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March 2001 ISSN 1020-3435 8 An information bulletin on Non-Wood Forest Products EDITORIAL CONTENTS We invited Mr Cherukat Chandrasekharan, who founded Non-Wood News in 1994, to write the 3 SPECIAL FEATURES editorial for this, the first issue of the new millennium. We would like to thank Mr Chandrasekharan for accepting our invitation. • Plan of action towards the sustainable development of the am very happy to have the honour and privilege of writing this editorial. rattan sector It is gratifying that Non-Wood News has proved to be a great success. The reasons are clear. • Les produits forestiers non ligneux I First, it has met a seriously felt need. Second, it came with a refreshing identity – not as old wine comestibles, utilisés dans les pays in a new bottle, but as new wine in a rather large barrel. Each issue of Non-Wood News is packed africains francophones with so much useful and interesting material that it would probably be better to spread it out and produce at least two issues annually. Non-Wood News also has a major mission: to help realize the potential that the future holds for 14 NEWS AND NOTES non-wood forest products (NWFP). NWFPs had a colourful and glorious past. Subsequently, • Action for Natural Medicines however, they suffered serious downfall and (Anamed) neglect. Some 5 000 years ago, the Chinese • Agroforestree Database – call for Emperor Shen Nung wrote (what is believed to be the earliest recorded use of plants as photos medicine) that chalmugra oil, an extract from • Anti-cancer diterpene taxol the fruit of Hydnocarpus spp., was an efficient • Arab Organization for Agricultural treatment against leprosy. It is estimated that Development 35 000 to 70 000 plant species have at one • Bamboo shelter – a demonstration of time or other been used, in some culture or best construction practice other, for medicinal purposes. The geopolitics of today was influenced by the past trade in • Bamboo Plantations Discussion Group NWFPs – spices, cosmetics, food • Benefit-sharing arrangements in the preservatives and silks. The influence of trade field of non-wood forest products in NWFPs continued up to the industrial • Boreal forest directory revolution in the West, when the economy of • Bushmeat utilization depletes wildlife scale slowly eased out the small-scale production of NWFPs. in eastern and southern Africa Continuous deforestation and forest • Certification of NWFPs degradation drastically affected the NWFP • Current trends in NTFP development NON-WOOD NEWS resources along with habitat changes and loss – a survey of biodiversity. The timber-orientation of the • Dietary supplements from trees in is compiled by Laura Russo and Tina forestry profession, and the bias of planners in Etherington, Wood and Non-Wood Products favour of large-scale enterprises, had left urban and peri-urban areas Utilization Branch (FOPW) of the FAO NWFPs at a disadvantage. Their production, at • Échanges des PFNL entre l’Afrique Forest Products Division. Editing support best, was considered incidental. subsaharienne et l’Europe for this issue was provided by Sven Walter and Thanks to publications such as Non-Wood • E-conference on globalization, Paul Vantomme; design, graphics and desktop News, we are made aware of the multiple poverty and development publishing were coordinated by Tina contributions of NWFPs. The flora and fauna • E-conference on intervention of Etherington. providing NWFPs are a complete resource base. Use of non-wood goods and services is technology in mountain areas Non-Wood News is open to contributions by often linked to local culture and there is • E-conference on poverty alleviation readers. Contributions may be edited to fit the considerable indigenous knowledge available and sustainable development: appropriate size and focus of the bulletin. about them. It has been prophesied that a If you have any material that could be exploring the links healthy marriage of traditional and modern • Encyclopedia of biodiversity included in the next issue of Non-Wood News scientific knowledge can open up unlimited for the benefit of other readers, kindly send it, possibilities for NWFPs. New possibilities can • European Tropical Forest Network before 30 November 2001, to: also emerge, from developments in (ETFRN) NON-WOOD NEWS - FOPW biotechnology, carbon trade and clean • Exploring the value of urban forest FAO, Viale delle Terme di Caracalla development mechanisms; and conceptually 00100 Rome, Italy products these can significantly alter the future outlook. E-mail: [email protected] • Forest Information Update (FIU) The overall trend in respect of NWFP www.fao.org/forestry/fop/fopw/nwfp/ • Forests and Livelihoods: a newsletter resources, however, has been towards nwfp-e.stm depletion. Their