Non-Timber Forest Products: Small Matters, Big Significance, and the Complexity of Reaching a Workable Definition for Sustainability
Por:
Delgado T.S., McCall, Michael K., Lopez-Binnquist, Citlalli
Publicada:
1 mar 2023
Ahead of Print:
1 jun 2022
Categoría:
Forestry
Resumen:
This paper addresses a broad reading of the literature on Non-Timber
Forest Products (NTFPs) in order to highlight key issues of NTFP
management, their importance for rural livelihoods, and the implications
for forest policy. It demonstrates the complexity of formulating an
integrated framework for the understanding of NTFP management,
especially as they affect forest policies. The scope is global, but with
emphasis on Latin America. Human populations have depended on and used
NTFPs for millennia. For a great number of rural (and also urban)
inhabitants, particularly the poorest sectors, their use represents an
important source of subsistence and income-generation. It has been
suggested that the use of NTFPs can generate greater incomes than other
productive land use options, such as timber extraction or cattle
keeping. Some studies estimate that around 25% of the income of about
one billion people around the world comes from NTFPs, although that
implies that, by themselves, NTFPs do not represent a sufficient source
of household income. Rather, they should be considered as part of a
wider spectrum of rural livelihood strategies which include their
importance as income safety nets and as reservoirs of cultural values
and traditional knowledge. Furthermore, NTFPs have many ecological and
social values related to forest ecosystems, well-being and conservation.
This diversity of potential benefits has represented an obstacle for the
creation of management and conservation policies. The intention of this
paper is to tackle some of the most important issues raised in the
literature on NTFPs, forest conservation and development, with an entry
point in the alternative understandings and definitions of NTFP. The
paper highlights some approaches intended to overcome perceived barriers
for sustainable management of NTFPs and the well-being of their human
users.
Filiaciones:
Delgado T.S.:
Escuela Nacional de Estudios Superiores, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM-Morelia), Antigua Carretera a Pátzcuaro No. 8701, Col. Ex-Hacienda de San José de la Huerta, Michoacán, Morelia, 58190, Mexico
McCall, Michael K.:
Centro de Investigaciones en Geografía Ambiental (CIGA), Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM-Morelia), Antigua Carretera a Pátzcuaro No. 8701, Col. Ex-Hacienda de San José de la Huerta, Michoacán, Morelia, 58190, Mexico
Lopez-Binnquist, Citlalli:
Centro de Investigaciones Tropicales, Universidad Veracruzana, José María Morelos 44, Zona Centro, Centro, Xalapa-Enríquez, Veracruz, 91000, Mexico
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