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This systematic literature review for the gathering of fungi is part of the data management report that explains theprocess for conducting the systematic literature review for assessingstatus and trends of the use of wild species, as part ofChapter 3. Status of and trends in the use of wild species and its implications for wild species, the environment and people, in thethe thematic assessment of the sustainable use of wild species of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services.

Traditional rural biotopes (TRBs) are threatened habitats that host significant biodiversity and several ecosystem services, and depend on active management such as low-intensity grazing. The current study explores private landowners’ decision-making on TRB management and abandonment within a social-ecological system framework. We provide insight into supporting resilience of TRB systems in the face of agricultural modernization. Using a mixed methods approach with content analysis and Q analysis, we demonstrate that TRB management fosters cultural, biological, aesthetic, and utilitarian values. These are reflected in different ways through conservationist's, profit-oriented farmer's, landscape manager's, and landscape admirer's discourses on TRB management. Overall, management reinforces landowners’ place attachment, and reflects an approach to landscapes as spatial representations of cultural heritage and identity over multiple generations. Landowners consider TRB pasturage and its social-ecological outcomes motivating and rewarding. Giving up grazing cattle and perceived bureaucracy of national agri-environment scheme contribute to TRB abandonment. Landowners point out that current policies detach TRB management from what is seen as “regular agriculture”, and the focus on monetary compensation bypasses the multiple values tied to TRB management. Based on our results, we suggest that promoting TRBs requires reconfiguring the current arrangement of remedial management payments and adopting a more participatory governance approach. Locally, resilience of TRB systems relies on the connections between landowners and landscapes that foster sense of place and landscape identity, which can be supported by knowledge sharing and collaborative grazing efforts among landowners. peerReviewed

Hitherto fungi have rarely been considered in conservation biology, but this is changing as the field moves from addressing single species issues to an integrative ecosystem-based approach. The current emphasis on biodiversity as a provider of ecosystem services throws the spotlight on the vast diversity of fungi, their crucial roles in terrestrial ecosystems, and the benefits of considering fungi in concert with animals and plants. We reviewed the role of fungi in ecosystems and composed an overview of the current state of conservation of fungi. There are 5 areas in which fungi can be readily integrated into conservation: as providers of habitats and processes important for other organisms; as indicators of desired or undesired trends in ecosystem functioning; as indicators of habitats of conservation value; as providers of powerful links between human societies and the natural world because of their value as food, medicine, and biotechnological tools; and as sources of novel tools and approaches for conservation of megadiverse organism groups. We hope conservation professionals will value the potential of fungi, engage mycologists in their work, and appreciate the crucial role of fungi in nature.

Fungi are a mega-diverse group of organisms, currently estimated at 1.5 million species, yet their conservation has attracted little attention. Beginning in the mid-1980s in Europe, and the mid-1990s in the United States, fungal management and conservation discourses have developed noticeably in the last ten years. Reported declines in true morels (Morchella sp.) in the early 2000s raised concerns about overharvesting by visitors to national parks in the mid-Atlantic region of the U.S., where morel collecting is a popular and long-standing activity. In this dissertation, I explore this confluence of events, and ask: why is the conservation of this mega-diverse group of organisms emerging now, how is this happening, and what are the effects? Drawing on critical and poststructural perspectives on discourse and knowledge, I examine the ways in which fungal conservation emulates existing conservation discourses based on expert knowledge, state regulated land management, and capital investment. Like other biological scientists, mycologists emphasize biodiversity protection, data accumulation, and regulations for conservation and sustainable exploitation of fungal resources. Data on current and emerging fungal conservation discourses were collected using a mixed methods approach, including interviews with stakeholders and participant observation at three mycological meetings. Ecological knowledge, opinions, and relationships among mycologists, managers and long-term harvesters, vis-à-vis management and conservation, were examined. Finally, an ecological assessment based on harvester ecological knowledge demonstrates the integration of different methodological approaches. Shifting from studying accumulated scientific knowledge to examining the ways and places in which scientists create such knowledge emphasizes the practice of knowledge production. Managers and harvesters also produce knowledge and practices relevant for conservation. Participants’ biological and ecological knowledge is the epistemological foundation for their approach to fungal conservation; and these emerging “models” seem to diverge based on stakeholder group membership. However, further analysis shows that some stakeholders share concerns regarding conservation that are consistent with a specific logic, rather than with their group identity. These processes of analysis and documentation acknowledge and disrupt uniform truth regimes, giving voice to those that have been traditionally absent or marginalized in the formal protection and preservation of their own environments.