Challenges in the Conservation of an Over-Harvested Plant Species with High Socioeconomic Values

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Dear authors,

The manuscript, relating to the analysis of the effects of Chinese governmental policies to safeguard of an overexploited species - Aquilaria sinensis, reports a very interesting work.

Besides a brief analysis of the wild populations of this species, it provides some insights about the role of the various stakeholders in this problematic issue and point to some measures that can be helpful to overcome the pernicious effects that current policies seem to promote.

In fact, and unexpectedly, the current policies proved, at least in this case, to be ineffective in the control of poaching pressure in wild populations. This is a matter of major importance since several governments adopt similar policies to conserve plant species with both high cultural and commercial values.

The manuscript is well written and pleasant to read.  

Below I list some comments and/or suggestions:

Title

The title is too long. Consider a more concise (shorter) title.

 

Keywords

The concept of ‘restoration-friendly’ is not developed in the text. It seems an interesting approach, but it must be explained and discussed.

Introduction

Ln 40 – ‘[10]and,’ – replace by ‘[10] and,’

 

Ln. 58 - ‘India, (’ – replace by ‘India (’

Material and Methods

Ln 108 – ‘the following the information’ – replace by ‘the following information’

 

Ln. 141 – ‘http://www.gd.gov.cn, http://www.hainan.gov.cn, http://www.gxzf.gov.cn, http://www.fujian.gov.cn’ – replace by ‘(http://www.gd.gov.cn, http://www.hainan.gov.cn, http://www.gxzf.gov.cn, http://www.fujian.gov.cn)’ between parentheses

 

Ln. 151 – ‘…cultivation;’ – replace by ‘…cultivation);’

 

Ln. 154 – ‘different ecotypes’ – More information about the existing ecotypes will be very useful. Can these ecotypes be related with the different organic compounds produced by wild vs cultivated plants mentioned in line 353?

 

Ln.161 – ‘bio geographical’ – replace by ‘biogeographical’

 

Ln. 180 – ‘fungi’ – you refer to fungi responsible for plant diseases? Please explain.

 

To the analysis of this problem it would be extremely useful to have some idea about the consume of products derived from Aquilaria sinensis, as well as of the increase of the consume along the period under analysis. Do you have data about it?

This aspect should be address in Material and Methods, Results and Discussion.

Results

 

Ln. 185 to 187 – remove the text: ‘This section may be divided by subheadings. It should provide a concise and precise description of the experimental results, their interpretation as well as the experimental conclusions that can be drawn.’

 

Ln. 193 – ‘two individuals between 40 and 100 yr old.’ - replace by ‘two individuals with about 40 and 100 yr old.’

 

Ln. 194 – And the situation in Fujian province? Give some information.

 

Ln.194 – ‘how they obtained their numbers.’ - replace by ‘how they obtained these numbers.’

 

Figure 3 –The use of this chart with to different measures (numbers and Kg) is not very correct. Please use other type of chart (e.g. a Combination Chart).

Which are the units of the category ‘Other’? Number (of the seedlings)? And the bark?

 

Ln. 205 – ‘A total of 1742.7 kg’ - According to Fig. 3 it will be 1770. Check this number.

 

Table 1 – The text in footnote: ‘Data of Hong Kong was from 2005 to 2018, and only the first 7 months were collected in 2018’ - will be better placed in the table legend.

 

Ln. 216 - Table 1 includes information concerning Yunnan district. This region was not previously reported. Clarify this.

 

Ln. 218 – ‘No poaching incidences were reported from Guangxi or Fujian, probably because…’ – This doesn’t not correspond to the data in Table 1.

 

Ln. 234 – At the introduction it is referred that the analysis is focused in five regions, but at several points of the text it seems that a larger area was studied (e.g., see below).

‘Note that only the five provinces, i.e. Guangdong (Figure S2 b), Hainan (Figure S2 c), Guangxi (Figure S2 d), Fujian (Figure S2 e) and Hong Kong where A. sinensis is or was naturally distributed received or issued funds focusing on the species.’

Reading this, we assumed that other regions were analysed. Please make this information consistent.

Ln. 238 – ‘The supported projects focused mostly on encouraging cultivation (71 of 203, 35.0%), including large (36 of 203, 17.8%)…’  - avoid repeating 203: 'The supported projects (203) focused mostly on encouraging cultivation (71, 35.0%), including large (36, 17.8%)…'

The same in Lines 267 and 269 (omit ‘of 84’).

 

Ln. 248 – the ‘subsidies’ correspond to the “initiatives” column in Table S3? If yes, is better to use the same denomination.

 

Ln. 268 – Another fourteen NGOs of multiple objectives – They are 14 or 17?

Also, in Ln. 273, other ‘multiple objectives’ NGOs are referred: ‘An additional six multiple objectives NGOs’. The text is a little confusing.

The text related with Figure 5 is difficult to follow since the classes used in the legend have not the same denomination as the used in the text. E.g.: ln. 276 ‘whereas seventeen NGOs (20.2%) were cultivation-cooperative associations’ – What are the ‘cultivation-cooperative associations’ in Figure 5?

 

Ln. 279 - Why a section (3.2) with figures and tables? They would be better placed near the respective text.

Some figures (Fig. 1, 2 4) are very large. The size can be reduced without losing legibility.

Discussion

 

Ln. 349 – ‘This means that cultivation of the species not only didn’t alleviate poaching pressures, but may have intensified it.’ – I think that the increase of the cultivation is not directly related to the poaching pressure (the reason is explained below – “One major reason for this…’); better rephrase.

 

Ln. 353 – ‘Chen et al. [24] compared wild and cultivated plants and found that wild agarwood was more complex in organic compounds than cultivated agarwood. This difference is likely due to differences in resin formation time, with wild agarwood taking several years to form resin while cultivated agarwood takes several months [24,30,31,32,33,34].’ – Can this be related with the cultivars mentioned in the introduction. This would be an interesting topic to discuss.

Is not clear why they have a more rapid development (other ecotypes/cultivars or different cultural practices).

 

Ln. 386 – 'include' or 'including'?

 

As above referred (in Material and Methods), the analysis of results should also consider the evolution of the consume.

Was there an increase in the consume after the implementation of governmental policies or after the activities carried out by organizations to promote product sales (cf Ln. 270)? This aspect should be addressed.

 

Supplementary Materials:

Figure S1 - Legend in main text (pdf) is not equal to that in the Supplementary file (word).

 

File - Supporting information

Table S1 List of the genus Aquilaria from IUCN:

– Improve (complete) the legend.

- Include the source of information presented in each column; insert access date for online sources.

- The species should be in alphabetic order

Check the information in the Table S1 (it seems is outdated). In the main document is referred that reference 21 (The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species) was accessed on 26 September 2018. However, the information does not match the information available at the webpage of IUCN (updated March 2018).

Also, in the text (Ln. 67) is referred that “over-harvest is not cited as a threat factor by IUCN” –however, consulting the IUCN web page there is several mentions to this threat (Logging & wood harvesting).

Table S2 is not mentioned in the text.

Table S3 Nation - National

Fig. S2 (legend) – Note:A = national, B = Guangdong, C = Hainan, D = Guangxi, E = Fujian. – A to E should be in lowercase (a to e) as in figure.

Author Response

Response to Reviewer 1 Comments

 

 

 

Point 1: Title

Title is too long. Consider a more concise (shorter) title


 

Response 1: We have shortened the title.

 

Point 2:Keywords 

The concept of ‘restoration-friendly’ is not developed in the text. It seems an interesting approach, but it must be explained and discussed.

 

Response 2: This concept is coined by Liu et al. (2014) (reference #40), in which the authors define it as a cultivation model that can yield biodiversity conservation benefits in terms of species and habitat restoration. We cited the reference in the text and added the definition. It is our plan to experiment with the restoration friendly cultivation for our study species in the near future.

 

Point 3:Introduction

Ln 40 – ‘[10]and,’ – replace by ‘[10] and,’ 

Ln. 58 - ‘India, (’ – replace by ‘India (’ 

 

Response 3: revised. 

 

Point 4: 

Material and Methods: 

Ln 108 – ‘the following the information’- replace by ‘the following information’

Response: revised

 

Ln. 141 – ‘http://www.gd.gov.cn, http://www.hainan.gov.cn, http://www.gxzf.gov.cn, http://www.fujian.gov.cn’ – replace by ‘(http://www.gd.gov.cn, http://www.hainan.gov.cn, http://www.gxzf.gov.cn, http://www.fujian.gov.cn)’ between parentheses 

Response: revised

 

Ln. 151 – ‘...cultivation;’ – replace by ‘...cultivation);’ 

Response: revised

 

Ln. 154 – ‘different ecotypes’ – More information about the existing ecotypes will be very useful. Can these ecotypes be related with the different organic compounds produced by wild vs cultivated plants mentioned in line 353? 

Response: While there are research projects on searching the best “ecotypes” for cultivation and genetic diversity of wild A. sinensis, there is NO formal classifications of ecotypes nor relationship between ecotypes and organic compounds thus far.  There are someresearches focusing on the different black resin between wild and cultivated agarwood. 

 

Ln.161 – ‘bio geographical’ – replace by ‘biogeographical’ 

Response: revised

 

Ln. 180 – ‘fungi’ – you refer to fungi responsible for plant diseases? Please explain. 

 

Response: A. sinensisproduces agarwood in its trunk often after being wounded and attacked by pathogens or insects. Fungi are generally viewed as the main microbial component responsible for agarwood formation. The agarwood of cultivated A. sinensisusually formed following injection of chemicals into the trunk, which are composed of fungi isolated from agarwood in damaged trees. Some NGOs focused on the production of the fungi used as injection content. Here ‘fungi’ refers to the injection product used to produce agarwood. 

 

 

To the analysis of this problem it would be extremely useful to have some idea about the consume of products derived from Aquilaria sinensis, as well as of the increase of the consume along the period under analysis. Do you have data about it? 

 

Response:  We agree, but unfortunately we don’t have this kind of data. 

 

 

Point 5: Results

Ln. 185 to 187 – remove the text: ‘This section may be divided by subheadings. It should provide a concise and precise description of the experimental results, their interpretation as well as the experimental conclusions that can be drawn.’ 

 

Response: removed.

 

Ln. 193 – ‘two individuals between 40 and 100 yr old.’ - replace by ‘two individuals with about 40 and 100 yr old.’ 

 

Response: revised.

 

Ln. 194 – And the situation in Fujian province? Give some information. 

Response: We interviewed 2 key informants who work in a University in Fujian in relevant field. Both told us there was no more A. sinensisindividuals in the wild any more. All are cultivated. We didn’t obtain any other information on wild population in Fujian. We now added this information.

 

Ln.194 – ‘how they obtained their numbers.’ - replace by ‘how they obtained these numbers.’ 

Response: revised.

 

Figure 3 –The use of this chart with to different measures (numbers and Kg) is not very correct. Please use other type of chart (e.g. a Combination Chart). 

Response:revised

 

Which are the units of the category ‘Other’? Number (of the seedlings)? And the bark?

Response: We agree that the original figure is confusing with two units. We re-made Figure 3 to fit this issue. 

 

Ln. 205 – ‘A total of 1742.7 kg’ - According to Fig. 3 it will be 1770. Check this number. 

Table 1 – The text in footnote: ‘Data of Hong Kong was from 2005 to 2018, and only the first 7 months were collected in 2018’ - will be better placed in the table legend. 

