Purpose
NWFPs in the Asia-Pacific context
Complex and diverse nature of NWFPs
Paucity of data
This study is one of many contributions that feed into the Asia-Pacific Forestry Sector Outlook Study being prepared by FAO for consideration by ministers and senior policy makers in the region. The studies assess the status, trends and outlook for a range of issues and subsectors pertinent to forest management and policy in the region. The outlook time horizon is up to the year 2010, agreed to by the Asia-Pacific Forestry Commission at its sixteenth session in Yangon, Myanmar in January 1996. In total, the studies comprise a comprehensive package of materials, which will be distributed to the delegates and participants of the next Asia-Pacific Forestry Commission meeting, to be held in Yogyakarta, Indonesia in February 1998.
This particular working paper focuses on non-wood forest products or NWFPs. In keeping with the Terms of Reference, the study on NWFPs considers their economic, environmental and social significance in the region. Major trends in NWFP management are analyzed, including collection, processing, utilization and trade in NWFPs, and the implications of these trends for demand and supply. Considering current trends and a range of emerging management and policy scenarios, the study suggests changes that might occur during the intervening period, and the projected status of NWFPs in the Asia-Pacific region by the year 2010.
The study does not purport to be a comprehensive treatment of NWFPs in the region, replete with data on the major products. Information of this nature may be found in some of the extensive references cited. Instead, the study utilizes selected site-specific and product-specific case studies to illustrate how current trends and future scenarios may develop within the region.
For most of recorded history, people have valued forests as much for non-wood products as for wood. Ancient writings from China, Egypt and India recorded a wide variety of uses for forest plants, and the ancient Greeks prized botanical compilations from western Asia (Wickes 1990 cited in FAO 1995a). From the era of hunting and gathering up to the present, non-wood forest products 3 (NWFPs) have provided subsistence and livelihoods for people in the Asia-Pacific region. For hundreds of millions of forest area residents, NWFPs are essential for family survival.
3 The term 'non-wood forest products' (NWFPs), and also 'minor', 'secondary', and 'non-timber' forest products, are used as umbrella expressions for the vast array of both animal and plant resources other than wood (or timber in the case of 'NTFPs') that are derived from forests or forest tree species (FAO 1997).
Non-wood forest products may be classified by source (e.g., plant, animal) or by uses (e.g., food, medicines, fibres). NWFPs also provide a wide range of environmental and sociocultural functions that are important at the household as well as national level. The diagram below depicts the great diversity of non-wood forest products and services.
Source: More than wood. Forestry Topics Report No. 4, p. 10 (FAO 1993)
In a recent study from West Kalimantan, villagers identified over 800 plant species from which they derive nearly 1,800 uses to fulfil a broad range of needs (Graefen and Syafrudin 1996). NWFPs are used for food, spices, edible oils and medicines, for fodder, forage, stall bedding and green manure, as construction material and household utensils, as fibre for cloth, basket-making and rope, and for ornamentation and religious purposes.
People use NWFPs for an enormous range of purposes, including the following:
· Common subsistence products such as: medicines, staple foods, supplementary or emergency foods, protein foods, construction materials, tools and utensils, etc.· Subsistence products that are utilized on a smaller scale or only on special occasions.
· Commercialized products that are sources of income (ranging from low to significant depending on the product and local economic conditions) to collectors. These products include primarily, rattan, resins, honey, aromatics, and bush meat.
· Other products with a range of commercialization ranging from local to national and international markets, e.g., medicines, tools and utensils, furniture, handicrafts, mats, walling and construction materials, major and minor foodstuffs.
· Products that have been long commercialized and internationally traded with high annual turnover and control of market chain by outside entrepreneurs.
A number of NWFPs, including rubber, rattan, bamboo, gaharu (fragrant aloewood) aromatic oils and medicinal plants have long been traded or bartered within the Asia-Pacific region, and in markets outside of the region. NWFP raw materials and processed products earn billions of US dollars per year. For rattan alone, the average value of annual world trade is more than US$88 million. Of this, US$50 million are generated from Asia-Pacific countries, especially Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam and China (Iqbal 1993).
