Resource amount and cultural legacy affect spatially unbalanced human use of Japan’s non-timber forest products

Abstract

Provisioning is a basic forest ecosystem service, and the balance between human usage and natural resources that provide this service is crucial for sustainability. Here, we describe a spatial mismatch between monetary-equivalent production (actual use of this service) and the estimated potential supply of edible and medicinal wild plants in Japan, and how the balance between actual use and potential supply is determined. Most regions exhibit under-use (potential > actual), especially in regions with large forest areas, presumably because of limited accessibility or abandonment. Over-use (actual > potential) is prevalent in regions with a snowy climate, which might increase plant quantity and quality by supplying enough water. Cultural legacy also affected high plant usage in snowy regions. These results demonstrate how social and climatic factors cause imbalanced human usage of ecosystem services, and provide insights for future ecosystem management, such as alarming over-use and building capacity where under-use occurs.