resource use. Fourthly, reaching consensus on punishments for breaking agreed rules. Fifthly, well-developed mechanisms for conflict resolution and sixth, support from local government, in this case in Shuijing Town, with the broader context of the Pingwu County government’s expressed interested in “green economic development”. The signpost erected by villagers along the road leading to the pilot-study villages is an example of these design principles in action (Figure 3).

Figure 3. Signboard marking the boundary of the S. sphenanthera wild harvest area, setting out rules related to sustainable wild harvest.

The initial pilot project involved one village in 2008 and determined the economic and social feasibility of managed wild harvest. This "proof of concept" resulted in formation of the Pingwu Shuijing TCM Cooperative and by 2017, the involvement of 22 villages (Figure 4). One measure of the success (or failure) of this approach to community-based wild harvest was whether rules were enforced and whether "free-riders" from outside the community were kept out or not.

Figure 4. Map showing the villages in Pingwu County that are participating in the sustainable wild harvest of S. sphenanthera in relation to Giant Panda habitat and locations where evidence of Giant Panda has been reported.

Types of data compiled and reviewed included results of resource assessments carried out at start of project, based, in part, on the criteria and indicators of the FairWild Standard, providing population status, distribution, and abundance data for commercially harvested species occurring in the study sites. Demographic, economic, market and trade data were also collected and analysed. For example, this included information on gender of medicinal plant collectors, ethnic and language groups, percentage of household income generated from harvesting of medicinal plants, as well as village-level and TCM market-level prices paid for schisandra pre- and post- project implementation (Cunningham, 2010; Guo et al., 2012). Quantitative data included annual sales records of the Pingwu Shuijing Traditional Chinese Medicinal Material Planting Specialised Cooperative from its inception in 2009 to 2017 and

corresponding purchase records of the first buyer in the value chain, the herbal extraction company Draco/Shanghai Tian Yuan Botanicals Products Company (Shanghai, P.R. China), whose extracts are marketed by the American division, Draco Natural Products (San Jose, California). Qualitative data was obtained from field work of participants, UNDP project documents, internal reports of experts contracted by WWF-China (Chengdu, P.R. China), periodic site-visit reports of the final buyer in the value chain, Traditional Medicinals (Sebastopol, California), certification and inspection documents of the control bodies Institute for Market Ecology (Weinfelden, Switzerland) and CERES Certification Co., Ltd. (Shanghai, P.R. China), awards granted to the project by governmental and international governmental organisations, and articles written about the project that were published between 2008 and 2017 in both peer reviewed journals and popular press (Brinckmann and Morgan, 2012; Cunningham, 2010; Cunningham and Brinckmann, 2010; Guo et al., 2012; Johnson, 2017; Lindstrom, 2012; TRAFFIC, 2012). Much of the same data was also analysed by independent third-party control bodies which led to their issuance of the various sustainability certifications and awards described in the Results section of this paper.

3. Results and discussion Since the 1970’s, when organic food certification started and the 1990’s, when fair trade (Fairtrade International, 2011) began to address social concerns there has been rapid growth in different forms of certification, from fisheries (Marine Stewardship Council, 2014), to timber and non-timber products (Forest Stewardship Council, 1996), wild medicinal plants (Meinshausen et al., 2006) to kosher and halal food ingredients. Wildlife friendly "eco-labels", certification and branding are part of this "moral economy" where sales of certified products are driven by demand from informed buyers, often many thousands of kilometres away. And as Wunder (2006) points out, these are one of several tools providing an incentive for habitat and species conservation (Wunder, 2006) (Figure 5).

Figure 5. A conceptual framework linking economic incentives and conservation, showing where certification and branding fit. Redrawn from Wunder (2006). SFM = sustainable forest management; PES = Payment for Environmental Services; ICDP's = Integrated Conservation and Development Projects.

Treves and Jones (2010) usefully differentiate between three types of wildlife-friendly eco-labels according to how products are certified and the steps that are taken to verify that wild animals were conserved. Firstly, supportive eco-labels, where businesses donate a proportion profits to conservation, which, it is suggested, may never attain a high level of credibility. Secondly, persuasive eco-labels, that encourage businesses to change production processes and thirdly, protective ecolabels whose goal is to lead to better conservation (Treves and Jones, 2010). Implementing protective eco-labels can gain higher credibility but is challenging due to the costs of field verification. Examples are the Wildlife Friendly Enterprise Network (WFEN) Wildlife Friendly® certification (Wildlife Friendly Enterprise Network, 2015) and the Wildlife Conservation Society's (WCS)“tiger-friendly branding” initiative (Wildlife Conservation Society, 2006). The first tea product with WFEN “elephant-friendly” certified labelling was launched in the US market in 2018 (Goswami, 2018). In common with WCS's “tiger-friendly branding,” the goal of "panda-friendly branding" of medicinal plant products harvested by local communities went beyond sustainable harvest and also aimed to achieve habitat conservation outside of protected areas. Project activities included resource assessments and development of management and monitoring systems for sustainable harvest of wild medicinal plants (Cunningham, 2010). If the model proved successful, other wild medicinal plant species would be added to the management plan for sustainable harvesting and equitable trade. One of the co-authors of this paper (J.A.B.) had previous experience with the test implementation of the WCS Tiger Friendly Standard. From 2005 to 2007, two American companies, Traditional Medicinals (California) and Organic Herb Trade (Nevada), gave support to a WCS project in collaboration with the indigenous Udege and Nanai communities of Primorsky Krai, Russian Far East, for sustainably harvested forest products including northern schisandra (Schisandra chinensis (Turcz.) Baill) berries that could be independently certified as both organic wild harvested and tigerfriendly. In 2008, at the start of the sustainable harvest and trade initiative for panda-friendly southern schisandra (S. sphenanthera), Traditional Medicinals was using only the northern schisandra species in its product. For the company to become interested and involved in the pandafriendly project required a decision to reformulate their existing product which had already been in the market since 1998. This was easier said than done. After writing the justification for interchangeable use of both Schisandra species in the commercial product, the company needed to determine that the project could reliably supply southern schisandra fruit of the quality defined in the Chinese pharmacopoeia, produced under suitable good agricultural and collection practices, hygienic and sanitary practices, and also comply with requirements for certification against international sustainability standards. By the third year of the ECBP project, the companies involved (Draco/Shanghai Tian Yuan Botanicals Products Company and Traditional Medicinals) had invested in extraction process development, pilot production, analytical testing, and finished product reformulation processes to accommodate the use of southern schisandra (Brinckmann and Morgan, 2012). 3.1.

Nan wu wei zi guidelines for harvesters and traders

Prior to the EU-China Biodiversity Programme (ECBP), harvesting methods for many wild medicinal plant materials in the study sites, including fruits of S. sphenanthera, were destructive and considered to be a threat to the forest ecosystem and wildlife habitat, including that of the Giant Panda (Guo et al., 2012). For example, entire schisandra vines were pulled down from the host trees, tree branches broken, with no fruit left hanging for regeneration. Oftentimes, immature green berries were harvested in the summer, scalded in boiling water then sun-dried, giving the appearance of autumn-harvested mature brownish-red berries.

In 2009, one of the authors of this paper (J.A.B.) was contracted by the project to assist in the development of sustainable southern schisandra fruit (nan wu wei zi) guidelines for harvesters and traders (Brinckmann and Morgan, 2012). One outcome, early in the ECBP project, was the development of the guidelines, initially tested during the autumn 2009 harvest, revised and finalized based on observations of their practicability. Handbooks with illustrations were subsequently prepared and used for trainings in the following season. See Figure 6. Following incorporation of the harvesting practice guidelines, the collectors left the vines standing, picked only the more accessible mature fruits, leaving at least the top third of the vine to facilitate seed dispersal and regeneration. Collectors used hand-held picking shears, holding the fruit cluster away from the vine and cutting it with part of the stem still attached. The cut fruit clusters were placed into clean picking bags, baskets, or harvest trays, and transported to the drying location (Cunningham and Brinckmann, 2010). In addition, we know of several cases where "free-riders" from other locations who harvested without permission were caught and fined by the village-level management committee. Quality standards (and consequently prices) of the harvested fruits also improved with the new controls. Figure 7 shows traditional sun-drying at the household level, typical at start of project, juxtaposed against communal cleaning, washing and shade-drying at a new facility of the Pingwu Shuijing TCM Cooperative, a practice implemented in order to standardize the drying parameters for the overall harvest and reduce the possibility of quality variation stemming from differing individual postharvest practices.

Figure 6. Nan wu wei zi guidelines for harvesters and traders.