NWFP collection and processing provide employment for millions of Asia-Pacific people. In India, about 7.5 million people are engaged part-time as collectors of tendu (Diospyros melanoxylon) leaves, and another 3 million process the leaves into bidi cheroots (Tewari 1982 cited in Arnold 1995). Estimated revenues from tendu leaves are US$200 million/yr (FAO 1994a). In Manipur State, India, 90 percent of the population depend on forest products as a major source of income, and some 250,000 women collect forest products (FAO 1992).
The relative value of NWFPs versus wood products varies greatly with the ecology of the forest. For example, in Borneo's highly valuable dipterocarp forests, timber values could be as much as 200 times higher than NWFP values, on a per hectare basis. Conversely, in the sal (Shorea robusta) forests of eastern India, the timber and NWFP values per hectare per year could be almost equal.
A list of multipurpose Bhutanese forest plants comprising over 40 pages illustrates the extraordinary diversity and importance of NWFPs (FAO 1994b). Yet, as extensive as it is, the list under-represents the holistic value of NWFPs to Asia-Pacific forest peoples. The economic value comprises only one subset of the integral value of NWFPs, particularly in the case of forest communities for whom the sum of the tangible parts is not worth nearly as much as the presence of the whole forest ecosystem (Levin 1992).
The lack of basic and reliable information on NWFPs is such an acute problem that it deserves separate mention. An immediate problem that confronts any NWFP researcher is the lack of authoritative information.
Information on production and domestic consumption is strikingly lacking for most NWFPs. This is because their value is often greatest within relatively restricted local economies where the contribution to daily subsistence is significant, but where small-quantity trading in NWFPs goes unrecorded. Local uses and small transactions are rarely treated in national statistics and have been inadequately studied. As a consequence, little knowledge exists on the actual production and harvest levels of even major NWFPs, while data on minor products are altogether lacking. The development potential of NWFPs is poorly understood. Aside from the communities that are primarily engaged in NWFP management, only few people are familiar with practices to ensure sustainable exploitation and development.
Export figures for NWFP are the only data kept on a more-or-less systematic basis. Yet most official statistics are unreliable. FAO discontinued collection and publication of NWFP statistics in 1972, but is now seriously attempting to redress the problems of availability and accuracy (Padovani 1995). Among the distortions commonly encountered in trade statistics of most exporting countries are: information for a group of products is merged; under- reporting, over-reporting or not reporting at all; no data on illegal trade; and use of unrealistic prices.
Illustrating the frequent wide discrepancies that make official statistics suspect, Lintu (1995) reported that the combined exports of rattan from Indonesia, Philippines and Malaysia in 1989 exceeded US$250 million. Iqbal (1993) cited Indonesian Bureau of Statistics figures for rattan export in 1989 of just over US$1 million. Yet he also found in the 1989 COMTRADE database that import of Indonesian rattan by industrialized countries exceeded US$17 million, or about one-quarter of world-wide rattan export for that year. Because Indonesia imposed export restrictions on rattan in 1989, there may have been anomalies with inventory stockpiles, or even illegal trade. This example demonstrates again the difficulties in locating reliable, timely data.
Another example of data discrepancy was observed in Lao PDR. On an ordinary day at Luang Prabang harbour, orchid stems were loaded onto two large trucks of approximately 25-m3 capacity each. Inquiries at the Ministry of Forestry revealed that the only data recorded on export of orchid stems was delivery of four tons annually to China. In reality, the recorded annual export figure of four tons could be exceeded by the amount of orchid stems transhipped from Luang Prabang during one day (Koppelman, personal communication).
