1. Case Background

Cordyceps sinensis is a rare and unique species in the Qinghai Tibet Plateau. It mainly grows in alpine meadows with an altitude of 3,700m to 4,800m. It is classified as vulnerable in the IUCN Red List Categories. According to statistics, the annual output of Cordyceps sinensis in the world is only about 300 tons. Qinghai Province is rich in Cordyceps sinensis resources, and Yushu Prefecture produces more 60% of Cordyceps sinensis in the total output of Qinghai Province. The Cordyceps sinensis in Yushu Prefecture is featured by large sizes and high quality. Tuanjie Village, Bagan Township, Qumalai County, Yushu Prefecture, Qinghai Province, is one of the main producing areas in Yushu Prefecture. Located in the Sanjiangyuan area, known as the "China Water Tower", it is not only the main water source in China and an important ecological belt, but also an important global biodiversity protection area. The area is rich in ecological resources, but the biodiversity is very vulnerable. Most of the hillside vegetation is no more than 20 cm thick, so it is difficult to repair the human destruction.

Over the past 20 years, to make a fortune, a large number of people have entered the Cordyceps sinensis production area to dig Cordyceps sinensis. They have destroyed the local alpine meadow ecosystem, affected the wildlife habitat, sharply reduced the number of Cordyceps sinensis population, and threatened the biodiversity protection of alpine grassland. At the same time, a large number of Cordyceps diggers have also caused other damages and pollution: because of a sharp increase in non-degradable plastic waste, cattle and sheep die of swallowing waste; Some garbage is incinerated in the open air, endangering human health; Part of the garbage is directly poured into the river, endangering aquatic organisms and water quality and water safety.

Cordyceps sinensis is the main source of income for herdsmen. For pursuing the high income from Cordyceps sinensis, herdsmen generally reduce their input in traditional animal husbandry, and some even give up grazing. More than 75% of the average household income of herdsmen in Tuanjie Village comes from Cordyceps sinensis. Once the Cordyceps sinensis resources are exhausted, the future livelihood of herdsmen will be seriously affected. It is an urgent issue to maintain the balance between the protection and rational utilization of Cordyceps sinensis resources, protect the ecological environment, ensure the income of herdsmen, and realize the sustainable development of Cordyceps sinensis industry.

According to the investigation on local herdsmen, 45% of the respondents believe that grassland ecological degradation causes the reduction of Cordyceps sinensis population; 38% believe that the climate change should be to blame. After all, ecological degradation is closely related to climate change and human destruction.

2. Protection Measures and Successful Practices

Since 2016, Beijing office of Future Generations China (hereinafter referred to as "Fugun" ), an environmental protection public welfare organization, has worked with local communities and governments to build a community-based Cordyceps sinensis resource protection and sustainable development model. 

The main protection measures are as follows:

1. Technical support and training

The local government has carried out field research and interviews to study the growth environment, habits and human influencing factors of Cordyceps sinensis. The Fugun task force has continuously carried out tracking research at the place of origin during the Cordyceps sinensis season from May to June every year. The task force members have interviewed local government officials, community herdsmen and schools to understand the impact of climate change on the ecological environment of alpine meadow, and the Cordyceps sinensis yield and quality; the development of local Cordyceps sinensis industry and market, as well as the resource management methods and results. Through the interviews with herdsmen, the task force members also have deepened their understanding on how the Cordyceps sinensis has affected herdsmen income, production and life. Then, the task force has compiled research reports, submitted the research results to the local government, and put forward suggestions on the protection of Cordyceps sinensis resources.

2. The establishment of Cordyceps sinensis bases by the local government

The local government has established two monitoring bases and recruited ecologists to conduct comprehensive and systematic research on Cordyceps sinensis resources, and guided villagers to participate in the monitoring and calculation of Cordyceps sinensis quantity in the base.

3. Optimizing the Cordyceps sinensis management system and supporting the establishment and operation of community organizations

The community has been promoted to improve the management system of Cordyceps sinensis. Community-based scientific digging protection and publicity institutions have been established, and the joint patrol has been set up based on the existing patrol teams. In line with the social traditions of pastoral areas, the task force has supported the local community to establish piecemeal management based on family bonds. From 2018 to 2019, 92% of the local villagers participated in Cordyceps sinensis protection and community-level environmental cleaning activities. At least 72 activities have been carried out in two years, and nearly 1,500 tons of domestic waste have been collected and transported.

4. Publicity and education on scientific mining of Cordyceps sinensis organized through meetings, training and ecological and environmental protection roleplays. Specific actions are listed as follows:

● Local environmental protection organizations and key figures have been supported to carry out routine publicity and education activities on Cordyceps sinensis protection and community-level environmental governance;

● Vivid Chinese-Tibetan bilingual encyclopedia of Cordyceps sinensis and scientific digging manuals and wall charts were compiled and printed;

● Local teachers have been trained to participate in the protection of Cordyceps sinensis, led students to carry out the publicity of Cordyceps sinensis protection knowledge through various activities, such as picking up plastic waste in the field and arranging ecological and environmental protection roleplays with, so as to mobilize the local community to participate in the protection of Cordyceps sinensis resources.

