Review of cordyceps collection timing; duration and monitoring

Having established a brand for itself, Ophiocordyceps sinensis, commonly known as cordyceps has seen increase in its market value. It is taxonomically a fungus which infects a caterpillar and found above 4200 to 5200 meters above sea level in Bhutan. Collection of cordyceps in Bhutan was legalized only in 2004, after which various measures were adopted to ensure its sustainability, including, controlling the number of permits issued to collect and also restricting the collection only for a month.

Alpine region of Bhutan sees thousands of cordyceps collectors every year for a month and the number of collectors seems to be on an increasing trend every year. In Bhutan, people from 18 gewogs within eight dzongkhags are involved in collecting cordyceps, however number of permits issued vary widely within the gewogs. For this study, we administered semi-structured questionnaire survey in 15 gewogs [N=306] and sample size for each gewog was adapted based on the number of cordyceps collectors as some gewogs had more than 500 collectors and some just had 7 collectors registered in 2014; 2015 and 2016. We randomly selected the respondents using RANDBETWEEN function in excel; however we also made sure not to interview two collectors from same household.