The paucity of reliable data on NWFPs constrains efforts to develop appropriate policies, regulatory mechanisms, trade arrangements, and extraction patterns aimed at ensuring sustainable NWFP and forest management, including:
· Sustainable management regimes for various NWFPs under a range of ecological conditions.· Traditional NWFP management approaches and practices.
· How traditional approaches and practices are being impacted by increasing exploitation due to population and market demand growth.
· Impact of over-exploitation on poor forest dwelling populations, and their adaptation to increasing resource scarcity.
· Role of land and resource tenure in developing sustainable NWFP management regimes.
· How appropriate policies could support sustainable NWFP management.
· Appropriate technologies for on-farm planting and forest enrichment of NWFPs.
· Adding value to raw materials by processing or direct marketing to maintain income benefits while reducing harvest volumes.
· Role of sustainable NWFP management by local communities in galvanizing community involvement in forest and biodiversity conservation.
· Role of sustainable NWFP management in integrated conservation and development projects.
· The proportion of current NWFP production that is gathered from natural forests, compared to the quantities from tended (managed) forests, and from domesticated or cultivated trees on farms or in plantations; and the reasons and trends behind this.
Household importance
NWFPs and food security
Economic importance
Ecological benefits and risks
Social and cultural significance
NWFPs in ICDP approaches
Among forest people in the Asia-Pacific region, NWFPs make a substantial contribution to family subsistence and livelihoods. Hundreds of millions of people living in or near forests depend to some degree on NWFPs for their livelihoods. It is likely that more than 200 million people in the region gain a significant portion of their annual income from the collection, processing and marketing of NWFPs 4. Most of this activity occurs on a small-scale and is not recorded. Therefore, the importance of NWFPs to the survival and economic strategies of Asia-Pacific peoples - particularly poor, forest-dependent folks - is often poorly appreciated by their governments.
4 Although Lynch (1995) gives an incredible estimate of 1 billion people, which is almost the entire rural population in Asia Pacific! Other estimates are as low as 200 million worldwide (Pimental et al. 1996).
NWFP-based activities - including collection, sale of raw materials, simple primary processing, and local handicraft production - fill seasonal food or income gaps. They can provide a buffer in times of hardship or emergency, serve as activities of last resort, and generally improve household income security (Ruiz Perez and Arnold 1996). Aside from the millions of people that benefit directly from collection, use, trade and processing activities, millions of others are NWFP consumers. For example, in Melanesia, consumption of starch from the sago palm (Metroxylon spp.) provides the main source of energy food for more than 300,000 people, and a normal part of the diets of 1 million people (Ulijaszek 1983 cited in FAO 1995b).
Given the marginal nature of rural family economy throughout most of the region, NWFPs can provide a critical lifeline for millions of people. In many cases, there are few, if any, alternatives available to supplement income and ensure minimal family subsistence needs. The relative importance of NWFPs, and the number of poor people throughout the region who use or sell significant quantities of these products, have often been underestimated. Most development programmes have concentrated on improving agricultural production in relatively productive areas. Insufficient attention has been paid to the needs of marginalized people in remote areas for whom NWFPs are often vital to survival, given their current socio-economic conditions.
The relative importance of NWFPs to household economic strategy depends primarily on available subsistence and income options. Rural communities often are quite stratified in socio-economic terms. This diversity is due to varying access to land, resources, and income earning opportunities outside the community. Depending on the economic status of a particular household, NWFPs contribute, to a greater or lesser extent, to family self-sufficiency, food security, income generation, savings and risk minimization (Ruiz Perez and Arnold 1996). For those with a broader range of options, the importance of NWFPs as a proportion of total household income generally declines.
While nearly all forest area households use NWFPs to some extent, indigenous peoples, the landless, and the poor can be wholly dependent on these products. For the poor, access to NWFPs throughout the year can be crucial to survival. For example, the largely impoverished Sherpa and Rai cultural minorities in eastern Nepal use 34 forest plant species as staple and survival foods (Daniggelis 1992). In other cases, it is the less poor who derive their incomes from NWFP. 5
5 In another scenario, Wickramasinghe et al. (1996) conclude in their study of a Sri Lankan village that the extremely poor often cannot afford to spend time collecting NWFPs. Meanwhile, middle lower income groups do not need to depend on NWFPs because they have more lucrative income earning options, including small-scale trading.
Millions of people in the Asia-Pacific region depend on NWFPs as their principal medicinal sources. Modern medicines, even if available, are too expensive for the poor to afford. Of the 7,000 plant species in Nepal, 700 have well-known medicinal uses and are the main source of curatives for about 85 percent of all Nepalese (Dani 1986 cited in Upadhaya et al. 1996). In Indonesia, the estimated consumption of jamu herbal tonics prepared from NWFPs was nearly 8,000 tons in 1992 (Food and Drug Administration 1992 cited in Hadi 1995). The use of NWFPs in Chinese medicines is legendary, but defies quantification.
It is notable that while poor households are generally most dependent on NWFPs, local elites often sequester most of the NWFP-derived income (as is the case with most other activities including agriculture). Influential families enter into business alliances with outside NWFP entrepreneurs and serve as their local agents. The agents procure raw materials at very low prices from collectors, and, in turn, provide them with credit advances at high interest rates to buy food and commodities required for NWFP collection forays into the forest. Exploiting the economic weakness of NWFP collectors accelerates unsustainable harvest practices, as collectors struggle to earn income and repay debts (Warner 1979, Mittelman 1997a). While this situation may be common, there are some exceptions where collectors have been able to negotiate terms of mutual advantage. These latter cases are important as they provide encouraging indications of how the more general exploitative arrangements can be minimized.
NWFPs are linked to food security in three major ways (Durst et al. 1997):
· Environmental links between forests and food production, and the role of watershed forests in conserving soil and water resources.· Household nutrition links in terms of consumption of NWFPs.
· Socio-economic links in terms of generating income and employment from NWFPs to support household food security.
In times of scarcity created by crop failure or during food deficit periods, NWFPs fill critical income and subsistence gaps. There are hundreds of millions of upland farmers in the Asia-Pacific region. Very often, upland farmers cannot produce sufficient food to satisfy their annual household nutritional requirements. Although NWFPs provide important benefits year-round, it is during periods of scarcity when collection, processing and trade of NWFPs are most critical to family survival. For these millions of families affected by annual food deficits, access to supplemental forest foods and income can mean the difference between life and death. When NWFP access is curtailed, deficiencies of essential food nutrients become much more prevalent (Eder 1981, Chamberlain et al. 1996).
In Palawan, Philippines, NWFPs comprise 30-60 percent of annual food intake for the Batak tribe. When Batak access to forest survival foods has been restricted, their health status deteriorated rapidly leading to significant increases in infectious diseases, morbidity and mortality (IUCN and Haribon Palawan 1995, Mittelman and Alisuag 1995).
A major strategy for future action is to focus on enhancing local livelihood through local enterprises based on NWFP resources. Capturing an appropriate share of a product's added value closer to the source would help to ensure a more equitable distribution of benefits through the marketing chain, as well as the proper valuation of NWFP resources in forest management decisions (FAO 1995c).
The historical focus on timber in professional forestry circles has led to the consistent underestimation of the economic value of NWFPs. Recent research has brought into perspective the enormous value associated with NWFPs (de Beer and McDermott 1989, Counsell and Rice 1992). In addition to the diversity of benefits they provide the rural poor, NWFPs generate local, national and international trade revenues that are worth a total of billions of dollars annually. One estimate for the total value of world trade in NWFPs is in the region of US$11 billion (FAO 1997, Iqbal 1995). (Again, caution is required in considering these estimates due to the absence of reliable trade data on NWFPs.)