5. Developing sustainable alternative livelihoods of local herdsmen by the government authorities, Fugun and other environment protection organizations

Local herdsmen have been guided to develop leisure tourism modes, such as ecological experience, and develop local ecological products, so as to improve their income and livelihood. The project experience can be applied to other protected areas and surrounding areas where the local communities locate. At present, this mode has been expanded to five villages in Sanjiangyuan, Qilian Mountain National Park and Qinghai Lake Nature Reserve.

● Assistance has been provided to local communities to set up a Tibetan sugar product working group operated by local women and establish sustainable Tibetan sugar production and marketing mechanisms.

● Talents have been developed to provide better ecological experience for customers. Talents are more capable of introducing ecological experience routes and providing commentaries, attracting external resources, helping local communities continuously optimize the environment of ecological experience and improving the customers’ satisfaction toward ecological experience.

● Support has been given to local communities to establish vegetable planting greenhouses and carry out vegetable planting training, so as to enable local communities to achieve vegetable self-sufficiency and provide catering services with ecological experience.

The successful experience of Cordyceps sinensis resource protection can be popularized and are sustainable, shown as follows:

1. Taking the community as the responsible organizer and fully leveraging the existing resource system

The existing community-level discussion committee for Cordyceps sinensis has been fully utilized to integrate the sustainable utilization and nature protection of Cordyceps sinensis, and make decisions and actions led by the community. This method is quite endogenous and sustainable.

2. Tripartite partnerships have been built to promote multi-stakeholder cooperation

A tripartite communication, cooperation, supervision and incentive mechanism has been established between the government, scientific research institutions and communities to coordinate different parties and realize the sustainable utilization of Cordyceps sinensis resources.

3. Local leaders have been cultivated to protect the environment

Community leaders are trained to organize publicity and other activities so that local protection program of Cordyceps sinensis resource is more adaptable, more influential and sustainable.

4.Through a virtuous cycle of "raising awareness and consensus – taking common action - summarizing based on facts - reaching new consensus - generating more effective actions", the community generates protection ability and actions.

5.School-society joint model for environmental education

The real environmental problems in the community are used to improve students' environmental protection awareness and problem-solving ability. Through students' influence on parents, the environmental education in the school can be extended to every family in the community.

6. The local community is empowered, and the subjective initiative of the indigenous community is mobilized

By training local community leaders and cultivating local organizations, the community has the ability to effectively manage natural resources, and own the accommodation ability toward the ecological experience and organic product sales and other capabilities, so as to carry out sustainable operation of community ecotourism development projects.

7. The project promotes the local government to improve management methods and provide policy support to villages and communities

Flexible adjustments have been made according to the realities of the community. Support has been given to the promotion of ecological experience projects and ecological product projects, and appropriate subsidies have been allocated to protection activities.

8. Sustainable fund

Based on the integration of government, market, experts and community forces, the local society and fund have been fully utilized to reach long-term and sustainable Cordyceps sinensis resource protection project in a small amount of capital.

9. Rewarding the community

The collective economic dividends and other ways have been used to feed the vulnerable groups in the community, maintain community unity and stability and achieve balanced development.

3. Major Achievements

(1) Ecological and environmental benefits

1. The restoration of the of alpine meadow ecological environment by limiting the number of diggers outside

Since 2017, the number of outside diggers has been reduced by 30%, 240,000 mu of alpine meadow has been protected, the human activities on the ecological environment have been reduced, and the ecological environment of alpine meadow has been restored.

2. Sustainable mining methods have been popularized and Cordyceps sinensis resources have been protected

In 2019, 97% of the respondents said they would backfill the soil after digging Cordyceps sinensis, an increase of 80% compared with 2018. Also, the proportion of plants left during the digging season was increased by 41%.

3. Domestic waste, plastic waste and other environmental pollution problems have been alleviated

According to the interview and survey of Fugun, in 2019, up to 94% of herdsmen can recycle garbage and send it to the designated points when picking up Cordyceps sinensis or grazing, and the garbage left in Caoshan Mountain has been greatly reduced. The proportion of herdsmen carrying non-disposable tableware and unpackaged food increased by more than 10%. Through the garbage collection activities spontaneously organized by the citizens, 1,500 tons of garbage were collected and transported in two years, and 92% of herdsmen participated in ecological protection. According to the water quality test of the community, the river pollution at the Cordyceps sinensis collection and digging points, such as Yueqinggou Trench, has been improved.

(2) Social benefits

1. Through various publicity, training and guidance, the villagers of Tuanjie Village have gradually improved their knowledge of Cordyceps sinensis and scientific digging practice, and their awareness of environmental protection.

2. Local governments, communities, scientific research institutions and non-governmental organizations have jointly explored sustainable alternative livelihoods to reduce local herdsmen's overdependence on Cordyceps sinensis.

3. The ability and opportunities of women and youth to participate in social affairs have been improved, so as to promote community equity and traditional national culture.

4. This case has been listed as an excellent case by the UNESCO Chair on Sustainable Tourism in UNESCO Designated Sites and gains viewing times of more than 40,000.

About the author：WANG Junyan, Beijing Office of Future Generations China;YU Huiling, Beijing Office of Future Generations China; ZHENG Haixia, Agricultural Information Institute of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences