Integrating divergent stakeholder perspectives for sustainable management of high-altitude ecosystems: insights from cordyceps harvesting in the Himalayas

High-altitude ecosystems are under growing human pressure as a result of unsustainable harvesting rates of the entomopathogenic fungus Opiocordyceps sinensis (hereafter cordyceps). Conservation strategies are required to ensure high-altitude ecosystem functioning and human well-being. Such conservation efforts often require quick decisions on complex issues. Typically, the challenges involve stakeholders with opposing opinions and interests, resulting in disagreement, controversy, and political conflict. However, it is unclear what effects the unsustainable harvesting of cordyceps has on how ecosystems function. There is a growing gap between the pressure on high-altitude ecosystems and our understanding of those ecosystems. How can we close this rising knowledge gap on how people and nature interact? One technique is to get quick comprehension of the many stakeholders' divergent points of view. We identified four distinct viewpoints of cordyceps harvesting and its ecological impacts using a Q methods survey of cordyceps harvesters in northern Nepal. The harvesters with community-centered viewpoints thought that local governments and local communities should work together to manage and harvest cordyceps and their habitat. Government management and regulation of the cordyceps harvest was the main viewpoint of Government-oriented harvesters. Proft-oriented harvesters prioritize profitability more than conservation and oppose the implementation and formulation of laws and regulations. Conservation-oriented harvesters thought that there was a link between cordyceps harvesting and the degradation of nature. Understanding these divergent viewpoints aids in developing improved conservation management policies to sustain ecological functioning and desired economic activity in high-altitude ecosystems.