The total economic value of plant-based medicines has been estimated at $43 billion per year (Khan 1995), though many of the items included are no longer collected from forests but are now cultivated in gardens and farms. Trade in medicinal plants may grow rapidly as bio-prospecting becomes increasingly important to medical science and in response to expanding global demand for new pharmaceuticals and natural medicinal products. On the other hand, successful bio-prospecting may lead to synthetic and cultivated medicines, greatly reducing the amount of forest-derived materials traded around the world. Simpson (1997) expresses scepticism about the potential commercial values to be generated in biodiversity prospecting. He suggests that the global demand for pharmaceuticals is a mirage when it comes to reasons for preserving forest biodiversity. As usual, the truth probably lies somewhere between these two extreme views.
A wide assortment of NWFPs contributes to the creation of economic benefits and cash income at the local and community level, e.g., forest foods and medicines sold in village markets. The number and volume of NWFPs being traded at the national level is increasing, e.g., tendu leaf activities in India involve more than 10 million people. NWFPs also enter international trade as end-products (e.g., rattan furniture from Indonesia, bamboo plywood from China) or as raw material for industry (e.g., essential oils, resins, rubber). Many products are marketed simultaneously at all three levels.
Enormous potential exists for community-based production and marketing of non-wood forest and agroforestry products for both domestic and export markets. This increases the diversity of food items and nutritional value available in local markets as well as the incomes and food-purchasing power of producers and traders. It has been estimated that at least 600 to 700 NWFPs are commercially important and internationally traded, including 500 to 600 medicinal plants. Based on import statistics for the period 1989-1991, annual world trade in medicinal plants averages about US$850,000 (Iqbal 1993). These products have significant potential for economic development in Asia-Pacific, where labour costs are relatively low, and supplies of forest raw materials are still ample in some countries.
Very seldom does a single NWFP reach outstanding economic significance in trade. This is usually only the case with products that are plantation-based, like oilseeds and rubber - in which case they lose many of the attributes of NWFPs as discussed here - or important fibres such as rattan and bamboo. In many instances the economic significance stems from the cumulative contribution of diverse products in the trade of a nation. For example, in India, it was estimated that over 50 percent of forest revenues and 70 percent of forestry-sector export income are derived from NWFPs, generating about half of the income for a quarter of India's rural people (Sekhar et al. 1993 cited in Lintu 1995). While one should interpret such estimates cautiously, the trends they indicate are likely valid 6
6 Noteworthy for India is that it has for long not been a major trading country for wood products, hece th ehigh proportion of NWFPs in trade value (Editor).
These trends raise a compelling question: Can NWFP collection lead to economic prosperity, or is it a livelihood of last resort for collectors? The answer to this question depends on a number of conditions and variables that are explored in the remaining sections of this study.
Tropical forests contain over half of all species on earth, and many of these have traditional uses (Myers 1980, Raven 1988, Reid and Miller 1989). Recently, there has been dramatic increase in awareness of the significance of NWFPs. This stems from the proposition that NWFP revenues could at least partially substitute for commercial logging revenues, and create strong incentives for sustainable forest management by local communities. Some NWFPs are ecologically dependent upon the complex structure of intact tropical forests to provide the diversity of niches in which they flourish (Haeruman 1995). Thus, the conservation of tropical forest biodiversity, and generating local incomes through NWFPs may be mutually supporting objectives.
Innovative community-based sustainable forest management arrangements can be leveraged by providing NWFP access rights and facilitating advantageous marketing arrangements for local communities (Fricke 1994, Mittelman 1996b, Hyman, 1996; Padoch and Pinedo-Vasquez 1996). When value is added by direct marketing, local processing of NWFPs, or both - as has been the case in a number of innovative projects within the region - the economic benefits to local people can be substantial. Improving local control over NWFPs and forest resources can contribute significantly to the success of national rural development initiatives, as well as to forest and biodiversity conservation objectives.
