Usually, “8 to 10 tons of whole plants on average” are harvested in this region, when it “is present in abundance” in order to “meet the demand of pharmaceutical laboratories”, specifies the department in a press release.
But “since 2019, arnica has become more and more discreet, in particular due to the change in the rainfall regime and successive droughts, which forces us to limit the quantities taken”, adds the department.
The Vosges massif provides “three quarters of the wild resource harvested in France”, continues the Departmental Council, and the pickers and laboratories wanted to harvest five tonnes this year.
However, “to preserve the resource”, the Ballons des Vosges Regional Natural Park, the Departmental Council and the municipalities concerned have therefore only authorized the removal of 600 kilos.
A wild flower prized for its anti-inflammatory properties, arnica is then transformed into capsules, oil, gel or cream.
While the 2011-2020 decade was the hottest on record, temperature records are falling one after another.
France is experiencing increasingly frequent heat waves: the multiplication, intensification and lengthening of these phenomena constitute an unequivocal marker of global warming, according to scientists.
