Chinese traders are crossing the Russian borders en masse and stripping its far eastern taiga forests of ginseng -- dismaying Russian environmental officials, powerless to stop the illegal incursions. Keen to feed China's demand for the traditional medicament and a growing global market for its reputed qualities, Chinese traders are crossing the border to illegally harvest the plant. The root, which grows widely in the taiga of Russia's
far eastern Maritime Territory, is used for everything from cooking to medicine.
"The appearance of a vast Chinese market which can absorb everything from frogs to ginseng , is the main threat," says Valery Shafranovsky, deputy chairman of the Maritime Territory Committee for Natural Resources. Wild ginseng is usually found in hanging valleys where the terrain is steep, barren and enjoys a high rate of snowfall. It takes a couple of decades to several hundred years before the plant arrives at maturity.
Only a few of the plants can survive the constant battering from wind, rain, frost and snow. Thus wild ginseng , though especially valued for its properties, is rarely found in the market. Today 90 percent of ginseng sold is grown on farms, though its produce is much less well regarded than the wild varieties.
Wild ginseng is found mostly in China but its gradual disappearance has only made it more valuable. The search for new supplies has taken traders over the border in search of
Russians willing to risk arrest by raiding private land growing transplanted wild ginseng grown from wild ginseng seeds, not from farm cultivated plants.
This transplanted wild ginseng grows mostly in Russia, and its cost is around 10 percent of the wild Chinese variety, for which it is increasingly used as a substitute. As a result, it is now commonly known as Siberian ginseng .
Siberian ginseng is believed to be more effective and reliable. In particular, Russian researchers note that Siberian ginseng is more useful for women, more efffective in summer, more versatile as an enhancer of the human immune system and less likely to over-stimulate.
Although all are from the Araliaceae family, Siberian ginseng is a different species from ordinary Asian ginseng (Panax ginseng ) or American ginseng (Panax quinquefolius). Also, unlike ordinary ginseng , which has a characteristically earthy taste, Siberian ginseng has a pleasant woody taste that makes it well suited for use in herbal teas.
Finally, Siberian ginseng has the unique advantage of being a renewable resource. While an ordinary ginseng plant dies when its single root is harvested, a Siberian ginseng plant, having an extensive root structure, can survive for many years despite annual harvest.
Siberian ginseng grows best where the soil is organically rich and the air and water are free of pesticides and pollutants.
In China and Korea, population pressures have all but eliminated such areas. But Russia is having difficulty protecting its increasingly valuable ginseng resources.
"The Forest Protection Unit is demoralized by the low level of salaries," says Shafranovsky. "The issue of using weapons hasn't been solved. Even the penalties for the illegal digging
of ginseng roots -- 15 times the minimum salary, for a root exceeding 12 grams -- can only scare dilettantes."
No cases have been brought recently for the illegal harvest of ginseng , even though smugglers are often caught. The only hope, says Shafranovsky, is a plan for the reintroduction of ginseng into the wilds which the Biological and Soil Institute
is developing.
The plan calls for the creation of specially guarded zones in the taiga and would impose stiffer legal and economic penalties for ginseng smuggling.
Maritime Territory specialists support the plan, but point out that there is no money to implement it. To safeguard the wild ginseng would cost millions of new rubles. "The only way this programme can go forward is if international environmental organizations help," says Shafranovsky.
The Maritime Forest Department, a state organization, and Prodintern Primorye, a private joint venture, buy ginseng from Russian collectors.
But they are losing the battle against the black market. The best price they can offer is $1.40 per gram, far below the $7.70 paid on the black market. Meanwhile, seizures of wild
ginseng are growing, according to customs officials.
"Compared to the same period last year, the amount of ginseng confiscated from smugglers has increased enormously," says Far Eastern Customs officer Sergei Lyapustin.
The Russians first learned the value of ginseng from the Chinese who began to cross the border in the last century after their own resources began to diminish. It was always
treated then as an extremely valuable resource.
In some cases, people who stole from another person's territory were buried alive and left to die. "Unfortunately we cannot impose such sanctions today," says Shafranovsky.
BY: Andrei Ivanov
SOURCE : Inter Press Service
1998. 01.
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Newsdesk