management now faces of ForestAction The designations employed and the presentation colliding trends of fall in supply and rise in • Forests, food security and sustainable of material in this publication do not imply the demand. While many of the flora and fauna livelihoods expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part yielding NWFPs are amenable to be • Fundación Espave of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the domesticated and cultivated, efforts in that • Global assessment of bamboo United Nations (FAO) concerning the legal status direction have also been hesitant. of any country, territory, city or area or of its Many of the failures in NWFP programmes resources authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its result from inattention to markets. Marketing • Global thinking and local action frontiers or boundaries. helps to create better linkages among resource • Innovative forest-related themes creation, management, processing and end • International Bee Research use. Rational and transparent marketing Association (IBRA) ➧ ➧ 2 EDITORIAL CONTENTS transactions throughout the production and • International Forestry Resources 37 PRODUCTS AND MARKETS market chains are crucially needed. Some and Institutions (IFRI) Research • Agarwood NWFPs have fully faded out of the market in the Program • Bael past, and in respect of others there has been an erosion of the international market share. • XXI IUFRO World Congress • Honey However, experts observe an emerging “green • Kerala Forest Research Institute • Jubaea chilensis (coquito de palma, consumerism” – particularly in favour of • Key role for mycorrhizal fungi in palma chilena) phytopharmaceuticals and aroma chemicals. sustainable forest management • Karite Medicinal and aromatic plants, thus, form an • Kleinhans Fellowship in non-wood • Marula – a food for all seasons important group that has received considerable forest products • Periwinkle (Catharanthus roseus) attention, nationally and globally; this is backed up by the simultaneous advances in chemistry, • Medicinal and Aromatic Plants bacteriology, pathology and pharmacology. Programme in Asia 41 COUNTRY COMPASS The number of plants at present forming the • MekongInfo • Albania, Algeria, Bosnia and sources of modern medicine probably runs to • Minilivestock – alternative food Herzegovina, Brazil, Cameroun, thousands. sources Canada, China, Colombia, Costa With all their multifaceted properties and contributions, NWFPs should normally be able • Natural Resources and Ethical Trade Rica, Finland, Gabon, Ghana, to halt the ongoing assault on forests and the Programme Guyana, India, Ireland, México, resulting deforestation and habitat degradation. • Neem tree – patent revoked Nepal, Pacific Islands, Papua New But, the realistic assessment is that very little is • Network for Natural Gums and Guinea, Perú, Philippines, Portugal, happening at ground level to manage the Resins in Africa (NGARA) Russian Federation, Senegal, South NWFP resource properly. Overexploitation and • NGOs condemn biopiracy by Swiss Africa, United Republic of Tanzania, unscientific harvesting of medicinal plants and the depredations by well-organized smuggling university United States of America, Viet Nam, networks have led to the virtual decimation of • NUCIS Newsletter Zimbabwe several species in the wild. It is becoming • Organizations support conservation difficult to get genuine and authenticated of natural medicinal resources 61 ECONOOK materials and adulteration is rampant. • Pacific Peoples’ Partnership • Field courses in rain forest and The current situation of NWFPs presents several contradictions and anachronisms, and • Phytomedica – new e-mail list marine ecology observers feel that something is amiss. • Plant Conservation Alliance • Hunting for tonight’s dinner Deficiencies and inadequacies seem to persist. Medicinal Plant Working Group • Pro-poor tourism The need has been stressed, over and over (PCA-MPWG) • The Millennium Tree Line again, to manage the remaining NWFP • Research partnerships on bamboo • ThinkShrimp! – social and ecological resources scientifically, sustainably, rationally and rattan and equitably. In spite of the apparent impacts of industrial shrimp awareness in that regard, nothing much seems • Sierra Madre Alliance aquaculture along tropical coasts to have happened to translate that awareness • Southeast Asian Network for • Value of national forests into effective action. So far, the spurts of Agroforestry Education (SEANAFE) enthusiasm have lacked coordination, • Species 2000 64 INTERNATIONAL ACTION consistency and survival capacity – leaving our • Taiga Rescue Network (TRN) • FAO, CABI Bioscience, Center for own credibility under dark shadows. This thumbnail sketch of the situation and • Traditional medicine