Response: The correct number should be 1742.7 kg and we corrected the mistake. In addition, we corrected a mistake in the table legend, which should be ‘between 2002-2009 and 2010-2018’

 

 

Ln. 216 - Table 1 includes information concerning Yunnan district. This region was not previously reported. Clarify this. 

Response: Yunnan has a different species of Aquilaria named A. yunnanensis. They have the same Chinese name “土沉香” pronounced “tuchenxiang”, and according to the Flora of China, they both are used for TCM (Traditional Chinese medicine) in the same way. Since our paper is about A. sinensis, we removed Yunnan from this table. 

 

Ln. 218 – ‘No poaching incidences were reported from Guangxi or Fujian, probably because...’ – This doesn’t not correspond to the data in Table 1. 

Response: Revised. The poaching case in Guangxi targeted the seedlings, not the wild agarwood, so we didn’t count it as poaching incidences prior to this revision, but now we revised it.

 

Ln. 234 – At the introduction it is referred that the analysis is focused in five regions, but at several points of the text it seems that a larger area was studied (e.g., see below). 

‘Note that only the five provinces, i.e. Guangdong (Figure S2 b), Hainan (Figure S2 c), Guangxi (Figure S2 d), Fujian (Figure S2 e) and Hong Kong where A. sinensis is or was naturally distributed received or issued funds focusing on the species.’ 

Reading this, we assumed that other regions were analysed. Please make this information consistent. 

Response: as mentioned in the Methods and Materials, we searched the grants and initiatives at two levels, national and provincial. The national level grants and initiatives are nationwide not only including the five regions but also other provinces, even though they are not within the native range of A. sinensis. We keep this information in the supplemental materials for readers who desire more complete information.

 

 

Ln. 238 – ‘The supported projects focused mostly on encouraging cultivation (71 of 203, 35.0%), including large (36 of 203, 17.8%)...’ - avoid repeating 203: 'The supported projects (203) focused mostly on encouraging cultivation (71, 35.0%), including large (36, 17.8%)...' 

The same in Lines 267 and 269 (omit ‘of 84’). 

Response: Revised.

 

Ln. 248 – the ‘subsidies’ correspond to the “initiatives” column in Table S3? If yes, is better to use the same denomination. 

Response: yes. Revised.

 

Ln. 268 – Another fourteen NGOs of multiple objectives – They are 14 or 17? 

Also, in Ln. 273, other ‘multiple objectives’ NGOs are referred: ‘An additional six multiple objectives NGOs’. The text is a little confusing. 

Response: there are 17 NGOs of multiple objectives, of these 14 NGOs included cultural component as their focuses, while the other 3 NGOs didn’t. We wanted to demonstrate that most NGOs focus on the cultivation. Likewise, within the 17 NGOs of multiple objectives, 6 of them also focused on commercial activities. 

 

The text related with Figure 5 is difficult to follow since the classes used in the legend have not the same denomination as the used in the text. E.g.: ln. 276 ‘whereas seventeen NGOs (20.2%) were cultivation-cooperative associations’ – What are the ‘cultivation-cooperative associations’ in Figure 5? 

Response: the ‘cultivation-cooperative associations’ areestablished by growers and traders. They are in “cultivation” group in Figure 5. We added this information in the figure legend.

 

Ln. 279 - Why a section (3.2) with figures and tables? They would be better placed near the respective text. 

Some figures (Fig. 1, 2 4) are very large. The size can be reduced without losing legibility. 

Response: we downloaded the template from the Journal. That’s what the template asked me to do, the figures and tables placed together and just followed the results text.  

I improved the figure sized. 

 

Point 6: Discussion

Ln. 349 – ‘This means that cultivation of the species not only didn’t alleviate poaching pressures, but may have intensified it.’ – I think that the increase of the cultivation is not directly related to the poaching pressure (the reason is explained below – “One major reason for this...’); better rephrase. 

