SPECIAL FEATURE

Governance of NTFPs: ensuring effective laws and policies in practice, Sarah A. Laird, Rachel P. Wynberg & Rebecca J. McLain

Non-timber forest products play a significant role in livelihoods around the world, providing critical subsistence and trade goods for forest and other communities. However, in most countries the governance of this important but broad category of products has been ineffective or counter-productive to the objectives of sustainability and livelihood improvement. The problem begins with the definition of species and products covered by regulations, and continues to encompass an absence of strategies, clarity of objectives, poorly formulated laws, and flawed implementation.

In most countries, a strategic approach to regulating the NTFP sector is uncommon. The tendency is for NTFP laws to be drafted in response to a real or perceived crisis or opportunity. These include an over-harvesting crisis, particularly when a species moves from local trade and subsistence to large-scale commercial trade. For example, when the southern African species Hoodia moved into international markets in 2001, a surge in demand for raw material required governments to respond rapidly by introducing stringent permitting procedures, and in some cases prohibiting wild harvesting. When cultivated material became more widely available a few years later, pressure on wild populations was reduced and governments loosened regulations.

Read more

INTERVIEW

Dr. Manuel R. Guariguata, CIFOR, on Brazil nut harvesting In the Peruvian Amazon

Read more

REGIONAL DISPATCHES

To Regulate or Not to Regulate: The Case of Bushmeat Use in Central Africa

The idea of granting local and indigenous peoples rights to control and manage the forests they live is not news and is arguably time-honored practice that ought to be restored. Often referred to as “Participatory Wildlife Management” (PWM), “Community Based Natural Resource Management” (CBNRM) or “Participatory Biodiversity Conservation” (PBC), the concepts have circulated among conservationists and development practitioners since the mid-1990s at least, steadily gaining momentum in recent years viable strategies for both sustainably using wildlife resources for food security and income generation and for effectively conserving the integrity of wildlife, forest ecosystems and biodiversity.

Against this backdrop, an FAO Global Environment Facility (GEF) project in the Congo Basin has set out to test and implement a new approach to bushmeat which seeks to improve the legal and sustainable use of non-protected species through PWM. The project, which kicked off in 2012, is based on the premise that wildlife and associated bushmeat use is best regulated by local communities directly. It is currently being rolled out across eight pilot sites in four countries across the Congo Basin – including Gabon, the Republic of Congo, the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Central African Republic. Activities include (1) giving communities exclusive, well-defined rights to wildlife and developing a regional wildlife management policy; (2) developing PWM tools; and (3) building institutional capacity for PWM of major stakeholders, including for replication and scaling up. Read more

Star Tree Project Looks at European Policies and Legislation on NWFPs

Recent studies have demonstrated that legislation, property regimes, policy goals and financial instruments influence NWFP provision¹. By extension, production, marketing, use and innovation in the NWFP sector can arguably be positively affected by an appropriate legislative and policy framework. Based on this premise, FAO, as one of 20 partners working to implement the European Union’s (EU) Star Tree Project, is carrying out a study to identify and analyze existing NWFP-related policies and legislation within the EU at varying scales (EU-, Member State-, regional- and sub-regional).  Read more

FAO continues long-standing support to Central African countries to design and introduce a legal template for NWFP-use

Ousseynou Ndoye is the Regional Project coordinator for FAO and Paul Vantomme is a Senior Forestry Officer at FAO.

In 2005, at the request of the Central African Forest Commission (COMIFAC), FAO began offering technical support to the regional institution to promote the sustainable management of NWFPs and enhance their contribution to food security, with financial assistance from Germany.¹ A central feature of this work, which continues to this day, is supporting Central African countries to identify and implement policy measures to promote the sustainable management of NWFPs and to equally share the benefits from their exploitation and utilization, given the crucial role legal and regulatory frameworks play in determining the socio-economic and ecological potential of NWFPs.². Read more

Plant Extractivism in Amazonia: Where are we headed?

Alfredo Homma is an agricultural economist and researcher at Embrapa Amazonia Oriental, Belem, Para, Brazil

“There is a misconception that all non-wood forest products are sustainable. This is a big mistake because not all economic extraction ensures biological sustainability and not all biological sustainability ensures economic sustainability.” Read more

PRODUCT WATCH

Sustainable harvesting of Himatanthus drasticus 

A recent study published in the journal Environmental Monitoring and Assessment explores the effects of management systems and ecosystem types on bark regeneration in Himatanthus drasticus (Apocynaceae). The tree, known locally as Janaguba, is highly exploited in the Brazilian savanna for its bark and in particular, for its medicinal latex, given its documented value in the treatment of cancer. The authors explore traditional management systems, which involve the removal of the trees’ bark for the harvest of latex, establishing that three years is insufficient for bark regeneration. In spite of efforts to establish ecological and socio-economic criteria for the certification of NWFPs, the lack of sustainable harvest rates and practices remains a major impediment to sunstainable wild collection, argue the authors, concluding by recommending limits to the sustainable harvest of the species. For more information, please see: http://bit.ly/1egvdXk .

GENERAL NEWS FROM AROUND THE WORLD:

Harvesting both timber and Brazil nuts in Peru’s Amazon forests: Can they coexist?

