| Abstract | This Outlook Study provides an overview of the significance of NWFPs in the Asia-Pacific region. It examines current trends and projects their likely future impacts on NWFPs in terms of product availability and management, the importance of NWFPs to people and economy, and the effort to develop and achieve sustainable forest management in the region.
The study notes that despite considerable progress during the past decade, data regarding NWFPs are often scant, conflicting and unreliable, even for major commercial species such as rattan, bamboo and tree resin. It is nonetheless clear that NWFPs provide important sources of livelihood products and employment for tens and perhaps hundreds of millions of people in the region. Many of these products are traded commercially, but it is the residents of forest areas who are most dependent upon NWFPs to fulfil a wide assortment of subsistence uses. These uses include: food, spices, edible oils, medicines, fodder, forage, stall bedding, green manure, construction material, household utensils, fibre, ornamentation and rituals. |
