Tibetan poachers target Bhutan's 'miracle' fungus

[emad]

Tibetan poachers target Bhutan's 'miracle' fungus

Surge in demand for traditional Chinese medicine threatens national park

Robin McKie, science editor
Sunday September 11, 2005
The Observer


One of the world's most precious environments, Bhutan's Jigme Dorji National Park - home to tigers, snow leopards, and black-necked cranes - is being threatened by fungus hunters.

The park, famed for its hot springs that attract thousands of trekkers every year, is being dug up by collectors of caterpillars infected by the fungus Cordyceps sinensis

Cordyceps is a traditional Chinese medicine, and the fungus's popularity has soared in the last couple of years to the point where it now sells for $7,000 (£3,800) a kilogram, half the price of gold. It is this price hike that has triggered the crisis at Jigme Dorji, one of the few places in the world where Cordyceps is found.

'Millions of fungus-infected caterpillars are being dug up every year,' said Paul Cannon, of Cabi Bioscience, an intergovernmental agency that promotes sustained use of the environment in developing nations. 'That is utterly unsustainable.'

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,1567221,00.html

[Massacure]

1. Give a kilo of it to big pharma.

They'll be more than willing to synthesize it and sell two kilos of it for a kilo of gold. :sarcasm: