Abstract
Among the non-timber forest products, the medicinal and aromatic plants (MAP) are key forest resources for the world’s herbal medicine, cosmetics, health food and other natural products industries. MAP businesses are continuing to increase in many biodiversity-rich areas of the world. The overharvesting and depletion of forest based MAP and their unregulated trade are creating ecosystem and business sustainability issues for the MAP industry. This paper assesses the current state of the MAP industry in Uttarakhand State in the northwestern Himalayan region of India and offers marketing strategies for the conservation and sustainable commercialization of MAP in this region. A qualitative research method was first used involving interviews with policymakers and other industry stakeholders including local MAP traders and growers. A strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats analysis and a quantitative strategic planning matrix analysis were then conducted to identify appropriate marketing strategies. The study reveals that the existing practices of MAP businesses in Uttarakhand are inconsistent with the plants’ conservation requirements and the livelihoods of the primary producers. In its current form, the region’s MAP industry is therefore in a precarious position. However, if policymakers consider and act on the industry’s strengths and opportunities they could positively influence its sustainable development and help to minimize the negative impacts of the trade on the region’s forest MAP resources.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Abraham EM, Theodoropoulos K, Eleftheriadou E, Ragkos A, Kyriazopoulos ΑP, Parissi ΖΜ, Soutsas K (2015) Non-wood forest products from the understory and implications for rural development: the case of a broadleaf deciduous oak forest (Quercusfrainetto T e n.) in Chalkidiki, Greece. J Environ Prot Ecol 16(3):1024–1032
Alvesson M, Sköldberg K (2009) Reflexive methodology: new vistas for qualitative research. Sage, Lodon
Banerjee SB (2003) Who sustains whose development? Sustainable development and the reinvention of nature. Organ Stud 24(1):143–180
Bhargava PM (2007) How to make India a knowledge-based society. Futures 39(8):997–1007. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.futures.2007.03.001
Bisht VK, Negi JS, Bhandari AK (2016) Check on extinction of medicinal herbs in Uttarakhand: no need to uproot. Natl Acad Sci Lett. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40009-016-0437-1
Bjärstig T, Sténs A (2017) Social values of forests and production of new goods and services: the views of swedish family forest owners. Small-Scale For. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11842-017-9379-9
Bryson JM (1988) A strategic planning process for public and non-profit organizations. Long Range Plan 21(1):73–81. https://doi.org/10.1016/0024-6301(88)90061-1
Bull JW et al (2016) Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats: a SWOT analysis of the ecosystem services framework. Ecosyst Serv 17:99–111. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecoser.2015.11.012
Buta R (2007) The SWOT analysis in the geographical research, with applicability in the study of the human settlements from Moldova valley. Present Environ Sustain Dev 1:239–248
Chauhan RS (2010) Socioeconomic improvement through medicinal and aromatic plants (MAP) cultivation in Uttarakhand, India. J Sustain Agric 34(6):647–658. https://doi.org/10.1080/10440046.2010.493390
Choudhary D, Kala S, Todaria N, Dasgupta S, Kollmair M (2013) Marketing of bay leaf in Nepal and Northern India: lessons for improving terms of participation of small farmers in markets. Small-Scale For 12(2):289–305. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11842-012-9212-4
David FR (1986) The strategic planning matrix—a quantitative approach. Long Range Plan 19(5):102–107. https://doi.org/10.1016/0024-6301(86)90015-4
David ME, David FR, David FR (2016) The quantitative strategic planning matrix: a new marketing tool. J Strateg Market. https://doi.org/10.1080/0965254x.2016.1148763
De Pasquale A (1984) Pharmacognosy: the oldest modern science. J Ethnopharmacol 11(1):1–16. https://doi.org/10.1016/0378-8741(84)90092-8
Dubey NK, Kumar R, Tripathi P (2004) Global promotion of herbal medicine: India’s opportunity. Curr Sci 86(1):37–41
Flamm RO, Braunsberger K (2014) Applying marketing to conservation: a case study on encouraging boater reporting of watercraft collisions with Florida manatees. Ocean Coast Manag 96:20–28. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ocecoaman.2014.04.026
Fusch PI, Ness LR (2015) Are we there yet? Data saturation in qualitative research. Qual Rep 20(9):1408
Ghorbani A, Raufirad V, Rafiaani P, Azadi H (2015) Ecotourism sustainable development strategies using SWOT and QSPM model: a case study of KajiNamakzar Wetland, South Khorasan Province, Iran. Tour Manag Perspect 16:290–297. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tmp.2015.09.005
Graneheim UH, Lundman B (2004) Qualitative content analysis in nursing research: concepts, procedures and measures to achieve trustworthiness. Nurse Educ Today 24(2):105–112. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nedt.2003
Guba EG, Lincoln YS (1985) Naturalistic inquiry, vol 75. Sage, Beverly Hills
HRDI (Herbal Research and Development Institute) (2016) Farmers registration. Retrieved August 10, 2017, from http://www.hrdiuk.org
ITC (The International Trade Centre) (2016) Medicinal and aromatic plants and extracts. Retrieved November 26, 2016, from http://www.intracen.org/itc/sectors/medicinal-plants/
ITC Trade MAP (2016) List of exporters for the selected product. Retrieved November 26, 2016, from http://www.trademap.org/
Joseph LN, Maloney RF, Watson JE, Possingham HP (2011) Securing non-flagship species from extinction. Conserv Lett 4(4):324–325. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1755-263X.2011.00174.x
Kala CP (2006) Medicinal plants: potential for economic development in the state of Uttaranchal, India. Int J Sustain Dev World Ecol 13(6):492–498. https://doi.org/10.1080/13504500609469698
Kala CP (2015a) Medicinal and aromatic plants of Tons watershed in Uttarakhand Himalaya. Appl Ecol Environ Sci 3(1):16–21
Kala CP (2015b) Medicinal and aromatic plants: boon for enterprise development. J Appl Res Med Aromat Plants 2(4):134–139
Kala N, Jain R (2017) Ecological analysis of Mohan Medicinal Plant Conservation Area (MPCA) in Uttarakhand, India. Indian For 143(4):321–327
Kallioras A, Pliakas F, Diamantis I, Kallergis G (2010) SWOT analysis in groundwater resources management of coastal aquifers: a case study from Greece. Water Int 35(4):425–441. https://doi.org/10.1080/02508060.2010.508929
Kling J (2016) Protecting medicine’s wild pharmacy. Nat Plants 2(5):16064
Kuniyal CP, Sundriyal RC (2013) Conservation salvage of Cordyceps sinensis collection in the Himalayan Mountains is neglected. Ecosyst Serv 3:e40–e43. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecoser.2012.12.004
Kuniyal CP, Kuniyal PC, Butola JS, Sundriyal RC (2013) Trends in the marketing of some important medicinal plants in Uttarakhand, India. Int J Biodivers Sci Ecosyst Serv Manag 9(4):324–329. https://doi.org/10.1080/21513732.2013.819531
Kuniyal CP, Bhatt VP, Bhatt VP, Butola JS, Sundriyal RC (2014) Promoting nursery enterprise in high altitude villages: a participatory approach for conservation and commercialization of Himalayan threatened medicinal plants. J Med Plants Res 8(48):1399–1407. https://doi.org/10.5897/JMPR2014.5472
Kuniyal CP, Bisht VK, Negi JS, Bhatt VP, Bisht DS, Butola JS, Sundriyal RC, Singh SK (2015) Progress and prospect in the integrated development of medicinal and aromatic plants (MAP) sector in Uttarakhand, Western Himalaya. Environ Dev Sustain 17(5):1141–1162. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10668-014-9595-9
Maikhuri RK, Rao KS, Chauhan K, Kandari LS, Prasad P, Rajasekaran C (2003) Development of marketing of medicinal plants and other forest products: Can it be a path way for effective management and conservation? Indian For 129(2):169–178
Maikhuri RK, Phondani PC, Rawat LS, Jha NK, Maletha A, Bahuguna YM, Kandari LS (2016) Conservation and management strategies of medicinal plant resources through action research approaches in Indian Himalaya. Iran J Sci Technol Trans A Sci. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40995-016-0057-0
