Assessment, Conservation and Sustainable Use of Forest Biodiversity

Keynote Addresses
Why is harvesting not sustainable?
This general pattern of over-exploitation is due to several biological and socio-cultural factors that are
generally not sufficiently taken into consideration:
• Differences in climate, soil and vegetation type result in significant differences in the availability and
possible use of NTFPs across tropical and temperate climates (Cunningham 2001). The assumption that
income from NTFPs can match those from logging is often false. It certainly applies to natural stands
like the “oligarchic” forests dominated by fruit bearing trees (e.g. Myricaria dubia) or palms (eg: Euterpe
oleracea), but in most cases it does not apply.
• Vulnerability or resilience to harvesting is influenced by biological characteristics: life form (plants) or
body size (animals), growth rate, reproductive biology, geographic distribution, habitat specificity,
population density, etc. (Peters, 1994).
• The potential yield from wild stocks of many species is frequently overestimated. As a result, commercial
harvesting ventures based on wild populations is characterised by a “boom and bust” situation where
initial plentiful harvests are followed by declining resource availability.
• The new ‘policy’ paradigm on NTFP is probably based on several false assumptions. Most rural people
do not exhibit the ‘full belly’ preferences that the hypothesis assumes (Angelsen & Kaimowitz 2001).
The way forward
If sustainable management of non-timber forest product (NTFP) is to be implemented successfully, then
recognition that there is no “one size fits all” policy is essential. Policies and their implementation practice
have to be tailored to local ecological, economic, cultural and political circumstances.
Preliminary results of a multi-case comparative study (more than 60 cases covering several countries and
NTFPs) by CIFOR and partners show that it is possible to predict if, when and under which ecological and
social conditions a given NTFP can be effectively sustainably managed. This should open the way to a more
rational approach on conservation and sustainable use of NTFP by defining the actual range of conditions
under a product can be sustainably harvested. Several important NTFP come from domesticated or semidomesticated
plants or animals: cork, ginseng, khat leaves, silk, taxol, etc. The same domestication process is
possible for several other NTFP under such conditions and wild harvest is not necessarily the [only, rather
than “right”] answer.
Awareness, communication and participation are also important. A recent meeting on ‘bushmeat and logging
concession in Central Africa’ showed that it is possible to significantly reduce the negative impact of logging
on wildlife and that most stakeholders are willing to contribute to this effort. Actual pilot activities have
demonstrated that collaboration between the private sector and conservation NGOs is possible and that
practical options do exist for reducing the impact of timber exploitation on wildlife (Tutin et al. 2001).
Certification of NTFP might also open some avenues in specific cases for better management by raising
buyers’ awareness thus opening greater market share for fair trade in sustainably harvested products which
provides an incentive for resource management (Shanley et al. in press). Just as there is no “one size fits all”
policy, so there is no single, definitive path to linking local livelihoods and NTFP use in a sustainable way:
what is essential, however, is that policy development is enriched and adequately informed through “scaling
up” from the field level studies to the policy level. This paper is intended as a contribution to this goal.
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