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Building sustainability into the Belt and Road Initiative’s Traditional Chinese Medicine trade

Nature Sustainability volume 3, pages 96–100 (2020)Cite this article

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Abstract

A little-known aim of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is ‘people-to-people cultural exchange’, including active promotion of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) in BRI countries. On a global scale, this is likely to increase both TCM demand and the sourcing of wildlife-based TCM ingredients from new areas. Any rapid increase in wildlife demand risks exacerbating illegal and unsustainable trade but, with careful management, BRI–TCM could also present opportunities for well-governed supply chains, creating sustainable livelihoods for rural harvesters. With China reaching out to BRI countries to cooperate on the marketing, registration and promotion of TCM products, there is now a critical short-term window for the identification of these risks and opportunities, and to ensure that sustainability is built into these markets from the start.

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Fig. 1: Four-step approach to evidence-based sustainability strategies for BRI–TCM development.

Amy Hinsley (a,g); Andrey Giljov / Stepnoi Nature Sanctuary (b); Pixabay (d,e,h,i); William Rafti of the William Rafti Institute, under a Creative Commons license CC BY 2.5 (f)

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Acknowledgements

A.H. was funded by the Oxford Martin Programme on the Illegal Wildlife Trade, and by the Kadas Fellowship at Worcester College, Oxford. The Oxford Martin School supported a visiting fellowship for T.M.L. during which this piece was developed. We thank E. Hsu for her comments and advice.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK

    Amy Hinsley & E. J. Milner-Gulland

  2. Oxford Martin School, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK

    Amy Hinsley & E. J. Milner-Gulland

  3. Fenner School of Environment and Society, Australian National University, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia

    Rosie Cooney

  4. TRAFFIC International, David Attenborough Building, Cambridge, UK

    Anastasiya Timoshyna

  5. Academy of Forest Inventory and Planning, National Forestry and Grassland Administration, Beijing, People’s Republic of China

    Xiangdong Ruan

  6. State Key Laboratory of Biological Control and Schools of Life Sciences and Ecology, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, People’s Republic of China

    Tien Ming Lee

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  3. Rosie Cooney
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  4. Anastasiya Timoshyna
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Contributions

A.H. and T.M.L. came up with the initial idea, which was refined in discussions with all other authors. A.H. drafted the first version of the manuscript, which was then edited and revised with input from all authors. T.M.L. produced the figure. with input from all authors. All authors approved the final version.

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Correspondence to Amy Hinsley or Tien Ming Lee.

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Hinsley, A., Milner-Gulland, E.J., Cooney, R. et al. Building sustainability into the Belt and Road Initiative’s Traditional Chinese Medicine trade. Nat Sustain 3, 96–100 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-019-0460-6

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