Maitra S, Satya P (2015) Value added products from medicinal plants. In: Sharangi AB, Datta S (eds) Value addition of horticultural crops: recent trends and future directions. Springer, India, pp 113–124
Mantau U, Wong JL, Curl S (2007) Towards a taxonomy of forest goods and services. Small-Scale For 6(4):391–409. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11842-007-9033-z
Mason M (2010) Sample size and saturation in PhD studies using qualitative interviews. In: Forum qualitative Sozialforschung/Forum: qualitative social research, vol 11, No. 3
Masozera MK, Alavalapati JR, Jacobson SK, Shrestha RK (2006) Assessing the suitability of community-based management for the Nyungwe Forest Reserve, Rwanda. For Policy Econ 8(2):206–216. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.forpol.2004.08.001
Medicinal Plant Specialist Group (2007) International Standard for Sustainable Wild Collection of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants (ISSC-MAP). Version 1.0. BundesamtfürNaturschutz (BfN), MPSG/SSC/IUCN, WWF Germany, and TRAFFIC, Bonn, Gland, Frankfurt, and Cambridge (BfN-Skripten 195)
Mishra P, Kumar A, Nagireddy A, Mani DN, Shukla AK, Tiwari R, Sundaresan V (2016) DNA barcoding: an efficient tool to overcome authentication challenges in the herbal market. Plant Biotechnol J 14(1):8–21. https://doi.org/10.1111/pbi.12419
Monavari M, Karbasi A, Mogooee R (2007) Environmental strategic management. KavoushQalam, Tehran
Mukul SA, Rashid AM, Uddin MB, Khan NA (2016) Role of non-timber forest products in sustaining forest-based livelihoods and rural households’ resilience capacity in and around protected area: a Bangladesh study. J Environ Plan Manag 59(4):628–642
National Medicinal Plants Board (2016) Introduction. Retrieved November 27, 2016, from http://www.nmpb.nic.in/
Nautiyal S, Kaechele H (2007) Adverse impacts of pasture abandonment in Himalayan protected areas: testing the efficiency of a Natural Resource Management Plan (NRMP). Environ Impact Assess Rev 27(2):109–125. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eiar.2006.10.003
Nikolaou IE, Evangelinos KI (2010) A SWOT analysis of environmental management practices in Greek Mining and Mineral Industry. Resour Policy 35(3):226–234. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resourpol.2010.02.002
Nikolaou EI, Ierapetritis D, Tsagarakis KP (2011) An evaluation of the prospects of green entrepreneurship development using a SWOT analysis. Int J Sustain Dev World Ecol 18(1):1–16. https://doi.org/10.1080/13504509.2011.543565
Nygren A, Lacuna-Richman C, Keinänen K, Alsa L (2006) Ecological, socio-cultural, economic and political factors influencing the contribution of non-timber forest products to local livelihoods: case studies from Honduras and the Philippines. Small-Scale For Econ Manag Policy 5(2):249–269. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11842-006-0013-5
O’Reilly M, Parker N (2013) ‘Unsatisfactory Saturation’: a critical exploration of the notion of saturated sample sizes in qualitative research. Qual Res 13(2):190–197
Onwuegbuzie AJ, Leech NL, Collins KM (2012) Qualitative analysis techniques for the review of the literature. Qual Rep 17(28):1–28. Retrieved from http://nsuworks.nova.edu/tqr/vol17/iss28/2
Patel MM, Shah PJ, Patel BM (2014) Insights of biosimilars through SWOT analysis. Expert Opin Biol Ther 14(2):139–144. https://doi.org/10.1517/14712598.2014.849689
Pauls T, Franz M (2013) Trading in the dark—the medicinal plants production network in Uttarakhand. Singap J Trop Geogr 34(2):229–243
Phondani PC, Maikhuri RK, Bisht NS (2013) Endorsement of ethnomedicinal knowledge towards conservation in the context of changing socio-economic and cultural values of traditional communities around Binsar Wildlife Sanctuary in Uttarakhand, India. J Agric Environ Ethics 26(3):573–600
Potts R, Vella K, Dale A, Sipe N (2016) Evaluating governance arrangements and decision making for natural resource management planning: an empirical application of the governance systems analysis framework. Soc Nat Resour 29(11):1325–1341. https://doi.org/10.1080/08941920.2016.1185557
Rates SMK (2001) Plants as source of drugs. Toxicon 39(5):603–613. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0041-0101(00)00154-9
Roosta RA, Moghaddasi R, Hosseini SS (2017) Export target markets of medicinal and aromatic plants. J Appl Res Med Aromat Plants 7:84–88
