Overview of MAP sector in SEE:

problems, threats, challenges.

How to proceed?

Prof. dr Zora Dajić Stevanović

University of Belgrade, Faculty of Agriculture

dajic@agrif.bg.ac.rs

Problems in MAP sectors in SEE

1. Political and economical constrains

2. Impact of depopulation of rural areas

Impact on collectors

Impact on biodiversity

3. Improper management of MAP

4. Low value adding

5. Underutilized opportunities

1. Political and economic

constrains

• War, transition and isolation

• Economy and agriculture collapse

• Bankrupt of former state MAP

processing companies and industry

• Loss of former markets

• Corruption and grey economy

• Week legislation framework

• Devitalized MAP sector

2. Impact of depopulation of rural areas

A. Collector loss

Country Current No of

collectors

No of collectors in

1999s

Albania 75.000 150.000

BiH 50.000-100.000 150.000

Croatia ? 50.000-100.000

Serbia 50.000

5000-10.000 MAP

150.000

Montenegro 10.000-20.000

? (50.000)

Kosovo 9000 ? (50.000)

Macedonia 60.000 ? (150.000 – 200.000)

• Migration towards cities

• Lack of investments in rural

areas

• No subsidiaries and credit access

• Collapse of cooperatives

• Devastation of rural mountain

regions

• Infrastructure

• Minor perspective

Traditional knowledge

• Long tradition of use

• Collector’s plant recognition

• Traditional production practices

• Loss of collectors:

• Jeopardizing the sector

• Loss of Ethnobotanical and

Ethnopharmacological knowledge

Profile of MAP collector in SEE

• Old people in rural

areas

• Woman and man

• Unemployed

• Undereducated

• Other marginal groups

• (Roma, refugees)

Social position

and collector problems

• (mainly) Part time and unvalued activity

• Unfair payments

• Insecure sale

• Insufficient market access

• No functional collector’s associations and

registration

• Lack in facilities for primary processing

• Lack in training and education

• Gender issues

2. Impact of depopulation of rural areas

B. Impact on biodiversity

• Habitat loss and habitat fragmentation

• Improper management of natural resources →

vegetation succession

• Overgrazing and excessive fertilization

• Under-grazing

• Abandonment of grasslands and farming areas

• Coastal tourism

• Swamp drying and wet habitats melioration

↓

LOSS OF BIODIVERSITY OF MAP SPECIES

Overharvesting

• Excessive exploitation in

areas of limited size

• Rare species

• Drugs: roots,

rhizomes, bark, juice,

three flowers and

leaves (cutting

branches)

• Salep case

Key Endangered MAP species in SEE

Species Country Cause

Gentiana lutea All SEE Overharvesting

Arctostaphyllos uva ursi BiH, SRB,

MAC, KOS

Overharvesting

Sideritis raeseri MAC, KOS,

ALB

Overharvesting

Salvia officinalis ALB, MAC,

BiH

Overharvesting

Helichrysum spp. CRO, MAC,

SRB, KOS, BiH

Overharvesting

Orchidaceae BiH, MAC,

KOS

Overharvesting

Main threats to biodiversity

• Habitat loss and

degradation

• Habitat fragmentation

• Over-collecting

• Improper harvest practices

• Pollution and climate

change

Summary: Socio-economic aspects of

MAP resources conservation

Transition period

Economy and agriculture

collapse

Depopulation of rural areas

Under-grazing and land

abandonment

Decline of collectors

3. Improper management of plant

resources

• Underdeveloped legislation/Enforcement

• No quota system/not developed

• Lack of monitoring and resources assessment

• Slow issuing of relevant literature

• Red books and Red lists (lacking for MNE, KOS, MAC, BiH)

