SBR- Content.pmd - INBO

State of the Basin Report - 2003as commercial logging. 15 However these figures, while significant, do not translate directly topressure on forest resources because a significant proportion of the wood collected comes fromscattered trees in non-forest areas, or consists of branches that are cut off standing trees.1.4 Non-timber forest products (NTFPs)Another important component of the forestry industry is NTFP harvesting. The NTFP categoryencompasses a wide range of forest resources, including wildlife, wild fruits, medicinal plants,resins, gums, precious woods, rattan and bamboo. Demand for these products is growing throughoutthe LMB and in China. This is leading to increased income-earning opportunities for forest dwellers,but is also creating the danger of unsustainable resource use. 16 While such products are not includedin official forest valuations, they comprise important primary and secondary sources of income forlarge numbers of people, as well as sources of food and cash-income for farmers during poor harvestyears. In Thailand, for example, an estimated 5 million people derive their primary income fromNTFPs. 17 Given that the cutting of lumber for sale is either illegal or requires a government concessionin the riparian countries, NTFPs provide smallholders with a means of generating income fromforest resources in a way that timber cannot. The yields from the harvesting and cultivation ofNTFPs in upland conditions are often such that their economic value per hectare is greater than forrice cultivation, which means that NTFP harvesting can be a more attractive option for forest dwellersthan shifting cultivation. 18 As such, NTFPs enhance the value of intact forests to local people anddiscourage deforestation. 19 Gathering these products is also superior to commercial forestry as aprovider of employment. On average, ten hectares of NTFPs require thirty labourers to work them,which is ten times the number needed for a similar area of lumber production. 20 NTFPs are veryimportant in the Central Highlands of Viet Nam, and across the country as a whole. In the early1990s, they provided subsistence livelihoods and cash-income for an estimated 20 million people(across all of Viet Nam), as well as valuable export earnings. 21 The critical importance of suchproducts compounds the negative social consequences of deforestation because loss of forests depriveslarge numbers of people with access to resources upon which they depend.2. Forest cover and deforestation2.1 Trends in LMB forest coverThis section presents details about forest cover and deforestation in the Lower Mekong Basin(LMB) between 1993 and 1997, which have been derived from MRC’s Forest and Land CoverData Set, compiled between 1993 and 1999. 22 This data set, which is based on visual interpretationsof Landsat satellite images, combined with limited ground truthing, is one of the most completeavailable. 23 However, it does not go beyond 1997, and thus fails to capture any land-use changesthat may have taken place in the LMB since then. For more information on the availability andreliability of forest cover data, please refer to the box below titled “Forest cover data availability:issues and problems”.The term forest is used here as defined by the Forest Cover Monitoring Project: “An area is consideredas forest if the tree cover (crown cover) is at least 20 percent and if tree height can be assumed tobe about 10 meters or more. If the tree cover is equal or more than 20 percent, but tree height rangesonly between 5 and 10 meters, an assignment to the class ‘forest regrowth’ appeared to beappropriate...” 24 All figures given here for individual countries only refer to those parts of the countriesthat are located within the LMB. Map 1 presents forest cover in the Lower Mekong Basin in 1997.190