Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Figures and Tables
- Preface
- Abbreviations
- 1 Introduction: Informal exchanges and contending connectivity along the shadow silk roads
- 2 Fragmented sovereignty and unregulated flows: The Bangladesh-China-India-Myanmar corridor
- 3 In and out of the shadows: Pakistan-China trade across the Karakoram Mountains
- 4 Circulations in shadow corridors: Connectivity in the Northern Bay of Bengal
- 5 Past and present: Shadows of the China-Ladakh-Pakistan routes
- 6 Formal versus informal practices: Trade of medicinal and aromatic plants via Trans- Himalayan Silk Road
- 7 Formal versus informal Chinese presence: The underbelly of hope in the Western Balkans
- 8 State approaches to non-state interactions: Cross-border flows in Xinjiang and Kazakhstan
- 9 Integration in post-Soviet Central Asia: Shadow-economy practices and the cross-Eurasian flow of commodities
- 10 In the shadow of constructed borderlands: China’s One Belt One Road and European economic governance
- 11 High-end globalization and low-end globalization: African traders across Afro-Asia
- Index
- Publications / Global Asia
6 - Formal versus informal practices: Trade of medicinal and aromatic plants via Trans- Himalayan Silk Road
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 November 2020
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Figures and Tables
- Preface
- Abbreviations
- 1 Introduction: Informal exchanges and contending connectivity along the shadow silk roads
- 2 Fragmented sovereignty and unregulated flows: The Bangladesh-China-India-Myanmar corridor
- 3 In and out of the shadows: Pakistan-China trade across the Karakoram Mountains
- 4 Circulations in shadow corridors: Connectivity in the Northern Bay of Bengal
- 5 Past and present: Shadows of the China-Ladakh-Pakistan routes
- 6 Formal versus informal practices: Trade of medicinal and aromatic plants via Trans- Himalayan Silk Road
- 7 Formal versus informal Chinese presence: The underbelly of hope in the Western Balkans
- 8 State approaches to non-state interactions: Cross-border flows in Xinjiang and Kazakhstan
- 9 Integration in post-Soviet Central Asia: Shadow-economy practices and the cross-Eurasian flow of commodities
- 10 In the shadow of constructed borderlands: China’s One Belt One Road and European economic governance
- 11 High-end globalization and low-end globalization: African traders across Afro-Asia
- Index
- Publications / Global Asia
Summary
Abstract
The trading of medicinal and aromatic plants (MAPs) is a traditional means of livelihood in rural areas along the Trans-Himalayan Silk Road and is an important source of revenue for the government of Nepal. Researchers estimate that the officially recorded export value of Nepalese MAPs is many times less than the amount actually exported. MAPs in Nepal are harvested by individuals mostly from the wild and are channelled through intermediate actors within a confusing policy environment. An official permit is required to collect ‘non-timber forest products’ and the Department of Forestry is responsible for regulating the MAPs trade in Nepal by issuing permits and collecting revenue. The hidden economy and informal practices are thus more likely to be used in sectors where permissions are necessary for harvesting, locally transporting, and exporting any commodity.
Keywords: Trans-Himalayan Silk Road, medicinal and aromatic plants, informal practices, Nepal
Introduction
Medicinal and aromatic plants (MAPs) are defined as plants, mushrooms, and lichens, or parts derived from them, that are traded to produce pharmaceuticals, dietary supplement products, natural health products, cosmetics, and foodstuffs (Gurung and Pyakurel, 2017; Smith-Hall et al., 2018). The global export market of MAPs was valued at around US$2.6 billion in 2016 (World Bank, 2018), with China and India being the major players (Khan and Rauf, 2014). Nepal, as a biodiverse country with a wide range of climate and altitudinal variations (FAO, 2009), is also rich in growing medicinal plants. The trade in medicinal plants is economically significant to many rural livelihoods (Olsen and Larsen, 2003) and is an important source of revenue for the government (Phoboo, Devkota, and Jha, 2006). But only a small amount of these MAPs is consumed in Nepalese domestic markets (Chapagain et al., 2019); the bulk are exported to India, China, and abroad (Olsen, 2005; Ghimire et al., 2016; MOC, 2016; Pyakurel, Sharma, and Smith- Hall, 2018; World Bank, 2018; Pyakurel et al., 2019; Smith-Hall et al., 2019).
MAPs are highly sought after in China and India (Khan and Rauf, 2014; World Bank, 2018) due to their high levels of bioactive compounds and medicinal efficiency (Phoboo, Devkota, and Jha, 2006).
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Shadow Exchanges along the New Silk Roads , pp. 145 - 162Publisher: Amsterdam University PressPrint publication year: 2020