Figure 7. Left: Sun-drying of S. sphenanthera berries at home of Mr. Yang Jinlin, Caoyuan Village, a member of the cooperative. Right: Shade drying of S. sphenanthera berries at Pingwu Shuijing TCM Cooperative facility in Shuijing Town.

3.2.

Pre-certification audit completed in 2009

The inspection and certification organisation Institute for Market Ecology (IMO) carried out a pre-certification audit in 2009 and determined feasibility for the newly established cooperative to attain organic-wild crop certification after 2010 in conformance with the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) National Organic Program (NOP) regulations (FairWild Foundation, 2011). At that time, Swiss-based IMO was also the sole control body accredited to inspect operations for compliance with the FairWild Standard. While the USDA Organic Wild-crop Harvesting Practice Standard was authorised for certification in the P.R. China, it was not feasible for the cooperative to attain FairWild certification because the FairWild Standard was not yet authorised in China. New international standards first require authorisation granted by the Certification and Accreditation Administration of the P.R. China (CNCA) before a control body can be accredited to inspect and issue certificates (Brinckmann, 2016). The several years journey towards eventual authorisation of the FairWild Standard in China began at this point with its translation to Chinese and use in this project (Figure 8). The FairWild Standard is composed of 11 principles and 29 criteria addressing ecological, social and economic requirements for sustainable wild collection (FairWild Foundation, 2010), which are summarized in Table 1.

Figure 8. Cover of FairWild Standard translated to Chinese for the project.

Table 1 FairWild Standard principles and criteria for collection operations Section I: Wild collection and conservation requirements Principle 1. Maintaining wild plant resources: Wild collection of plant resources shall be conducted on a scale, at a rate and in a manner that maintains populations and species over the long term. Principle 2. Preventing negative environmental impacts: Negative impacts caused by collection activities on other wild species, the collection area and neighbouring areas shall be prevented. Section II: Legal and ethical requirements Principle 3. Complying with laws, regulations and agreements: Collection and management activities shall be carried out under legitimate tenure arrangements and comply with relevant laws, regulations and agreements. Principle 4. Respecting customary rights and benefit-sharing: Local communities’ and indigenous peoples’ customary rights to use and manage collection areas and wild-collected target resources shall be recognized, respected and protected.

Section III: Social and fair trade requirements Principle 5. Promoting fair contractual relationships between operators and collectors: Collectors have the structures and access to information needed to represent their interests and participate in FairWild Premium decisions. There is no discrimination against particular groups as collectors. Principle 6. Limiting participation of children in wild-collection activities: Collection and processing by collectors is done without substantial work by children. Principle 7. Ensuring benefits for collectors and their communities: Trade intermediaries are minimized, collectors are ensured a fair price for the collected goods and community social development is supported through means of a FairWild Premium fund. Principle 8. Ensuring fair working conditions for all workers of wild-collection operations: The collection operation ensures good working conditions for all workers of the wild-collection operation. Section IV: Management and business requirements Principle 9. Applying responsible management practices: Wild collection of target species shall be based on adaptive, practical, participatory and transparent management practices. Principle 10. Applying responsible business practices: Collection of wild resources shall be undertaken to support quality, financial and traceability requirements of the market without sacrificing sustainability of the resource. Principle 11. Promoting buyer commitment: The buyer of wild-collected products (e.g. importer) strives for mutually beneficial long-term trade relations with the wild-collection operation based on respect, transparency and support for the supplier in quality aspects.

3.3.

Project receives Outstanding Contribution award in 2011

In September 2011, in recognition of its role in demonstrating measurable positive outcomes in the project, WWF-China’s TCM programme received an “Outstanding Contribution” award jointly granted by the Chinese State Ministry of Environmental Protection (MEP), Ministry of Commerce, ECBP and the UNDP. According to WWF China: “One of our greatest outcomes has been in Daping Village, Pingwu County of Sichuan Province. In 2009, the Daping project successfully implemented China’s first sustainable harvesting and sales model of the wild herbal medicine, Schisandra. It also helped the community to establish its own TCM cooperative and sign a major contract with an American company. Since then, the impact of the project has been progressing and in November 2011, the cooperative will sign a 5-year MOU with an international purchaser” (WWF China, 2011). 3.4.

