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WHAT CONTRIBUTION DOES SUCCESSFUL NTFP COMMERCIALISATION MAKE TO THE MILLENNIUM DEVELOPMENT GOALS?
By Elaine Marshall, Kathrin Schreckenberg and Adrian Newton
This article presents a brief summary of findings from ‘CEPFOR’ – a multidisciplinary research initiative funded by the DFIDForestry Research Programme to examine the factors influencing successful nontimber forest product (NTFP) commercialisation. Through socioeconomic and market research, the project evaluated the impact of different NTFP value chains on poverty reduction, women’s livelihoods, natural resources, and rights/ access of the poor in eighteen communities in Bolivia and Mexico. Based on the evidence collected, it is apparent that NTFP commercialisation can contribute to the achievement of the MDGs in several ways as highlighted below.
Goal 1. Eradicate extreme poverty and
hunger
Collection of edible NTFPs, from fruit and
flowers to mushrooms, roots, shoots and
leaves can directly reduce hunger, while
NTFP commercialisation activities
contribute to household incomes, thus
enabling families to buy food. NTFPs
regularly provide a safety net for the poor to
fall back on when other activities, such as
subsistence agriculture or cash crops like
coffee, fail to deliver as expected. It is
important to note that NTFP income varies
greatly even between households that are
engaged in the same activity. NTFP activities
can contribute between 7% and 95% of a
household’s annual cash income. In a few
cases, people are able to save enough to
engage in other, often more secure activities
that will enable them to escape poverty
outright.
The degree of importance of NTFPs in household livelihood strategies is closely linked to their seasonality and the way they may be combined with other income-generating activities. NTFP activities, particularly at collection level, require little formal education, relying on skills learned ‘on the job’. Many require no capital or access to private land. However, as labour is often the key input for NTFP harvesting activities, good health is an important requirement. And although NTFP activities are typically considered to be the preserve of the poorest, some require capital investment (e.g. for establishing plantations or funding long collection trips) and are therefore more attractive to the less poor.
Goal 2. Achieve universal primary
education
The timing of much NTFP income is critical
for enabling households to pay for school
fees and books.
Goal 3. Promote gender equality and empower women
Those activities that involve women play an important role in raising their status within their households and communities by providing them with an independent source of income. NTFP activities are one of the few cash-generating opportunities for women in marginalised rural communities. However, few product value chains involve only women and the involvement of both men and women can make an activity economically viable at household level, because skills and time are shared. As women are more likely than men to be involved in processing and cultivation activities, labour-saving technical innovations can improve the low returns to labour of women's NTFP activities.
Given the more limited livelihood options available to women, they are more likely to feel the impact of changes in NTFP commercialisation than men. Some of the more difficult changes for women to deal with include a declining resource base, which may result in a switch from collection to purchase; and changes in processing and selling locations, which can move employment opportunities away from rural communities.
Goal 4. Reduce child mortality
Goal 5. Improve maternal health
Goal 6. Combat HIV/Aids, malaria and other diseases
The impact of NTFP commercialisation on Goals 4, 5 and 6 is likely to be indirect. In the case of Goals 4 and 5, the accrual of income to women from NTFP commercialisation can lead to a higher level of expenditure on children's and women's health. Organisation into groups gives women the opportunity to share experiences in the area of health and, in some cases, provides access to minor sources of credit that can help women maintain their own and their children's health.
Goal 7. Ensure environmental sustainability
In the majority of cases, increased NTFP commercialisation initially leads to overexploitation of the resource. Tenure is an important factor in determining the variety of strategies used by ommunities and individuals to ensure that NTFP supply is sufficient to meet the demands of increased commercialisation. With communally owned resources, improved resource management and better harvesting practices are most common. Where land is held privately and the plant can be easily propagated, individuals begin to engage in small-scale domestication. If well managed, both of these options can decrease overexploitation of the specific resource and possibly reduce forest degradation.
Goal 8. Develop a global partnership for development
The impacts of NTFP commercialisation on this goal are marginal. However, global NTFP commercialisation can benefit from the development of an open, rule-based predictable and non-discriminatory trading and financial system (Target 12). Expansion of NTFP commercialisation activities with greater recognition of the environmental services rendered could provide decent employment for young people in rural areas (Target 16).
Is investment in forestry a good way of achieving the MDGs? NTFP activities can play an important role in gap filling for the rural poor, and under certain conditions can provide a stepping-stone out of poverty. Much of the potential of NTFPs is context specific, and many factors, much wider than the NTFP sector, determine how much of an impact forest activities will have on the MDGs. Their contribution cannot be considered in isolation. Instead, our findings highlight the importance of a combination of factors, including the enabling environment, product characteristics, market conditions, sustainable use and combined influence of household capacity to engage in different activities.
Note: All key project outputs, including a pdf of the 2006 publication, are freely downloadable from: http://www.unep-wcmc.org/forest/ntfp.
Further information:
Elaine Marshall
Email: marshallelaine@googlemail.com
Reference:
Marshall E., Schreckenberg K. and Newton A.C. (Eds). 2006. Commercialization of non-timber forest products: factors influencing success. Lessons learnt from Mexico and Bolivia and Policy Recommendations for decision-makers. UNEP World Conservation Monitoring Centre, Cambridge , UK .