Trees At Work: Economic Accounting for Forest Ecosystem Services in the U.S. South 65 Chapter 5 Forest Ecosystem Services: Provisioning of Non-Timber Forest Products James L. Chamberlain, Gregory E. Frey, C. Denise Ingram, Michael G. Jacobson, Cara Meghan Starbuck Downes INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND Definitions he purpose of this chapter is to describe approaches to NTFPs come from plants (e.g., herbs, lichen, moss, shrubs, trees, calculate a conservative and defensible estimate of the vines) and fungi (e.g., mushrooms). They include food, medicine, Tmarginal value of forests for non-timber forest products decorations, and materials used in fine arts and crafts. Table 5.1 (NTFPs). “Provisioning” is one of four categories of benefits, or lists common NTFPs from the U.S. South. These products services, that ecosystems provide to humans and was described often are collected and consumed for personal and cultural uses by the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MEA 2005) as (Cordell and others 2012, Robbins and others 2008) and provide “products obtained from ecosystems,” which include food, fuel, significant economic contributions to users in the United States wood, and fiber, as well as products such as remedies and crafts. (Alexander and others 2001, Alexander and others 2011). Clearly, any valuation of ecosystem benefits must include the tangible items, or products, that they supply. As the term NTFP specifies, these products are not timber and come from forests. This leads to questions about the definitions of There are very few valuation studies of NTFP provisioning. “timber” and “forest.” This publication considers industrial wood The main reason is that NTFPs—which are also called “special chips and poles to be timber products, while wood extracted for forest products” in the United States—are typically secondary in traditional firewood and artisanal crafts are considered NTFPs. importance to timber, so they lack the profile and attention wood Definitions and quantification methods focus on goods produced products receive. In the United States, forest valuation is almost from natural forests (e.g., Adepoju and Salau 2007, Famuyide and always based on timber production and a few other items such as others 2013, Godoy and Lubowski 1992, Sullivan 2002), but they grazing, minerals, or hunting leases. Timber price and quantity could be used for products grown in plantations solely for their data have been tracked for many years and are easily available. non-timber value. Often, products grown in tree plantations or In contrast, data are available for only a few NTFPs even though cultivated on an industrial scale, such as fruits, nuts, or Christmas there is a wide variety of products and markets. Quality data trees, are not considered NTFPs, yet the valuation methods related to geographic and temporal distribution of NTFP species presented are applicable to these products. and their harvests are quite limited. Non-biotic products that may come from the forest, such as rocks Most studies of NTFPs report methodological roadblocks in and minerals, are not classified as NTFPs. In some parts of the getting reliable and accurate values. The basic information world, animal products such as game meat are considered NTFPs, needed to estimate NTFP values begins with some sort of but in the United States, wildlife is generally treated as a separate accounting of the flow or stock of the resource. Typically, values category. We do not deal with animals or animal products here, are estimated based on prices received by harvesters, although restricting NTFPs to plants and fungi, although many of the same the contributions that NTFPs make to harvesters’ income, diet, principles would apply. For more information on the valuation of and health also represent values to households and communities. wildlife for recreation such as hunting, see chapter 2. Non-market valuation based on these types of contributions, while not easy, has been used in the absence of market prices. Many past studies on NTFPs report “total market value” or “economic value.” Total market value is the total quantity Ecosystem service valuation studies should use past research harvested or traded in a locality, State, region, or country, as a starting point. While a comprehensive literature review is multiplied by its market price. Economic value refers to the sum beyond the scope of this chapter, appendix 5.1 summarizes select of the consumer and producer surplus for a good or service. valuation studies of NTFPs in the United States and around the While such estimates may provide information about the overall world. Appendix 5.1 presents studies that may be relevant for an importance of NTFPs in a particular economy or policy changes analyst