A. Species
Scientific name: Lophophora williamsii
Common name(s): Peyote cactus
Global IUCN Red List Threat Status: Vulnerable
B. Location of use
Geographic location(s):
- Texas
Country/Region: USA / Texas
C. Scale of assessment
Scale of assessment: Individual Site
Name/Details of location: Texas / Jim Hog County
D. Timescale of use
Start Year: 2008
End Year: 2012
E. Information about the use
How is the wild species sourced?: Wild species sourced from its natural habitat
Type of use: Extractive
Practice of use: Gathering/Cutting/Collecting terrestrial plants and fungi or their products from the wild
Lethal or non-lethal: Non-Lethal
Does this use involve take/extraction of: Only parts or products of the organism
Purpose(s) of end use: Food and feed, Ceremony and ritual expression, Recreation and Used in religious Navajo sacraments - eaten or drunk as tea. Contains mescaline causing euphoria.
Motivation of use: Income generation from trade (individual/household/community) and Traditional/Cultural/Spiritual
Is this use legal or illegal?: Legal under national law
F. Information about the Users
Which stakeholder(s) does the record primarily focus on?: Local people and National external
G. Information about the sustainability of use
Is there evidence that the use is having an impact on the target species?: Wild species sourced from its natural habitat
Has an assessment (or judgement) of sustainability of the use of the target species from an ecological perspective been recorded?: Yes, considered unsustainable
Details of assessment carried out: These trends and results of this study all indicate that present rates of peyote harvest are unsustainable. Anecdotal reports by members of the NAC include descriptions of the decline or decimation of natural populations and a decrease in both the availability and the quality of peyote being offered for sale in the regulated peyote market.
Brief summary on why the use has been assessed/judged to be sustainable or unsustainable: When the crown is harvested—thereby becoming a button in the peyote trade—the plant’s ability to photosynthesize is ipso facto reduced to zero. The harvested plant then uses stored energy, nutrients, and water to regrow its above-ground biomass. If re-harvesting occurs before the plant has had time to rebuild its stored reserves from photosynthesis in its regrown above-ground tissue, it will become successively smaller at each harvest and eventually die. The reduced size and growth rate, and increased mortality, of harvested plants strongly support the hypothesis that a two-year cycle of harvesting of this species is too frequent for plant recovery. A sustainable frequency of harvesting would be low enough to allow a plant to fully regrow and to fully rebuild its supply of stored resources between harvests. We hope eventually to be able to determine the maximum sustainable harvesting frequency. Whatever that frequency may be, study data indicate that harvesting on a two-year cycle is too frequent to be sustainable.
Has an assessment (or judgement) of sustainability of the use of the target species from an economic perspective been recorded?: Yes, considered unsustainable
Details of assessment carried out: This study
Brief summary on why the use has been assessed/judged to be sustainable or unsustainable: Economically, the number of buttons sold in 2011 was the lowest for any year in the last quarter of a century. As the annual number of buttons sold has declined steadily since 1997, the price has shown a marked increase; the price per button is roughly equal to total sales (in U.S. dollars) divided by the number of buttons sold.
Has an assessment (or judgement) of sustainability of the use of the target species from a social perspective been recorded?: Yes, considered unsustainable
Details of assessment carried out: This study
Brief summary on why the use has been assessed/judged to be sustainable or unsustainable: The use of peyote buttons is socially unsustainable because (religious) demand exceeds supply.
Has an assessment (or judgement) of sustainability of the use of the target species from a human health perspective been recorded?: Yes, considered sustainable
Details of assessment carried out: This study
Brief summary on why the use has been assessed/judged to be sustainable or unsustainable: Regarding health, the US DEA prohibits the use of Peyote (mescaline) under Schedule 1 but permits its religious use by members of the Native American Church, implying that it is safe enough, all else considered.
Has an assessment (or judgement) of sustainability of the use of the target species from an animal health/welfare perspective been recorded?: not recorded
Details of assessment carried out: This study
Brief summary on why the use has been assessed/judged to be sustainable or unsustainable: It's a plant
Recommendations provided in the record to maintain or enhance the sustainability of the use of the target species
The study cautions that under the current system―which can accurately be described as “management by extirpation”―at some point the conservation crisis will become so critical that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will be obligated by the terms of the Endangered Species Act to evaluate the conservation status of the species Lophophora williamsii. At that point the regulatory situation will become substantially more complex. If a regulatory stalemate then ensues, the NAC’s options may broaden (or narrow) to include the Supreme Court and/or Congress as sources of relief.
Record source
Information about the record source: scientific_pub
Date of publication/issue/production: 2012-01-01T00:00:00+0000
Source Reference(s):
Date of record entry: 2022-12-13