5-year letter of intent signed by the California and Chinese companies at end of project

At the end of the ECBP project on 15 November 2011, a new 5-year letter of intent was drafted and signed. This letter stated that it remained the intention of Traditional Medicinals (Sebastopol, California) to continue to support the aims of the ECBP by working in good cooperation with both Pingwu Shuijing TCM Cooperative (Shuijing Town, Sichuan) and Draco/Shanghai Tian Yuan Botanicals Products Company (Shanghai) towards gradually increasing the supply of sustainably harvested southern schisandra fruit. Furthermore, Traditional Medicinals stated its intention to continue supporting the efforts of the Pingwu Shuijing TCM Cooperative towards the goal of attaining certifications for conformance with relevant international sustainability standards such as the “Organic Wild-crop Harvesting Practice Standard” and the “FairWild Standard” (Brinckmann, 2011). See Figure 9.

Figure 9. Letter of Intent signed by Pingwu Shuijing TCM Cooperative, Traditional Medicinals, and Draco/Shanghai Tian Yuan Botanicals Products Company.

3.5.

Cooperative receives USDA NOP organic-wild certification for schisandra

The Pingwu Shuijing TCM Cooperative was inspected by the Institute for Market Ecology (IMO) on 10-11 March 2011 and again on 16 September 2011 resulting in receiving its first certification on 7 November 2011 for organic wild-collection of S. sphenanthera fruits in conformance with the USDA National Organic Program (NOP), Organic Wild-crop Harvesting Practice Standard, as defined in the United States Code of Federal Regulations, Title 7, Part 205 (7CFR §205) (Institute for Market Ecology, 2011). See Figure 10. The cooperative has maintained its organic wild certification having been inspected annually by IMO from 2009 through 2013. In 2014, IMO’s China office closed after which the cooperative decided to have its annual inspections transferred to CERES (Shanghai) Certification Co., Ltd. (CERES, 2014). From 2014 to 2017, annual inspections were carried out by and certificates issued by CERES.

Figure 10. IMO Control certificate issued to Pingwu Shuijing TCM Cooperative in 2011 for organic wild collection of S. sphenanthera.

The Organic Wild-crop Harvesting Practice Standard (United States Department of Agriculture, 2011) requires that a wild crop must be harvested in a manner that ensures that such harvesting or gathering will not harm the environment and will sustain the growth and production of the wild crop. To maintain certification, the certified organic wild harvesting operation must develop and maintain a wild-crop harvesting Organic System Plan (OSP) that includes, the requirements listed in Table 2. Table 2 Wild-crop harvesting Organic System Plan requirements 1 2 3 4

5

6

A full map of the area(s) to be harvested defining boundaries, borders, adequate buffer zones, point and non-point sources of contaminants and prohibited materials, and wild crops to be harvested. Documentation that no prohibited materials have been applied to or contaminated the land or aquatic area within the last three years. A description of the natural environment of the harvest area (e.g. scrub steppe, oak-chaparral woodland, deciduous hardwood forest). A description of the proposed ecosystem management and harvesting practices, the impact of their proposed harvesting on the long-term viability of the wild species and on the area’s ecosystem, and information on any equipment planned for use or being used to harvest and manage the wild-crop and ecosystem. o This should include a description of the monitoring system that will be used to ensure the crop is harvested in a sustainable manner that does not damage the environment, including soil and water quality. A list of any rare, threatened or endangered terrestrial or aquatic plants or animals that live in the harvest area. o The presence of rare, threatened, or endangered species in a wild harvest area does not automatically disqualify an operation from organic certification, but any potential or actual impacts need to be described and addressed. o If there are potential or actual negative impacts resulting from the wild-crop management and harvesting, actions that address and correct these impacts need to be described, implemented and monitored. The procedures used to prevent contamination from adjoining land use or other point or non-point sources contamination.

7 8

The training provided and the procedures employed to ensure that all collectors harvest crops in accordance with the OSP and in a manner that does not damage the environment. The recordkeeping system that identifies all collectors, documents management and harvest practices, and provides the quantities and dates of wild crops harvested.

3.6.