Saha D, Sundriyal RC (2012) Utilization of non-timber forest products in humid tropics: implications for management and livelihood. For Policy Econ 14(1):28–40
Sandbrook C, Adams WM, Monteferri B (2015) Digital games and biodiversity conservation. Conserv Lett 8(2):118–124. https://doi.org/10.1111/conl.12113
Sen S, Chakraborty R, De B (2011) Challenges and opportunities in the advancement of herbal medicine: India’s position and role in a global context. J Herb Med 1(3):67–75. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hermed.2011.11.001
Sepehr G, Mansoureh A, Mandana A-M (2011) SWOT methodology: a state-of-the-art review for the past, a framework for the future. J Bus Econ Manag 12(1):24–48. https://doi.org/10.3846/16111699.2011.555358
The United Nations Commodity Trade Statistics (2016) Database. http://www.comtrade.un.org. Accessed 8 Aug 2017
Tiwari DN (1999) Medicinal plants for health care. Yojana, pp 8–17
Traffic-The Wild Trade Monitoring Network (2016) http://www.traffic.org/
UNDP (United Nations Development Programme in India) (2016) Conserving medicinal plants, sustaining livelihoods. Retrieved November 21, 2016, from http://www.in.undp.org/content/india/en/home/ourwork/environmentandenergy/successstories/conserving-medicinal-plants-sustaining-livelihoods.html
Valentin EK (2001) SWOT analysis from a resource-based view. J Market Theory Pract 9(2):54–69. https://doi.org/10.1080/10696679.2001.11501891
Valverde A, Magalhães-Fraga S, Magalhães J, Barroso W (2015) Agrobiodiversity products by SWOT analysis as an analysis for strategic innovation. J Technol Manag Innov 10(4):57–63. https://doi.org/10.4067/S0718-27242015000400006
Ved DK, Goraya GS (2008) Demand and supply of medicinal plants in India. Bishen Singh Mahendra Pal Singh
Veríssimo D (2013) Influencing human behaviour: an underutilised tool for biodiversity management. Conserv Evid 10:29–31
Verissimo D, MacMillan DC, Smith RJ (2011) Toward a systematic approach for identifying conservation flagships. Conserv Lett 4(1):1–8. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1755-263X.2010.00151.x
Vogt V, Andrés JA, Rovera M, Sabini L, Rosas SB (2015) Biocontrol activity of medicinal plants from Argentina. In: Plant-Growth-Promoting Rhizobacteria (PGPR) and medicinal plants. Springer, Berlin, pp 413–430. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-13401-7_20
Walker JL (2012) Research column. The use of saturation in qualitative research. Can J Cardiovasc Nurs 22(2):37–46
WHO (World Health Organization) (2003) WHO Guidelines on Good Agricultural and Collection Practices (GACP) for medicinal plants. World Health Organization, Geneva
Wilsey DS, Hildebrand PE (2011) Chamaedorea palm frond commercialization and certification considered from a smallholder livelihood system perspective. Small-Scale For 10(1):67–81. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11842-010-9131-1
Wright AJ, Veríssimo D, Pilfold K, Parsons ECM, Ventre K, Cousins J, Jefferson R, Koldewey H, Llewellyn F, McKinley E (2015) Competitive outreach in the 21st century: why we need conservation marketing. Ocean Coast Manag 115:41–48. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ocecoaman.2015.06.029
Yadav M, Misra S (2012) Sustainable development: a role for market information systems for non-timber forest products. Sustain Dev 20(2):128–140. https://doi.org/10.1002/sd.470
Acknowledgements
We thank Dr. Chandra P. Kuniyal, Scientist, Herbal Research and Development Institute, Gopeshwar Chamoli for providing key references on the MAPs of Uttarakhand. The authors are also thankful to the anonymous reviewers, and the journal editors for their developmental comments and suggestions throughout the revise and resubmit process.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Electronic supplementary material
Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Chandra, P., Sharma, V. Strategic Marketing Prospects for Developing Sustainable Medicinal and Aromatic Plants Businesses in the Indian Himalayan Region. Small-scale Forestry 17, 423–441 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11842-018-9396-3
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11842-018-9396-3