Response: We removed the phrase “but may have intensified it”. 

 

Ln. 353 – ‘Chen et al. [24] compared wild and cultivated plants and found that wild agarwood was more complex in organic compounds than cultivated agarwood. This difference is likely due to differences in resin formation time, with wild agarwood taking several years to form resin while cultivated agarwood takes several months [24,30,31,32,33,34].’ – Can this be related with the cultivars mentioned in the introduction. This would be an interesting topic to discuss. 

 

 

Is not clear why they have a more rapid development (other ecotypes/cultivars or different cultural practices). 

Response: Unfortunately we don’t have information on whether this is related to the cultivars.

 

Ln. 386 – 'include' or 'including'? 

 

Response: We changed it to “including”.

 

As above referred (in Material and Methods), the analysis of results should also consider the evolution of the consume. 

Was there an increase in the consume after the implementation of governmental policies or after the activities carried out by organizations to promote product sales (cf Ln. 270)? This aspect should be addressed. 

Response: Yes, we believed that after the implementation of governmental policies and the activities carried out by organizations to promote product sales, the consumption has increased. However, this can only be assessed in indirectly, such as the appearance of new A. sinensisproducts (e.g. toothpaste, tea, incense, perfume, beads and other accessories) in different markets. 

 

Point 7

 

Supplementary Materials: 

Figure S1 - Legend in main text (pdf) is not equal to that in the Supplementary file (word). 

Response: We made a mistake by not uploading the Figure S1a. Revised.

 

File - Supporting information 

Table S1 List of the genus Aquilaria from IUCN: – Improve (complete) the legend. 

- Include the source of information presented in each column; insert access date for online sources. 

- The species should be in alphabetic order 

Response：Revised.

 

Check the information in the Table S1 (it seems is outdated). In the main document is referred that reference 21 (The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species) was accessed on 26 September 2018. However, the information does not match the information available at the webpage of IUCN (updated March 2018). 

 

Response: I accessed the website on 26 September 2018 and downloaded the files of each species on that day, but it didn’t have the updates at that time. Thank you for your suggestion, I’ve updated my data and revised the table.

 

 

Also, in the text (Ln. 67) is referred that “over-harvest is not cited as a threat factor by IUCN” –however, consulting the IUCN web page there is several mentions to this threat (Logging & wood harvesting). 

Response: over-harvest is not cited as a threat factor in the Chinese Red list.  Revised.

 

Table S2 is not mentioned in the text. 

Response: We now cited Table S2 in the text.

 

Table S3 Nation – National

 Response: revised.

 

Fig. S2 (legend) – Note:A = national, B = Guangdong, C = Hainan, D = Guangxi, E = Fujian. – A to E should be in lowercase (a to e) as in figure. 

Response: revised.

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 2 Report

Please see the comment or suggestions in the PDF file attached.

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Author Response

Point 1

Ln. 40 please specify in which articles and specify also AICHI Biodiversity Targets on these topics

 

Response:  All 14 practical principles of the Addis Ababa Principles and Guidelines are related to the sustainable use of biodiversity (Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity 2007); while  “Goal 8 - Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all” in CBD – Biodiversity and the 2030 Agenda for sustainable development (Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity 2016). In the Aichi Biodiversity Targets’ strategic goal B, Target 7 & 18 are about reducing the direct pressures on biodiversity and promote sustainable use (Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity 2010). We added these sentences.

 

Point 2

please specify better the aim/scope of this paper.

Response: we mentioned the aimsin the introduction part. The aims of this paper are to understand 1) the current wild population status of A. sinensis; 2) the poaching intensity over the past two decades; 3) efforts by the Chinese government to conserve the species; 4) whether commercial cultivation has helped to ease poaching intensity; and 5) what lessons can be learned to conserve similar plant species with both high cultural and commercial values. 

Author Response File: Author Response.docx