,., NON-WOOD FOREST PRODUCTS 13 - > /1 Resource assessment of non-wood forest · products Experience and biometric principles NON-WOOD FOREST PRODUCTS 13 Resource assessment of non-wood forest products Experience and biometric principles by Jennifer L.G. Wong School of Agricultural and Forest Sciences, University of Wales, Bangor, Gwynedd, UK Kirsti Thornber LTS International, Pentlands Science Park, Bush Loan, Penicuik, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK Nell Baker Tropical Forest Resource Group, South Parks Road, Oxford, UK Department for International D FI D Development FOOD AND AGRICULTURE ORGANIZATION OF THE UNITED NATIONS Rome, 2001 The designations employed and the presentation of material in this publication do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. This publication is an output from a research project funded by the United Kingdom Department for International Development (DFID) for the benefit of developing countries. The views expressed are not necessarily those of DFID. ZF0077 Forestry Research Programme. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner. Applications for such permission, with a statement of the purpose and extent of the reproduction, should be addressed to the Director, Information Division, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Viale delle Terme di Caracalla, 00100 Rome, Italy. FAO 2001 Note: this publication is available also in French and Spanish iii Foreword The last decade has witnessed a steep increase in interest and activities concerning NWFPs. The current interest in NWFPs amongst conservationists, foresters, development workers and indigenous peoples’ groups has prompted numerous initiatives aimed at promoting NWFP use and commercialization as a means of improving the well-being of rural populations and, at the same time, conserving existing forests. Rarely are these initiatives linked to studies on the sustainable exploitation of the products that are promoted, and no accurate information is available on the resource abundance, distribution, and reproductive biology, which is necessary for the determination of the biologically sustainable harvest levels of a product. Although there is often considerable indigenous knowledge for specific NWFPs, formal resource assessment of NWFPs, especially in tropical countries, is relatively new and has received little attention to date. The multitude and variety of NWFPs, the multiplicity of interests and disciplines involved in NWFP assessment, the organizational and financial constraints, the lack of globally, or even nationally, recognized common terminology and units of measurement all contribute to make the assessment of NWFPs, and of the resources providing them, a difficult task. The purpose of this publication is to raise awareness on the importance of accurate and precise resource assessments at all levels of forest use for NWFPs, and to provide guidance on the design and selection of appropriate methods for resource quantification in different situations and for different products. It does so through the review and analysis of the wide range of approaches used and developed to date to measure NWFP resources. The book builds mostly on experiences in forest ecosystems in tropical countries, but we are convinced that it will be of relevance and use to all regions and all products. The prospective audience of this publication includes practitioners, researchers, natural resource managers and all development workers with an interest in sustainable forest utilization. This publication is based on the outputs of the Forest Research Programme’s (FRP) pre-project ZF0077 (of the United Kingdom Department for International Development - DFID), on the biometrics of current NWFP resource assessment methods. FAO undertook the publishing in its Non- Wood Forest Products Series, within the framework of a current partnership programme with the European Commission aimed at developing methodologies for NWFP assessment. Work on NWFP assessment is an important activity in the FAO Forestry Department, involving expertise from various technical units, in particular the Forest Resources Division (and its flagship programme for the Global Forest Resources Assessment – FRA), and the Forest Products Division (through its Non-Wood Forest Products Programme). DFID and FAO believe that sustainable harvesting and use of NWFPs may contribute to improved household nutrition, income and employment and, therefore, are committed to continue providing assistance for the Resource assessment of non-wood forest products: Experience and biometric principles iv development of methods for the accurate evaluation of NWFPs and the resources producing them. It is a pleasure for us to release this publication as a common effort. We hope that it will encourage more research and development work from other institutions in this important aspect of sustainable forest management. Wulf Killmann John Palmer Director Manager of DFID's Forest Products Division centrally-funded FAO Forestry Research Programme (FRP) Natural Resources International Limited (NRIL) Resource assessment of non-wood forest products: Experience and biometric principles v Acknowledgements The project that commissioned the preparation of this paper is an initiative of the Forest Research Programme (FRP) of DFID. This project organized a workshop that brought together a range of people interested in NWFP assessment, to discuss the need for quantitative assessments and to decide on priority research themes. The workshop was held in Rome in May 2000 and was hosted by the European Tropical Forest Research Network (ETFRN) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). The workshop endorsed the findings of the review and provided the impetus for the publication of this paper. The review paper was written by Jenny Wong and the final draft of this publication was prepared by Jenny Wong, Kirsti Thornber and Nell Baker. Many people contributed published and unpublished papers, personal advice and support in the development of the technical content of this paper. Of the many people who contributed, the following deserve special mention: James Acworth, Brent Bailey, Neil Bird, Bob Burn, Carol Grossmann, Becky Kerns, Sandro Leidi, Patrick Mallet, Marc Parren, Oliver Philips, Dave Pilz, Giovanni Preto, Janet Rock, Kate Schreckenberg, Patrica Shanley and Doug Shiel. Dieter Peltz (University of Frieburg); Mike Philips (retired lecturer, formerly at Aberdeen University); Ben Voysey (LTS International); and Jorge Malleux, Laura Russo, Petra van de Kop, Paul Vantomme, Sven Walter, and Mette L. Wilkie (FAO) provided extensive comments on the drafts. Final editing, proofreading and formatting was done by Elisa Rubini, Tina Etherington and Roberta Di Chiara. Marco Perri prepared the CD ROM accompanying the publication. Overall coordination for the editing and publishing of this publication was provided by Laura Russo, Forestry Officer at the FAO Forestry Department. Thanks are due to all involved in the workshop and editing process; this support was key to improving the output and is gratefully acknowledged. FAO also expresses its sincere gratitude to the European Commission for the financial support (through the Tropical Forest Budget Line B7-6201/98- 08/VIII/FOR) to the workshop and the publication of the present document. Resource assessment of non-wood forest products: Experience and biometric principles vi Contents Foreword ..........................................................................................................iii Acknowledgements............................................................................................. v Contents............................................................................................................ vi Acronyms .......................................................................................................... xi Glossary........................................................................................................... xii Executive summary ......................................................................................... xvi SECTION 1 INTRODUCTION .............................................................................. 1 1.1 OBJECTIVES OF THE PAPER............................................................................. 2 1.2 WHAT IS A NWFP? ........................................................................................ 2 Classification systems for NWFPs..................................................................... 2 Definitions ......................................................................................................... 3 1.3 BACKGROUND................................................................................................ 3 1.4 APPROACH, SCOPE AND LIMITATIONS ............................................................ 4 This publication’s history and basis .................................................................. 4 Scope and limitations......................................................................................... 5 A ‘route-map’ through