A re-emerging paradigm in forestry regards forest as a multi-purpose, multi- benefit resource system serving multi-stakeholders that should be managed to enhance the welfare of local communiti es. This paradigm contends that non- timber forest products (NTFPs) have a high comparative advantage to address the needs of local communities, specific ally products for household consumption and/or market sale to enhance family incomes. NTFPs provide a substantial proportion of income to rural households, pa rticularly to meet seasonal regarding and other periodic needs. However, there is a shortage of information available regarding the sustainable management of these resources and the marketing their products. Look further towards the future there are few proven means of effective dissemination information regarding sustainable management and product management.
Tag: non-wood forest products
The market potential of parkland trees
The article reports on a study by ICRAF scientists, in the sahelian region on the commercial value of some of the trees found in the parkland systems in the region. It indicates that more than 30 products from 17 woody species were identified. The principle species were Adansonia digitata, Vitellaria paradoxa, Parkia biglobosa, Tamarindus indica, and Borassus aethiopum. The products from these trees are sold in the markets and they are an important source of income to the people of the region.
Between scattered extraction and specialized production : which alternatives for the development of non-timber forest resources?
Management systems for NTFPs are far from being homogenous. They globally range from scattered collection in natural forests foe occasional consumption to intensive specialized production for international markets, going through various types of “integrated management” and “occasional cultivation” or ” per-domestication”. These various systems have obviously different features in terms of either ecological, economic or social sustainability, of short term or long term productivity, or of cultural validity. Among others, they may have totally diverging impacts on either forest ecosystems and biodiversity conservation, on forest populations development and welfare, or even on the respect of indigenous people rights. This paper will first attempt to give a dynamic overview of this diversity of current management practices for NTFPs, highlighting past and present evolutionary trends and insisting on those currently less investigated models that are intermediary between “extraction from natural stocks” and “true domestication for cultivation”, with a special focus on the Southeast region. Starting from these current situations, it will elaborate on the available “existing models” for NTFPs management, giving attention to matters such as scale and scope of management, levels of inputs and knowledge, economic and social logics, institutional and social bases. It will launch important bases for a comparative assessment of the global sustainability of these models, examining ecological, economic, cultural and social efficiency and gaps. It will finaly try to derive “alternative models” for future scenarios of forest management, giving a special attention to unexplored ways for demestication of forest resources.