• Weak management in PA

• Low state funding

• No coordinated NWFP and MAP wild collecting

• No taxes and incomes coming to PA

• Weak promotion of bio-resources and relations with

eco/ethnotourism

• Weak public awareness

National Legislation

Albania Law on protected areas, 2002, Law on biodiversity protection, 2006

Law on forests, 1992, Law on pastures and meadows, 1995

Law on the protection of medicinal, tannic acid and oil bearing plants,

1992

BiH Law on forests, 2002, Law on protection of nature, 2000,2008

Law on medicinal products, 2001, Law on national parks, 1996

Serbia Law on nature protection, 2009, Law on environment protection, 2004,

Directive on control of use and trade of wild plant and animal species,

1996, 1999, 2005, 2011, Law on national parks, 2005, 2009, 2012, Law on

forests, 2010

Croatia Law on environmental protection, 1994, 1999, Law on nature protection,

2005, The ordinance of proclamation of wild taxa as protected and

strictly protected, 2009

Montenegro Law on nature protection, 2008, Law on environment, 2008,

Law on national parks, 2009, Law on protection of rare, endangered,

threatened and endemic species, 2006

Kosovo Law on Kosovo forests, 2004, law on plant protection, 2007

Macedonia Law on nature protection, 2004, Law on environment, 2005

Regulation of permitting the collection of endangered species, 2009

4. Value adding

Raw material traded

Only 10-30% of the total collected quantity processed

Low quality primary processing facilities/primitive

Lack in technology and equipment for higher

processing phases and value adding

Lack of facilities for diversification of products

Packaging, storage

Marketing and promotion

Product quality/quality control

Branding, standardization and certification

5. Underutilized opportunities

- slow sector development

• Insufficiently used resources

• Number of species/populations/areas

• Insufficient product quality/control

• Low implementation of standards and certification

• Access to foreign markets

• Small areas under cultivated MAP

• Total: less than 10.000 ha

• Weak professional associations

• Weak relations with research

• Poor regional collaboration

Challenges and needs

Needs for MAP conservation in SEE region

• Identification of target and priority species

• Identification of priority habitats

• Permanent resources monitoring (quantity, quality and state of populations)

• Identification of threats

• Vulnerability to climate change

• Indicators for assessments of risks

• Conservation action and management plans

• Sustainable use strategies

• Public awareness and local community involvement

• Estimation and valorization of the real MAP resource value

Challenges for increasing

export and trade of MAP in SEE

• High potential, but slow increasing

• Under-utilized resources and possibilities

• Different starting points of individual

countries

• Different export values: from max 1 mill US $

(MNE, KOS) to about 20 mill US $ (ALB)

• In total (with wild fruits and mushrooms)

app. 100 mill US $

• Closed and static regional market

• On average: 1500-2000 t of MAP exported

• Serbia: 5000 t out of MAP 2000 t

• Albania: over 7000 t

STRUCTURE

• Raw material (All SEE countries)

• Essential oils (Albania, about 40 t)

• Teas (Serbia, Croatia) – regional markets

How to proceed? Opportunities:

• Increase of export

• Increasing demand for MAP

• Biodiversity conservation in relation to sustainable

use of MAP

• Cultivation

• Value-adding

• Education, training, research

• Collaboration

• Branding, marketing, promotion

Implementation of standards in wild

collection of MAP

• Guidelines on good agricultural and collection

practices (GACP) for medicinal plants (WHO, 2003)

• Improvement of distribution, abundance, sustainable

management and use of MAP

• International Standard for Sustainable Wild Collection

of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants (ISSC-MAP, 2007 by

BfN, WWF, TRAFFIC, IUCN)

• Fair Wild Standards (FairWild Foundation of WWF and

Traffic, 2011)

MAP CULTIVATION

• Land use and rural development

• Acquiring of cultivation technologies

• Endangered /economically important species

• Use of marginal soils

• Standards implementation • Common Agricultural Policy (CAP, 2003)

• Good Agriculture Practices (GAP, 2003)

• Good Agriculture and Collection Practices for MAP (GACP, 2003)

• Organic production standards

Good news: the strengths

• Favorable conditions for cultivation

• Soil, climate, available land,

mechanization and other facilities

• High biodiversity and high stocks

• Tradition and knowledge

• Good product quality

• Settled legislation framework

• Research potential

Recommendations

NATIONAL LEVEL REGIONAL LEVEL

Legal framework

improvement, enforcement

Regional business

association

Sustainable management

and use of MAP

Regional certification

Capacity building (PA

management, processing)

Regional branding

Standardization and

certification

Trade missions, fairs,

exhibitions

Promotion of sector,

increase of export

Research Programs

Project ideas for MAP in SEE

• Preservation of ethnobotany and traditional

knowledge related to MAP

• MAP resources assessment in target

areas/methodology development

• Conservation of endangered/economically

important MAP

• Research on MAP endemics

• Development of cultivation technologies

• New products/processing technologies creation

and promotion

General goal: promotion of

sustainable MAP utilization