Standards for Giant Panda Friendly Products drafted in Chengdu

The first workshop on developing panda-friendly branding and the “Standards for Giant Panda Friendly Products” took place 13-14 November 2011 in Chengdu, Sichuan. The multi-stakeholder process included participants from WWF-China and their contracted international experts for the project, administration of Wanglang Nature Reserve, Longxi Hongkou Nature Reserve, Sichuan Forestry Department, Chengdu Institute of Biology (Chinese Academy of Sciences), Chengdu University of TCM, Sichuan Agricultural University, Sichuan University, inspection and certification bodies including IMO-China and EcoCert China, Maoxian Sichuan Pepper Association, Kangmai Institute of Community Development and Marketing, Pingwu Shuijing TCM Cooperative, and the participating companies, Draco/Shanghai Tian Yuan Botanicals Products Company and Traditional Medicinals. As a result of the first workshop, draft Version 1.0 of the panda friendly standard was distributed for comment in March 2012 (WWF China, 2012). A second round of public comment on the draft standard commenced in September 2015 which was followed-up with multi-stakeholder workshops in 2016 and 2017 to finalise the standard. The Standards for Giant Panda Friendly Products (WWF China, 2012) included criteria and indicators for independent inspection and verification to determine that the harvested TCM materials have features of being:  Harvested or produced from giant panda distribution areas and the Giant Panda Special Region. Giant Panda Special Region is what WWF is proposing and advocating the Chinese government to establish that will cover all the administrative and geographic areas with giant panda distribution in China. They will include giant panda reserves, habitats, corridors, and habitat restoration areas. It aims to create an eco-geographic area that cross different landscapes and ecosystems and are favourable to gene exchange of giant panda and habitat expansion;  Value-added in compliance with the requirements of international organic standards for production;  Wild-harvested or cultivated in the natural ecosystem according to traditional methods;  Favourable or bring no harm to the maintenance and improvement of wild giant panda populations, habitat quality and areas, giant panda distribution area and corridors during their entire production links, including wild-harvesting, cultivation, post-harvest processing, and sales;  Sustainable use of natural resources and traceable;  Equitable economic returns to the rural communities and fair benefit-sharing among the community members;  Enhance the investment and management levels of community-driven giant panda conservation. 3.7.

Project receives UNDP Equator Prize in 2012

In May 2012, the ECBP panda friendly schisandra project was recognised with the UNDP Equator Prize. The Equator Prize recognises outstanding local initiatives to advance sustainable development solutions for people, nature and resilient communities (United Nations Development Programme, 2013). See Figure 11. By 2015, there were 262 households registered on the S. sphenanthera fruit purchase list, of which 122 of the listed collectors were women (personal communication, Xin He, March 17, 2017).

Figure 11. Cover of UNDP Equator Prize Winner Case Study on the project.

3.8.

FairWild Standard authorised by CNCA in 2016

In October 2014, a delegation of participants from the FairWild Foundation Secretariat (Cambridge, UK), TRAFFIC China office (Beijing, P.R. China), TRAFFIC International headquarters office (Cambridge, UK), and Traditional Medicinals (Sebastopol, CA), met in Beijing with the China Quality Mark Certification Group (CQM) to discuss the regulatory requirements and process for the Chinese government to authorise the FairWild Standard for the inspection and certification of prospective FairWild operations in China. In the meantime, CQM was renamed as the China Standard Conformity Assessment Co., Ltd (CSCA). CSCA works under the Certification and Accreditation Administration of the People's Republic of China (CNCA), the national authority that decides whether a standard can be implemented and certified within China. The CNCA is a division of the State Administration of Quality, Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (AQSIQ). After the initial 2014 meeting, TRAFFIC China office functioned as a liaison leading to the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between FairWild Foundation and the CSCA to introduce the FairWild Standard as a certifiable standard in China. In August 2016, TRAFFIC China Office became registered with CNCA as the focal point for the FairWild Standard with CSCA registered as the first inspection and certification body in China authorised to implement the FairWild certification system. On October 25, 2017, a final agreement was signed between the FairWild Foundation and the CSCA, marking the accreditation of CSCA as the exclusive inspection and certification body for the FairWild Standard in the People’s Republic of China (FairWild Foundation, 2017). 3.9.

Standards for Giant Panda Friendly Products authorised by CNCA in 2017

Five years after the 2012 drafting of Version 1.0 of the Standards for Giant Panda Friendly Products, the process to formally register a final version of the certification standard through the CNCA was prioritised in the 2017 work plan of WWF-China. Co-authors of this study working at the Chengdu programme office of WWF-China (Qiang Xu and Xin He), in collaboration with Professor JinLin Guo at the Chengdu University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, played leading roles in pushing the initiative forward, meeting with the CNCA decision group in Beijing and facilitating the final multi-stakeholder workshop in April 2017, toward completion of the final version of the standard by summer 2017.

