Contribution of Forestry to Poverty Alleviation - APFNet

Table VI.2. Background information on the case study sites
Study site Area of forestry
considered
Ban Nampheng Organized NWFP
marketing
Ban Xom PSFM in PDF Xebangfai (not
belonging to the 45
poorest districts)
31villages in
Nakai
Namtheun
NBCA
PES through Forest
Services
District/poverty
Social services
ranking out of 45
poorest districts
Namo (38) Accessible year round
Engine generated electricity
1 health care station
1 primary school
Poor water supply
Nakai (46)
Khamkeut (26)
191
Accessible year round
Engine generated electricity
1 health care station
1 primary school
Poor water supply
Difficult to access during the
rainy seasons
No electricity
Primary schools in few
villages
Health care stations in each
village cluster
Case Study 1: Contribution of NWFP to Poverty Reduction: The Case of
Ban Nampheng, Oudomxay Province
Background
From 1995 to 2001, the National Agriculture and Forestry Research Institute (NAFRI) and the World
Conservation Union jointly implemented a NWFP project designed as an Integrated Conservation and
Development Project. The project aimed to develop and pilot sustainable NWFP utilization systems that
contribute to forest and biodiversity conservation and address poverty issues. It hoped to achieve these
objectives by removing poverty-related factors that drive over-exploitation of NWFPs by local people,
empowering local people to better control the access and use of forests by outsiders, and organizing
local people through institutional building.
To meet these objectives, the project helped the village organize an NWFP marketing group for
marketing bitter bamboo shoots collected by villagers in the village forests. All villagers who collected
bitter bamboo shoots for sale were allowed to join the group. A Group Committee headed by the village
chief with one-person units for monitoring, accounting and trade managed the group. All decisions
were made collectively in meetings chaired by the Group Committee. After the success with bitter
bamboo, the marketing group organized a similar regime for cardamom.
As part of the management regime, the marketing group set the dates for harvesting season each year,
based on the natural characteristics and regenerative capacity of the NWFP, with the NWFP project
assisting villagers in the form of ecological information and training. The harvesting season for bitter
bamboo for sale usually lasted about 4.5 months between December and April. However, collection for
consumption was permitted throughout the year.
All households involved in collecting NWFPs sell the collected products directly to the Group
Committee, who then sells on a larger scale to traders. The benefit sharing system agreed upon by the
members allows the individual collectors to take 85-90% of the final sale, while the remaining 10-15%
is put in an NWFP Fund. The fund is used to support community projects (e.g. purchase of an electric
generator), community services (e.g. provide loans), and pay the salaries of the monitoring, accounting
and trade units. The marketing group collectively decides on the use of the fund and salary levels.
This case study aims to examine the contribution of NWFPs to poverty reduction in Ban Nampheng
where an NWFP marketing group was organized to enhance local empowerment efforts. Discussions