Species Use Database

Morel mushroom
Morchella spp.

Used for Food and feed and Medicine and hygiene in Pakistan

A. Species

Scientific name: Morchella spp.

Common name(s): Morel mushroom

Global IUCN Red List Threat Status:


B. Location of use

Geographic location(s):

  • Pakistan

Country/Region: Pakistan/Swat


C. Scale of assessment

Scale of assessment: Sub-national / Sub-region / Sub-State

Name/Details of location: District Swat / Kalam, Bahrain, Chail-Madyan, Miandam, Malam Jabba and Lalku-Matta (situated between 34°–34° and 35°–55°N latitude and 72°–08 to 72°–50°E longitude)


D. Timescale of use

Start Year: 2014

End Year: 2018


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 and Medicine and hygiene

Motivation of use: Basic subsistence, Income generation from trade (individual/household/community) and Largescale commercial exploitation for trade

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: This study - a preliminary investigation in the absence of any pre-existing systematic evidence.

Brief summary on why the use has been assessed/judged to be sustainable or unsustainable: The objective of this study was to analyse harvesting practices and to produce guidelines to ensure future morel harvest sustainability. Previous studies had concluded that factors such as climate change, habitat loss, and deforestation were the primary threats leading to the decline of wild edible mushrooms, and that over-harvesting of morels cannot was not a significant risk. However, this current study recorded that from from the Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) of local stakeholders, morels were in decline, and that the number of harvesters was increasing, also noting that the highest level of resource extraction cause tramping and soil compaction which could be responsible for population decline. This adds impetus to the need for sustainability guidelines for morel harvesting.

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: Although profitable, the availability of wild morels cannot sustain demand.

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: Current morel harvesting practice was considered unsustainable, leading the study to recommend a series of sustainability guidelines for future best practice, to safeguard socio-economic prosperity among resource harvesters, including the 10% of harvesters that are women.

Has an assessment (or judgement) of sustainability of the use of the target species from a human health perspective been recorded?: No, sustainability not determined

Details of assessment carried out: This study

Brief summary on why the use has been assessed/judged to be sustainable or unsustainable: Not recorded

Has an assessment (or judgement) of sustainability of the use of the target species from an animal health/welfare perspective been recorded?: No, sustainability not determined

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 fungus


Recommendations provided in the record to maintain or enhance the sustainability of the use of the target species

For sustainability, this study specifically recommends: • A government permit should be required to collect, sell, buy and export morel mushrooms. • Training sessions should be arranged for the stakeholders especially for collectors to equip them with the current science-based management and conservation practices. • Regulation on access and limit of harvest and harvesters influx to morel bearing stands should be thoroughly put into practice to prevent soil compaction, raking and tramping issues. • Morels requiring specific microclimate, associated vegetation and canopy cover should be properly protected. • Collecting juvenile morels should be prohibited (non-sporulating sporocarps), suitable size limits should be implemented. • To maintain propagation and regeneration the collection of the first fruiting flush/crop should be prohibited. • To sustain resource availability, harvests should be carried out on rotation basis across morel producing patches. • Older fruiting bodies should be fragmented and spread across the habitat. • Morel fruiting bodies should never be uprooted above ground level, the basal part of the mushroom should be left undisturbed to regenerate. • Prior approval should be obtained before taking any management action such as fire setting, litter accumulation, forest thinning etc. • Appropriate technologies and facilities should be implemented to avoid the wastage of resources at any point during processing. • Clearcutting of mycorrhizal partners (trees), and any removal of coarse wood debris or crop rotation logs should be properly regulated. • Any activity both in public and private forests such as land reforms, timber, fuelwood and medicinal plant extraction should be properly regulated. • Rules should be devised and implemented regulating selling-buying market and external trade, to safeguard the quality of the product for the end-users. • To address social, ownership, racial and tribe conflicts among forest communities, a participatory forestry approach to empower the local stakeholders should be implemented to allow them to share the equal benefits derived from the morel resources.


Record source

Information about the record source: scientific_pub

Date of publication/issue/production: 2022-01-01T00:00:00+0000

Source Reference(s):

Hussain, S., & Sher, H. (2022). Indigenous ecological knowledge and wild harvesting of morel mushrooms: the resource productivity and marketing in Swat, Pakistan. Environment, Development and Sustainability, 1-19.

Date of record entry: 2022-12-14