attempting to value NTFP provisioning services. that affect the entire source of a product, they are not described 66 Chapter 5. Forest Ecosystem Services: Provisioning of Non-Timber Forest Products Table 5.1—Major non-timber forest products of the Southern United States Product Part of plant Market segment Product Part of plant Market segment Pine straw Needles Landscaping Virginia snakeroot Root Medicinal Pine cones Cones Decorative Wild yam Root Medicinal Conifer boughs Boughs Decorative Black cherry Bark Medicinal Sweet grass Stem Art Trillium Whole Plant Medicinal Sphagnum moss Whole Plant Art Autumn olive Fruit Culinary Mistletoe Whole Plant Art Pawpaw Fruit Culinary Vines Stem Decorative Black walnut Fruit Culinary Maple syrup Sap Culinary Tulip poplar Bark Decorativea Ramps Whole Plant Culinary Persimmon Fruit Culinary Fox grapes Fruit Culinary Butternut Bark Medicinal Galax Leaves Decorative Eastern red cedar Leaves Medicinal Moss Whole Plant Decorative Witch hazel Bark & Leaves Medicinal Grape vine Vine Art White oak Bark Medicinal Dutchman’s pipe Vine Art Sassafras Leaves Culinary Mountain laurel Whole Plant Landscaping Morels Fruiting Body Culinary Winterberry holly Leaves and Decorative Other mushrooms Fruiting Body Culinary Berries Princess pine Whole Plant Decorative Pitcher plants Whole Plant Decorative Spanish moss Whole Plant Decorative Aletris Root Medicinal Staggerbush/ Branch & Decorative Bethroot Root Medicinal Crooked-wood Stems Black cohosh Root Medicinal Blueberries/ Fruit Culinary Bloodroot Root Medicinal huckleberries Blue cohosh Root Medicinal Blackberries Fruit Culinary False unicorn Root Medicinal Fraser fir Whole Plant Landscaping, transplants Decorativeb American ginseng Root Medicinal Rhododendron/ Whole Plant Landscaping Goldenseal Leaves & Root Medicinal azalea transplants Lady’s slipper Root & Whole Medicinal Cypress knees Stems Art orchid Plant Wood for carvings Wood Art Saw palmetto Fruit Medicinal Wood for baskets Wood Art Slippery elm Bark Medicinal aTulip poplar bark is used for siding for houses. bFraser fir is used extensively for Christmas trees. in this chapter. Rather than total values over a geographic region, observe changes in the forests that they know are critical to this chapter explains how to find the best estimate ofper-acre sustaining their livelihoods as well as the continued existence of values resulting from small changes in forest area, or marginal the NTFP resource. Harvesters are the foundational players that value. This type of information is the most relevant for policy initially define the market structure. They gather the products and decisions that affect a limited forested area, as well as for consume, share, or sell the products as raw materials. tracking changes in the value of provisioning services over time. “Dealers” can play a key role in setting the prices and value Market participants who move NTFPs from forest to the first received by harvesters of NTFPs. Dealers can be sub-classified point of sale are generally called “harvesters” (alternatively, into “primary buyers” who purchase directly from harvesters, “collectors,” “pickers,” “gatherers”). They are analogous to consolidate transactions, and sell to regional or national buyers. “loggers” in the timber industry. Harvesters can be an important “Secondary buyers” may consolidate transactions and sell to source of information about NTFP activities. They represent national or international buyers, or they may produce a final the primary knowledge base to locate the resource, provide product for retail consumers. “Third buyers” in the market would extraction rates, and identify what the market wants and what then produce a final product for the retail consumer. The “final prices can be obtained for different qualities of products. They buyer” in the market chain typically is the retail consumer. Trees At Work: Economic Accounting for Forest Ecosystem Services in the U.S. South 67 Greenfield and Davis (2003) found dealers of medicinal forest Timber stumpage—the price per acre of standing trees before products (e.g., American ginseng), floral products (e.g., galax) harvest—roughly corresponds to a provisioning ecosystem and edible forest products (e.g., ramps) to operate full time, service marginal value (Alexander and others 2002a). Sometimes, seasonally, and part time depending on the product. Some prices harvesters may pay landowners per acre to harvest an NTFP on are reported daily by the dealers (ginseng) while others are set their property, in the same way loggers pay stumpage fees, or seasonally by buyers (e.g., galax and bloodroot). Blatner and hunters pay per-acre lease fees, to landowners. If the landowner Alexander (1998) and Schlosser and Blatner (1995) found that has not invested any time or resources