In the Brazil nut forests of the Peruvian Amazon, scientists from the Centre for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) are trying to resolve a controversial question: can selective timber harvesting coexist with Brazil nut production? Every year between November and March, as the rain falls on the western Amazon, they tumble to the forest floor where they’re cracked open.

For more information, please see: http://bit.ly/1dO4ugn

2013 in review: the year wildlife crime became an international security issue

Arguably the biggest story of 2013 was wildlife crime, which escalated from a conservation issue to an international security threat. Driven by rising demand for ivory from east Asia, it has doubled over the past five years into a global trade worth US$10bn, threatening political and economic stability in central Africa. For full story, please see: http://bit.ly/1fceJgV

UNEP praises Kenya’s new wildlife law

Kenya’s effort in fighting poaching and illegal trade in wildlife has been recognized by the United Nations. Mr John E. Scanlon, the United Nation’s Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) Secretary-General, noted that Kenya had passed a law with stiffer penalties against poachers and wildlife traffickers that would help bring down levels of the activity in the country. For full story, please see: http://bit.ly/1fn95Lg

Vietnam tries “community forestry” model to protect forests

The village convention on forest protection has been existing in Ta Van Mong hamlet of Sa Pa district in Lao Cai province for a long time. Every year, local people gather in early March of the lunar year, when the bamboo harvesting begins, for an oath taking ceremony, where a five-member team in charge of protecting the forest is selected by local people. The team takes the responsibility of protecting the forests and reporting to the community about the forest management.

For full story, please see: http://bit.ly/1iLFdvn

Amazon condom factory: a sustainable way to profit from Brazil's forests 

Deep in the Amazon rainforest, in Brazil's far western region, tappers walk the forest trails, harvesting liquid latex from the trunks of the bountiful native rubber trees. But while their grandparents collected rubber for military use in World War Two, today it is used for lovemaking, not war – transformed into condoms at a factory in the town of Xapuri in Acre state. For full story, please see: http://bit.ly/1fdUilm  

Photo story: Plants could be at the root of new jobs

Could the medicinal plant sector become a catalyst for development in Morocco? Morocco has a rich and diverse heritage, but its market is supplied by high value-added products imported from abroad, while at the same time Morocco exports its plants in a natural state. This is a situation that has to change, an activity at the centre of the European project MAP2ERA.

For full story, please see: http://bit.ly/1d7XISq

RECENT LITERATURE

*Choudhary, D., Kala, S.P., Todaria, N.P., Dasgupta, S. and Kollmair, M. 2014. Drivers of Exploitation and Inequity in NTFP Value Chains: The Case of Indian Bay Leaf in Nepal and India. Development Policy Review, 32: 71–87.
*Espinoza, E.O., Lancaster, C.A., Kreitals, N.M, Hata, M., Cody, R.B. & Blanchette, R.A. 2014. Distinguishing wild from cultivated agarwood (Aquilaria spp.) using direct analysis in real time and time of-flight mass spectrometry. Rapid Communications in Mass Spectrometry, 28, pp. 281-289.
*Famuyide, O. O., Adebayo, O., Bolaji-Olutunji, K. A., Awe, F., Owoeye, A. Y., Awodele, D. O., Adeyemo, A. 2013. Assessment and sustainable management of NTFPs used as food and medicine among urban dwellers in Oyo State, Nigeria. Journal of Horticulture and Forestry 5(11), pp. 186-193.
*Foundjem-Tita, D., Speelman, S., D'Haese, M., Degrande, A., Van Huylenbroeck, G., Van Damme, G. & Tchoundjeu, Z. 2014. A tale of transaction costs and forest law compliance: Trade permits for NTFPs in Cameroon. Forest Policy and Economics, Volume 38, pp. 132–142 (available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.forpol.2013.08.007).
*Homma, A.K.O. 2012. Plant extractivism or plantation: what is the best option for the Amazon? Estudos Avançados, 26(74) (available at: www.scielo.br/pdf/ea/v26n74/en_a12v26n74.pdf).
*Quaedvlieg, J., Roca, I.M.G. & Ros-Tonen, M.A.F. 2014. Is Amazon nut certification a solution for increased smallholder empowerment in Peruvian Amazonia? Journal of Rural Studies, Volume 33, pp. 41–55 (available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jrurstud.2013.10.004).
*Robinson, D.F. 2013. Legal geographies of intellectual property, 'traditional' knowledge and biodiversity: experiencing conventions, laws, customary law, and karma in Thailand. Geographical Research, 51(4), pp. 375-386.
*Shackleton, C.M. & Pandey, A.K. 2014. Positioning NTFPs on the development agenda. Forest Policy and Economics, Volume 38, pp. 1–7 (available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.forpol.2013.07.004).
*Shumsky, S., Hickey, G.M., Johns, T., Pelletier, B. & Galaty, J. 2014. Institutional factors affecting wild edible plant (WEP) harvest and consumption in semi-arid Kenya.Land Use Policy, 38, pp. 48–69 (available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2013.10.014).
*Young, J.C., Jordan, A., Searle, K.R., Butler, A., Simmons, P. & Watt, A.D. 2013. Framing scale in participatory biodiversity management may contribute to more sustainable solutions. Conserv. Lett. 6(5):333-340 (available at: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/conl.12012/abstract).