In November 2017, the status of the panda-friendly standard was made official as a Chinese national standard. The first operation to be inspected for compliance with the new standard was the Pingwu Shuijing TCM Cooperative for wild-collected S. sphenanthera fruit. The cooperative was inspected in November 2017, after which China’s first panda-friendly certification was issued in March 2018 by the Certification and Accreditation Administration of the People's Republic of China (CNCA). (Figure 12). Figure 13 shows a flyer developed by WWF-China in December 2017 announcing the application of the new Chinese standard for sustainable panda friendly wild collected southern schisandra fruit. At the time of this research, public events to officially announce the new Chinese standard, jointly organised by CNCA and WWF-China, were being planned to occur during the 2018 schisandra fruit harvest season. In 2018, the Chinese government-led panda-friendly labelling initiative ran a nationwide contest to develop the certification logo for branding of panda-friendly certified products. Figure 14 shows the finalist logo that will be authorised for use on labels of products containing panda-friendly certified ingredients.

Figure 12. Panda-friendly certification issued to the Pingwu Shuijing TCM Cooperative in March 2018.

Figure 13: WWF-China flyer announcing the launch of the Chinese Standards for Giant Panda Friendly Products.

Figure 14. Finalist logo for labelling of panda friendly certified products.

3.10. Annual increases in sales of sustainable schisandra and expanding the range of panda-friendly offerings The 5-year letter of intent signed in November 2011 proposed quantitative targets for the gradual sustainable increase of annual production of S. sphenanthera fruits to match the final buyers’ demand requirements by 2015. The first buyer in the value chain, Draco/Shanghai Tian Yuan Botanicals Products Company purchases dried ripe fruits from the Pingwu Shuijing TCM Cooperative and manufactures a dry aqueous extract for the end-user, Traditional Medicinals. A dry aqueous extract is a solid preparation obtained by using water as the extraction solvent followed by evaporation of the extraction solvent resulting in a dry extract that is water-soluble (European Pharmacopoeia Commission, 2018). The native extract in this case has on average a concentration ratio of 10 : 1 (w/w). This means that for each metric ton (MT) of dry extract, 10 MT of dried fruits are needed. Table 3 shows the gradual increases in annual quantities produced and sold by the TCM cooperative to the extraction house from 2009 to present.

Table 3 Pingwu Shuijing TCM Cooperative sales of dried southern schisandra berries from harvests 2009 through 2017 Harvest year

Quantity sold (dry weight)

No. of villages

No. of harvesters

No. of households

No. of villages overlapping panda habitat

2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017

0.5 MT 6.0 MT 12.0 MT 12.8 MT 15.6 MT 18.0 MT 26.0 MT 26.0 MT 30.0 MT

1

110

48

1

Estimated no. of pandas in Pingwu County 230 *

22

368

300

12

335 **

* based on China’s third national panda survey (1998-2002) - ** based on China’s fourth national panda survey (2011-2014)

At a September 2015 joint meeting of the Pingwu Shuijing TCM Cooperative, Traditional Medicinals, and Draco/Shanghai Tian Yuan Botanicals Products Company, representatives of most of the participating villages in the cooperative were in attendance as well as representatives of the Chengdu University of Traditional Chinese Medicine and of WWF China Chengdu Programme Office. At this meeting, the cooperative made a presentation stating that they were ready to branch out beyond the original focus on S. sphenanthera fruits. To bring more household income and to bolster the economic viability of the cooperative, it was proposed that several additional TCM materials could now be added to their panda friendly and certified organic management plans. Specifically discussed were Radix Angelicae Sinensis (dried root of Angelica sinensis (Oliv.) Diels; Family: Apiaceae), Rhizoma Gastrodiae (dried tuber of Gastrodia elata Bl.; Family: Orchidaceae), Flos Magnoliae Officinalis (dried flower bud of Magnolia officinalis Rehd. et Wils.; Family: Magnoliaceae), and Radix et Rhizoma Rhei (dried root and rhizome of Rheum palmatum L. or Rheum officinale Baill.; Family: Polygonaceae).

