Are NTFPs a way out of poverty?

Over the last 30 years, policymakers and conservation non-government organisations have focused on the sustainable production and commercialisation of non-timber forest products (NTFPs). Is this a way forward in tropical forested areas for successful conservation and rural development?

Development strategies try to include local people in the management and governance of natural resources such as forests, so that they receive more of the benefits. This contrasts with preservationist environmental policies, which excluded people from forests. Strategies that support the collection and commercialisation of NTFPs by local people have the potential to provide an increased source of income for people living in or near forests.

Policymakers and development practitioners need a better understanding of the changing role of forest resources for local livelihoods.

NTFPs also have important subsistence uses, for example providing a ‘free’ source of food, medicines, fuel and construction materials. And, if properly managed, NTFPs can be an incentive for forest communities to protect existing forests and restore degraded areas, to ensure their source of income is sustainable.

However, forests are being cleared as the global demand for timber rises and as ranching and large-scale agricultural activities expand. Many species fundamental to forest livelihoods are vulnerable and forest resources are declining.

This has alarming consequences for subsistence use and local trade. For example, between 1970 and 1990, the number of species extracted by the timber industry in eastern Brazilian Amazonia rose from fewer than 20 to over 300. At least a third of the 300 also had value for local people as food, medicine or fuel.

While dramatic landscape change takes place across many developing countries, the sustainable production of many NTFPs is under threat. Policymakers and development practitioners need a better understanding of the changing role of forest resources for local livelihoods. This issue of insights identifies some fundamental policy and management issues.

Marketing NTFPs is an important conservation and development strategy. It can add economic value to forested areas without cutting trees while providing local people with a sustainable, productive activity. For this to happen, researchers and policymakers must collaborate to make community-based forest management initiatives socially and economically viable.

Elaine Marshall argues that NTFP commercialisation is only successful where it is transparent, equitable and sustainable, with a positive impact on poverty reduction, gender equality and resource access, tenure and management. This is more likely if:

• producers, processors and traders collaborate with each other producers, processors and traders realise the need for continuous innovation to add value to existing NTFPs and explore new markets
• there is external support from market intermediaries (such as governments, international agencies and the private sector) to support producers and traders in overcoming the barriers to entering markets, including legislative constraints
• the inconsistent quality and quantity of products, and the lack of market information.

Policy frameworks for the production and commercialisation of NTFPs are rarely compatible with forest peoples’ situations, however. Getting information and credit depends on appropriate access to transport and communications infrastructure, which are deficient in forest areas. Patricia Shanley gives an inspiring example of the Frutiferas book, which is improving access to reliable and useful information on NTFPs in Brazil. NTFPs are rarely sufficient in themselves to support households but often play a central role during ‘hungry’ seasons.

Reflecting on wildlife products in Equatorial Guinea, Sophie Allebone-Webb, Guy Cowlishaw and J Marcus Rowcliffe show that the rational extraction and use of NTFPs can improve livelihoods for different forest groups. While bushmeat hunting is predominantly a male activity, for example, the increased marketing of forest plants can increase women’s opportunities to earn income.

The collection, processing and trade of NTFPs should encourage forest populations to use their traditional knowledge to help preserve existing forests and reforest degraded areas. Yet most forest people have poor access to markets, insufficient capital to invest in improving their livelihoods, and little or no bargaining power when selling their products in markets.

Jean-Laurent Pfund argues that it is important to understand how market chains operate, from harvesting to the end market. This helps identify obstacles and understand which stages have the most potential to benefit poor people. A fairer trade environment for everyone involved in market chains is crucial.

Fat from Sal seeds, for example, has enormous economic potential in India for export and domestic markets. Increasing their collection could increase the incomes of approximately 30 million forest dwellers. Sanjoy Patnaik shows, however, that the legal framework for supplying this product does not support poor people who collect seeds. In contrast, a recent policy in Brazil which set minimum prices for ten NTFPs promises to secure minimum trading conditions for local producers.

Susann Reiner uses evidence from South America to identify further constraints to NTFP-based livelihoods. Merely gathering NTFPs rarely generates enough revenue to sustain the households harvesting them. Lacking direct access to markets, they depend on intermediaries to sell their products, reducing their share of the income. Processing locally gathered NTFPs could add value and contribute to poverty alleviation and the sustainability of NTFPs.

Dependence on a single NTFP can be a problem, increasing people’s vulnerability due to variations in yield, market demand and prices. Over-harvesting is also common where harvesters depend on one resource. This can leave people without their only source of subsistence; it can also threaten local biodiversity. Kaspar Schmidt provides a compelling example of the risks facing farmers in Kyrgyzstan, dependant on uncertain walnut harvests.

NTFPs rarely provide a pathway out of poverty because poor people have limited access to the assets needed to exploit NTFPs such as rights to use resources, information, financial capital or credit to invest in harvesting, production, processing, transport and marketing. They also also lack political capital to influence policies; social capital or opportunities to work together to increase their bargaining power; and physical capital such as processing equipment, storage facilities, and transport infrastructure.

Developing NTFP markets can offer sustainable alternatives for forest areas. Strategies need to address a range of issues:

• Women and men play different roles in NTFP market chains and benefit in different ways. A gendered analysis is important in supporting households dependent on forest resources.
• NTFP initiatives must make existing forests more or as profitable as the economic activities that threaten forest areas such as cattle ranching or logging.
• Scientific evidence needs to merge with traditional knowledge to provide a better understanding of the socio-economic and ecological environments in which NTFPs are used.
• Developing NTFP market chains will require investing in other areas such as access to credit, transport and training in sustainable forest management, including the collection, processing and trade of NTFPs.

Mônica Barroso
Rua Capote Valente 884, São Paulo 05409-002, Brazil
mmbarroso@gmail.com

Monica Barroso is a Kleinhans Fellow with the Rainforest Alliance

What are NTFPs?

The Centre for International Forestry Research defines non-timber forest products (NTFPs) as any product or service other than timber produced in forests. For example fruits, nuts, vegetables, fish, game, medicinal plants, resins, essences, barks, and fibres such as bamboo, rattans and other palms and grasses.

Harvesting, using and trading NTFPs are some of the several livelihood strategies that people with access to forest resources adopt.

Over the past 20 years, governments, conservation and development agencies and non-government organisations have encouraged the marketing and sale of NTFPs as a way of boosting income for poor people in tropical areas and encouraging forest conservation.