1. Introduction 1. INTRODUCTION 1.1 THE IMPORTANCE OF NTFPS IN FOREST MANAGEMENT Tropical rainforests are not only the most biodiverse ecosystems known on earth, they also play a vital role in stabilising the world climate, fixing carbon dioxide, and protecting against soil erosion (Jacobs, 1981; Prance and Lovejoy, 1985). Yet most economic appraisals of tropical forests have focused exclusively on timber resources or the possible creation of agricultural land (Peters et al., 1989a). Meanwhile, thousands of plant and animal species in tropical regions have been providing a variety of non-timber products that are used by billions of people all over the world (Nepstad and Schwartzman, 1992; Balick and Mendelsohn, 1992; Hall and Bawa 1993). Non-timber forest products (NTFPs) are defined here as all wild plant and animal products harvested from the forest or other natural and man-made vegetation types, except for industrial timber (Ros-Tonen et al., 1995). The importance of NTFPs tends to be underestimated, because the majority are not traded through established market channels and do not appear in national economic statistics (de Beer and McDermott, 1996). As a result, NTFPs often remain beyond the vision of policy makers and development planners (Ros-Tonen et al., 1995). But for the subsistence economy of forest-dwelling people, NTFPs offer a great source of food, shelter, household equipment, forage, and medicine. Furthermore, commercial exploitation of NTFPs offers cash income for the (mostly indigenous) people that are engaged in their extraction, processing, and/or trading. The labour- intensive, capital-extensive aspect of NTFP harvesting is often well-suited to local conditions in many tropical countries (Plotkin and Famolare, 1992). NTFP extraction has also been mentioned as a viable alternative to commercial logging and slash-and-burn agriculture (Peters et al., 1989a; LaFrankie, 1994). Several scientists have stressed that NTFPs can be harvested without much destruction of the forest, while maintaining essential environmental functions and preserving biological diversity (Anderson, 1990; Plotkin and Famolare, 1992; Richards, 1993). It has often been stated that marketing of NTFPs could add substantial economic value to the forest and thus provide economic incentives for conservation and sustainable resource management (Vasquez and Gentry, 1989; FAO, 1991; Clay, 1992; Hall and Bawa, 1993; Broekhoven, 1996). In other words, the sustainable expansion of commercial NTFP extraction is generally viewed as a promising conservation strategy (Duke, 1992; Richards, 1993; Ros-Tonen et al., 1995). However, uncontrolled extraction or low prices for NTFPs may cause overharvesting, forest degradation, and even local depletion of species (Nepstad and Schwartzman, 1992; Richards, 1993; Boot, 1997). As a result, extractors may shift again to less-sustainable land uses like logging or cattle ranging. Conservation and long-term utilisation of forest products require that they be harvested on an ecologically sustainable basis. The extraction of NTFPs is considered sustainable if it has no long-term deleterious effect on the regeneration of the harvested population, and when the yield remains more or less constant throughout the years 12 Non-Timber Forest Products of the North-West District of Guyana Part I (Strudwick, 1990; Hall and Bawa, 1993; Pollak et al., 1995). The ecological impact of NTFP extraction, however, depends on the nature of the harvested product. It makes a difference if entire individuals are harvested or only parts (e.g., leaves, fruits, or eggs). Extraction of the latter might not kill the species, but could slow down its growth or reproduction. The different effects of harvesting on individual species affect the size and structure of the population, which ultimately determines the availability of the resource (Boot, 1997). The question remains whether natural populations are adequate to provide such a regular harvest (LaFrankie, 1994). To be economically successful, a NTFP must have a lasting market appeal. Harvesters should receive a good price for the product in order to avoid destructive extraction techniques or abandoning the product altogether (Pollak et al., 1995). Therefore, it is necessary to assign an economic value to NTFP-producing forests, to weigh their advantages against alternative land uses (McNeely, 1988; Peters et al., 1989a; Godoy and Lubowski, 1992). Middlemen must be guaranteed a consistent supply of the product and therefore, the harvest should also be ecologically sustainable (Pollak et al., 1995). But successful NTFP extraction should not only contribute to the conservation of forests and stimulate the economic development of the country, it should also offer an increased income