LAUSR

Medicinal herb collection has historical and cultural roots in many rural communities in developing countries. Areas where herb collection occurs may overlap with biodiversity hotspots and crucial habitat of endangered and threatened species. However, impacts of such practices on wildlife are unknown and possibly underestimated, perhaps due to the elusive nature of such activities. We examined this phenomenon in Wolong Nature Reserve, China, a protected area in the South-Central China biodiversity hotspot that also supports a community of Tibetan, Qiang, and Han people who use herb collection as a supplementary source of livelihood. We adopted a participatory approach in which we engaged local people in outlining the spatial and temporal dynamics of medicinal herb collection practices. We found that the overall spatial extent of herb collection increased in the past two decades. We then overlaid herb collection maps with giant panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca (David, 1869)) feces surveys collected over two time points in the reserve. Using a Bayesian parameter estimation, we found evidence of reduced giant panda occurrence in the areas most recently impacted by emerging medicinal herb collection. Our methodology demonstrates the potential power of integrating participatory approaches with quantitative methods for processes like herb collection that may be difficult to examine empirically. We discuss future directions for improving explanatory power and addressing uncertainty in this type of mixed-method, interdisciplinary research. This work has broad implications for understanding whether and how human activities that do not seem directly relevant to wildlife may impact animals in unexpected ways. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.