Developing Non-wood Forest Products(NWFPs)

In recent years, non-wood forest products (NWFPs) have attracted considerable global interest. This is due to the increasing recognition that NWFPs can provide important community needs for improved rural livelihood; contribute to household food security and nutrition; help to generate additional employment and income; offer opportunities for processing enterprises; contribute to foreign exchange earnings; and support biodiversity conservation and other environmental objectives.

 Important basic requirement for sustainable management of NWFP resources could include: promote establishment of information networks on NWFPs, strengthening research capabilities in countries as well as establishment of research networks for exchange of research results and experience. South-South and North-South collaboration needs to be promoted for research and development of NWFPs, organised participation of local community in decisions and actions on management and use of these resources. Effective participation would call for improved support services such as extension and credit, coherent policies and strategy measures and access to information and resources. Government agencies, NGOs, credit institutions and the private sector can all help to facilitate informed and organised participation. Another important requirement relates to research and technology development relating to the different aspects of NWFPs such as resource development, domestication of species, conservation measures, environmentally sound harvesting, product development and processing and marketing and trade.

Trees and forests contribute in many ways to combating malnutrition and improving diets in local communities and rural households. Not only do they directly provide food and medicines, but they also indirectly increase income and improve agricultural production, thereby improving access to food. Hunger and malnutrition would be significantly worse if it were not for the contribution of trees and forests to household food security.
Forests make a particularly important contribution to the nutrition of the rural poor, who, more than others, are likely to be dependent on trees for a significant part of their income and food supply. Forest dwelling hunters and gatherers, the world's 300 million shifting cultivators, and millions of smallholder and landless households living near forests, in the savannah or growing trees on their farms and compounds depend on trees as part of their survival strategies.
Forest foods can offer vital insurance against malnutrition or famine during times of seasonal food shortage or emergencies such as droughts, floods or wars. It is common for rural households to depend on forest foods between harvests, when harvested stocks have been consumed but before new crops are mature. Women, in particular, count on these resources for supplementary nutrition, emergency foods, fuelwood for cooking and many other important products they need to ensure the nutritional well-being of their families.
Nearly everyone consumes tree foods in one form or another. Innumerable cultivated trees produce food: fruit and nut trees, coconut palms, plantains, olives, and so on. Among the forest fruits that have gained popularity on the world market are avocado, mangoes and guavas. Market forces have galvanized production of these fruits - formerly wild or semi-cultivated forest products - in their countries of origin and have mobilized their spread to other areas.
One of the main contributions of forests and trees to household nutritional standards is as a vital source of income. This income can be used to buy necessary staples that may be lacking in the home garden.

Chemicals produced by trees often have medicinal properties that are critical in maintaining levels of family nutrition. For example, the bark of the Khaya senegalensis is used for intestinal problems in tropical Africa, while the Copaiba tree of the Latin American tropics produces an oil used as an expectorant. Folk medicine, which relies heavily on plants, is the standard source of medical treatment for at least three-quarters of the world's people; some analysts set the figure as high as 90 percent.

Forest products also provide important remedies for animal diseases, helping to safeguard livestock production, an important component of human nutrition.
In addition to their direct contribution to food supplies, trees provide habitats for animals, insects and plants that indirectly contribute to human nutrition. Mangrove forests, which cover only about 160 000 km2, are essential to the life cycle of the majority of the world's major commercial pelagic fish species.
The blossoms of forest trees and plants growing below the forest canopy provide a year-round supply of food for bees. Honey is universally valued for its high energy content. Other sweeteners actually extracted from trees include maple syrup and various sugar substitutes (Nypa, tody palm).

Governments and forestry institutions can greatly improve the food security of small farmers and the rural poor through the creation of forest policies and forest institutions that will support the needs of households who depend on trees for a significant part of their nutrition.