to local forest-dwelling people (de Beer and McDermott, 1996). Commercial extraction of NTFPs depends for a great deal on the knowledge and skills of local people, as well as on their possibilities and willingness to engage in the collection and trade of NTFPs (Ros- Tonen et al., 1995). Posey (1992) and Hall and Bawa (1993) stressed that rural communities, which have been relying on a variety of plant and animal species for their livelihoods, should have a direct stake and interest in the sustainable extraction and conservation of tropical biodiversity. The usefulness of forests as confirmed by indigenous peoples who rely on them, is often cited as a reason for rain forest conservation (Myers, 1982; Prance et al., 1987; Phillips, 1996). However, with the continuing destruction of tropical forests and the consequent erosion of indigenous, forest-dependent cultures, much of the traditional knowledge about the natural environment is being lost (Plotkin and Famolare, 1992). In some areas, the knowledge of useful plants is disappearing even more rapidly than the plant species themselves (Arvigo and Balick, 1993; Slikkerveer, 1999). If no efforts are made to conserve this biological and cultural diversity, a potential source of new medicines for human diseases, food crops for international trade, and indigenous management systems will disappear together with the forest and its people. A thorough knowledge of the economic potential of the diverse forest products and a better understanding of how mankind can profit from their existence is a prerequisite for forest conservation (Posey, 1983; Milliken et al., 1992). Ethnobotany, defined by Schultes (1992: 7) as ‘the complete registration of the uses and concepts about plant life in primitive societies’, can play a key role in the revitalisation and revaluation of indigenous knowledge (Martin, 1995; Posey, 1999). Although the western science is generally aware of the urgency of ethnobotanical conservation, the pace of research into indigenous plant uses and vegetation management processes that could offer alternatives to the destruction is dwarfed by the accelerating rates of cultural and biological extinction (Phillips and Gentry, 1993). 13 1. Introduction 1.2 TROPENBOS RESEARCH STRATEGY ON NTFPS With its international programme for multidisciplinary research, training, and information, the Tropenbos Foundation aims to contribute to the conservation and wise use of tropical forests. From this objective, it shares the interest with many organisations in promoting the extraction of non-timber forest products as a strategy for conservation and sustainable use of tropical forest. By means of scientific research in various tropical countries, Tropenbos aims to develop an exploitation system for NTFPs which is ecologically sound, economically viable, and socially acceptable (Ros-Tonen et al., 1995). Within the framework of the Tropenbos programme, research programmes on indigenous forest use and NTFPs were carried out in Cameroon (van Dijk, 1999), Ivory Coast (Bonnéhin, 2000), Colombia (van der Hammen, 1992; Duivenvoorden et al., 1999), Indonesia (van Valkenburg, 1997), and Guyana (this study; Reinders, 1996; Forte, 1997; Sullivan, 1999). In the second phase of the Tropenbos-Guyana Programme, various research projects were started to obtain more insight in the economy, ecology and floristic diversity of NTFPs, as well as the social and cultural factors influencing their trade and use (van Andel and Reinders, 1999). The present PhD research on the use of NTFPs in the North-West District of Guyana was started in June 1995. This project was carried out by the Utrecht branch of the National Herbarium of the Netherlands, one of the major herbaria world-wide storing Neotropical biodiversity reference collections, and with a long time experience in the flora and biodiversity of the Guianas. The training of MSc students from the Netherlands was an essential part of the project. 1.3 AIMS AND OBJECTIVES OF THIS RESEARCH In the present study, the term NTFPs comprises wild plant products found in forests and other natural and man-made vegetation types (e.g., secondary forest), including wood products used by indigenous peoples. The term ‘non-wood forest products’, frequently used in international projects (FAO, 2000), will not be used in this research, since it excludes the variety of wood products used by forest-dwelling peoples for tools, canoes, house construction, fuel, crafts, poison, and medicine. Including these aspects in an ethnobotanical survey gives a more realistic view of the importance of a tropical forest to its native inhabitants (de Beer and McDermott, 1996). Products of animal origin (pets, meat, hides, honey, eggs, etc.) form an important proportion of the NTFPs harvested