Special Forest Products Biodiversity Meets the Marketplace “For“For noughtnought soso vilevile uponupon thethe earthearth dothdoth live,live, ButBut toto thethe earthearth somesome specialspecial goodgood dothdoth givegive.”.” WilliamWilliam ShakespeareShakespeare Carving by a medicine man of Pacific northwest tribal ancestry in which he depicts the “true nature of the devil’s club” (Oplopanax horridum) a spider positioned in its roots above flowing water. Devil’s club grows in moist forested areas in the Pacific Northwest into Canada and Alaska and has great spiritual and medical importance to coastal aboriginal peoples who use different parts of the plant for a variety of purposes. “…the spider woman who makes no web to catch things. She defends her house, above underground springs against unwanted visitors. If you should go to visit her, sit and talk with her for a while, then she will not shut up once she begins talking back. She is shy, yet has a lot to say if you will listen.” David Forlines, medicine man Special Forest Products Biodiversity Meets the Marketplace Sustainable Forestry - Seminar Series Oregon State University Corvallis, Oregon October - November, 1995 Nan C. Vance, Editor Supervisory Plant Physiologist and Team Leader Biology and Culture of Forest Plants PNW Research Station Corvallis, OR 97331 Jane Thomas, Editor Publications College of Forestry Oregon State University Corvallis, OR 97331 Sponsored by: Sustainable Forestry Partnership - Oregon State University College of Forestry, Oregon State University U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Research Station Published by: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Washington, D.C. October 1997 Gen. Tech. Report GTR-WO-63 Papers published in this proceedings express the opinions and ideas of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the policies of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Authors are responsible for the technical accuracy of their individual papers. Abstract Vance, Nan C.; Thomas, Jane, eds. Special forest products—biodiversity meets the marketplace. Sustainable forestry—seminar series; 1995 October-November; Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Agriculture; 1997: 164 p. Although North American forests traditionally have been viewed as a source of wood and paper, a variety of profitable products are being discovered that come not only from trees, but from nonwoody plants, lichens, fungi, algae, and microorganisms. The northern temperate forests’ abundant biotic resources are being transformed into medicinals, botanicals, decoratives, natural foods, and a host of other novel and useful products. These products are referred to as secondary, specialty, special, or nontimber forest products. Consumer forces, social climate, expanding global markets, and an increase in entrepreneurialism are contributing to a new interest in developing these products as a viable economic option. Species diversity, a biological attribute that contributes to the ecological stability of forests, takes on an economic value to those sourcing or “biodiversity prospecting” for natural products. Consideration should be given to how this diversity might contribute to stabilizing economies, particularly of communities that have a vital relationship with forests. A totally integrated model of ecosystem management or of sustainable forestry would include this kind of interaction. The Sustainable Forestry Partnership and the College of Forestry at Oregon State University along with the Pacific Northwest Research Station, and funded in part by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, presented a seminar series at Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon, in the fall of 1995. The intent of the seminar series, “Special Forest Products—Biodiversity Meets the Marketplace,” was to stimulate new and continuing dialogue concerning future sustainability of forest resources as they evolve along with other societal and economic trends into the 21st century. This proceedings is an outcome of the seminars given by 11 experts who, with first-hand knowledge, offered new creative approaches for developing, managing, and conserving nontimber forest resources. Keywords: Special forest products, nontimber forest products, biodiversity, medicinal plants, CITES, sustainable forestry, forest communities, forest management, American Indians, forest plants, mushrooms. Nan C. Vance Acknowledgements The seminar series and proceedings were supported by the Sustainable Forestry Partnership through a grant by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the College of Forestry at Oregon State University, and the USDA Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Research Station. Additional support for publishing the proceedings was provided by the USDA Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Region Cooperative Forestry Programs. Grateful acknowledgement is given to Suzanne SanRomani for her typing, proofing, organization, and attention to production details, and to Thomas Love for his help in reviewing manuscripts. Ashley Roorbach’s assistance with organi- zation and logistics, and Sandie Arbogast’s graphics design and publicity contributed significantly to the success of the seminar series. We also thank Kat Anderson and Jason Clay for providing additional photos for illustrations. The steering committee of the Sustainable Forestry Partnership, A. Scott Reed, Steven Daniels, and Steven Radosevich in the College of Forestry at Oregon State University, are especially acknowledged for their leadership and support of this endeavor. Acknowledgements Contents Introduction 2 The challenge of increasing human demands on natural systems Nan C. Vance Chapter 1 8 Consumer trends, market opportunities, and new approaches to sustainable development of special forest products. Catherine M. Mater Chapter 2 26 Medicinal plant development in the United States. Steven Foster Chapter 3 42 Special forest product markets in the Pacific Northwest with global implications. Keith A. Blatner Chapter 4 54 Management opportunities and constraints: State and Federal land management perspectives. James R. Freed and John R. Davis Chapter 5 70 Grounds for argument: local understandings, science, and global processes in special forest products harvesting. Thomas Love and Eric Jones Chapter 6 88 Special forest products in a forest community strategy and co-management schemes addressing multicultural conflicts. Lynn Jungwirth and Beverly A. Brown Chapter 7 108 American Indian cultural models for sustaining biodiversity. Dennis Martinez Chapter 8 122 Business and biodiversity rainforest marketing and beyond. Jason W. Clay Chapter 9 146 Wildlife and plant trade and the role of CITES: challenges for the 21st century. Chris Robbins Related Literature 160 Table of Contents Introduction The Challenge of Increasing Human Demands on Natural Systems Nan C. Vance USDA Forest Service PNW Research Station Forestry Sciences Laboratory 3200 Jefferson Way Corvallis, OR 97331 North American forests traditionally and almost exclusively have been viewed within the marketplace as a source of wood and paper products. But the marketplace is changing; consumer forces, social climate, expanding global markets, and an increase in entrepreneurism are contributing to a new interest in developing other forest resources as viable economic options. A variety of profitable products are being discovered that come not only from trees, but from nonwoody plants, lichens, fungi, algae, and even microorganisms. The northern temperate forests’ abundant biotic resources are being transformed into medicinals, botanicals, decoratives, natural foods, and a host of other novel and useful products. These products are referred to as secondary, specialty, special, or nontimber forest products—names that indicate wood or timber have been the norm and all other products coming out of the forest are unusual. Ironically, the dominant use of forests for wood and paper commodities is relatively recent in human history. The practice of using forest resources to meet a variety of human needs and activities has been around for a very long time. These uses, however, were not part of the evolution into a major industry that dominated and defined the science and practice of forestry. Species diversity, comprising a vast number and combination of genes, is the source of a wide variety of natural products. The economic importance of biodiversity in medicinal product development is that it affords a greater possibility of finding unique gene products. In fact, to the phytopharma- ceutical industry, the exploration of tropical and temperate rain forests for unique and potentially useful genomes is considered “biodiversity prospecting.” The economic importance of species richness, i.e., biodiversity, is well known in the field of natural products medicines; but in forestry, biodiversity’s ecological value has been far more understood and accepted than its economic value. Now, with the broadening commercial potential of a greater number of forest species, managing for biodiversity as a sound investment strategy may be more widely considered. How biodiversity can accommodate a range of economic, social, and environmental benefits, however, is an issue that needs more analysis and debate before any conclusions can be drawn. The unique qualities of organisms arose from their evolutionary response to the varying demands of climate and topography. It is in their collective adaptation to their respective environments that the