Globalized Forest-Products: Commodification of Matsutake Mushroom in Tibetan Villages Yunnan Province, Southwest China

Within the global framework of Sustainable Development, NTFPs (Non-timber Forest Products) draw a great deal of attentions from scholars. However, previous literature and research has mainly placed emphasis on how commercialization of NTFPs contributed to forest management and local livelihood improvement. This is absent in the debate on issues of commercialization impacts on NTFPs management and marketing. Advanced understanding of marketing process and market regulation of commons has been ignored. Taking market issues into consideration, this study attempts to explore the cross-scale institutional linkages of commercial Matsutake Mushroom management and marketing by the application of Commodity Chain Approach. The approach concentrates on identifying the multi-level institutions which guide various actors’ access to either resource or market. Understandings of commodity chain is based upon an observation of people’s economic networks and performance, rather than rely on single perspective of either neo-classical, cultural morality or politics. It argued, after more than two decades of market reform in China, rural economic structures continue functioning with some influences of local cultural, historical and political context, and emerging global market or globalization. Those factors not only shape the commodity chain organization, but also guide actors’ access to commodity chain, eventually access to benefit. Through mapping actor’s access along the commodity chain, the study provides a holistic picture of the commercialization process of the Matsutake Mushroom. The current issues and problems of commercial Matsutake management and marketing at different levels are identified.