4. Conclusions A decade after the project first started, there is strong evidence for the pro-conservation microand small enterprise model that was developed in the context of the EU-China Biodiversity Programme (ECBP), implemented through WWF China and other partners between 2007 to 2011. After demonstrating feasibility of the model in Daping Village during 2008 to 2009, a TCM materials cooperative was established which then participated in the scaling out of the model to include trained harvesters from 22 villages with an aim to meet the demand requirements of the participating California company, but gradually and sustainably as measured through criteria and indicators of relevant international standards that provide environmental, economic and social sustainability metrics. Ten years on, in 2017, 22 villages in the panda habitat area are engaged in sustainable resource management, harvesting and equitable trade of TCM ingredients with the potential for “organic,” “FairWild,” and “panda-friendly” branding. The project benefited from multi-disciplinary collaboration of experts in ethnoecology, TCM, panda biology and habitat, nature conservation, sustainability standards and international trade. The decision to invite selected socially-responsible companies to participate in the project at the start enabled a transition from a government fundedproject that tested a theory from 2007 to 2011 to practical business with steadily increasing annual contracts from 2012 to 2017 for sustainably harvested schisandra. Furthermore, the opportunity to make the cooperative more economically viable into the future exists through the plans to diversify and add several other TCM materials to the resource management plan. The TCM cooperative will

need to identify additional customers agreeable to paying a price premium for sustainably produced materials requiring a whole ecosystem approach such as harvesting practices that will not be detrimental to the long-term survival of giant pandas. Despite the government funded project ending in 2011, the companies and NGOs remained engaged motivating for completion of activities started during the project. Major eventual outcomes rooted in the initial project included Chinese government authorisation of the FairWild Standard in 2016 and the Standards for Giant Panda Friendly Products in 2017. The eventual ability of TCM producer organisations to export sustainably wild-collected medicinal plants, that are value-added with organic wild, FairWild and panda friendly certifications, will be traceable back to this project.

Declaration of interest Lead author, Josef A. Brinckmann (J.A.B.), is an employee of Traditional Medicinals, the California company that participated in the ECBP project, and a member of the FairWild Foundation board of trustees. Wei Luo (W.L.) is an employee of the Pingwu Shuijing Traditional Chinese Medicinal Material Planting Specialised Cooperative, the cooperative that was established during the ECBP project. Two co-authors, Qiang Xu (Q.X.) and Xin He (X.H.), are employees of WWF-China, the NGO that managed the ECBP project. Co-author Jerry Wu (J.W.) is President of Draco Natural Products, a Chinese company that participated in the ECBP project. Co-author, Anthony B. Cunningham (A.B.C.), served as an ethnoecology and ethnobotany expert contracted by WWF-China throughout the ECBP project.

Author's contributions J.A.B. and A.B.C. planned the review, which was written by J.A.B. and A.B.C., with additional contributions from W.L., Q.X., X.H., and J.W. Production and sales data were provided by W.L. and J.W. and the map in Figure 5 was modified by A.B.C. from a base map provided by the WWF Chengdu Programme office. Photographs in Figures 2 and 3 by J.A.B. Photographs in Figure 7 by J.A.B. (left) and courtesy of Pingwu Shuijing TCM Cooperative (right).

Acknowledgements We acknowledge funding from the ECBP project (the “Sustainable Management of Traditional Medicinal Plants in the High-Biodiversity Landscapes of Upper Yangtze Eco-region”), which was funded by the EU, implemented by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and managed by World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) China in partnership with the Sichuan Administrative Bureau of Traditional Chinese Medicine, the Ecology Committee for Natural Resources of Chinese Materia Medica, Sichuan Provincial Forestry Department and local people in pilot-study villages. We also acknowledge support from Susanne Honnef (then at WWF-Germany), who originally suggested this particular ECBP project and the link to TCM. We would also like to thank Professor Jinlin Guo, Pharmacy College, Chengdu University of Traditional Chinese Medicine/The Ministry of Education Key Laboratory of Standardization of Chinese Herbal Medicine and our colleagues at the Chengdu Institute of Biology (Professor Luo Peng), the Sichuan Forestry Bureau, Pingwu Forestry Bureau, Sichuan Wanglang National Nature Reserve, Sichuan Xiaohegou Nature Reserve, Chengdu Traditional Chinese Medicine University, Sichuan Agricultural University, Sichuan University and the Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine of Sichuan who supported project implementation in many ways. References

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