AS THE MARKET DEMAND FOR WILD CHINESE herbs has grown, the production scale of the Chinese herb industry has expanded dramatically. However, concealed by the prosperity of the Chinese medicinal herb industry is a huge ecological problem? In recent years, intensive and unrestrained exploitation of wild Chinese herbs has damaged natural resources. An estimated 2000 wild Chinese herbs are at risk of extinction (1). Severe ecological deterioration and soil erosion seriously threaten the habitats of many wild Chinese herbs, especially in fragile ecological environments such as high-altitude areas or arid regions. For example, a recent media report suggested that intensive and unrestrained gathering of the edible cyanobacterium Nostoc commune var. flagelliforme has led to the degradation of almost 150,000 km2 of grassland in Inner Mongolia (about 18% of the total grassland in the region) (1, 3).