NWFP-based forest conservation activities can help to maintain forest food and subsistence production systems for local socio-economic development, create significant employment and income benefits within and beyond the forest boundary, and preserve the intricate linkage of NWFPs to forest bio-geo-chemical cycles (Arnold 1995). It would be naive to conclude that managing forests for their NWFP values will always attain the complex objectives of sustainable forest management or the preservation of all biodiversity in the forest (Peters 1994). Nonetheless, NWFP development and conservation can form an important component of a more wide-ranging integrated rural development and conservation strategy.
The difficulties in monitoring the sustainability of NWFPs are vexing. Forests exploited for latex, fruit, tree and plant parts, herbs and shrubs maintain the appearance of being undisturbed. For casual observers and even botanists, it is easy to assume that harvest of NWFPs can be sustained year-after-year. Though patently incorrect, this simplistic idea has appeared in books, scientific papers, conference proceedings, grant proposals, and even television and radio shows (Peters 1996a). The high species diversity of tropical forests, coupled with very low species densities means that regular harvest of tree or plant parts, animals, or pollinators, can disrupt the reproduction cycles and populations of both flora and fauna. This leads, though often unnoticeably, to gradual alteration of species composition over the long-term - the timeframe for which sustainability, by definition, must be measured. Considerable work remains in efforts to determine sustainable management regimes for specific NWFPs under site-specific resource and ecological conditions.
Little is known about the interrelationship between the majority of NWFP species and their surrounding environment. But since decomposition of plant parts plays a vital role in the maintenance of natural forest cycles, harvesting shoots, roots, and fruits may remove nutrients that are essential for forest health (Haeruman 1995). Particular species and plant parts have evolved to trap, concentrate and accumulate certain nutrients. Selective harvesting of plant reproductive structures can reduce intraspecific genetic diversity leading to sustainability problems (Boyle, 1995). It is important that the impact of intensive harvest of these parts or species be understood if ecosystem sustainability is to be integrated as a primary component of NWFP-based forest management. Lacking specific data, sustainable management should, at least for the short term, plan for modest harvest of a wide range of NWFP species, maximizing profitability through product processing and innovative marketing arrangements, rather than through high-volume harvest of a few species.
The ecological basis for NWFP-based sustainable forest management is closely intertwined with the economic, social and cultural significance of NWFPs in the lives of forest area populations. The forest ecosystem comprised of people, plants and wildlife is largely defined by the relationship between the forest people and the NWFP resources on which they currently depend. This is particularly the case for indigenous minorities whose lives are so closely linked to the forest in terms of livelihood and culture (Grenand and Grenand 1996).
For many forest area populations, cultural identity, traditional knowledge systems, and social coherence are intertwined with forests as a result of local NWFPs use and attendant activities and rituals. At the same time, both the parts and the whole are closely interdependent. Without the forest and its host of diverse ecological niches, NWFPs would cease to exist, and the associated societies would be irrevocably changed. Reduction and degradation of forest cover continues throughout the region with consequent impacts on forest dwelling and forest dependent people. The trend is likely to continue, perhaps even more rapidly in coming decades.
For forest-dwelling ethnic groups in the Asia-Pacific, forests are integral to culture, and a source of physical, spiritual and psychological sustenance. NWFPs are valued as components of cultural identity. Numerous species and their forest habitats are valued and conserved for religious reasons (Fui and Noor 1995, Talosig 1995). A number of groups and tribes cherish belief systems in which the forest is considered the very source of their origin (Gurung 1995). Ongoing loss of traditional belief systems that instilled in millions of peoples an enormous respect and reverence for the forest has profound social and cultural implications.
For the Batak tribes of Palawan, Philippines, the guardian spirit of the forest is also responsible for providing sustenance for the people. But for the covenant to be upheld, the people are required to reciprocate through their respect for the forest, modestly harvesting products based on need as opposed to greed (Eder 1997). Dozens of folk stories recount episodes in which those who have taken more than their needs were smitten by the forest protectors for their transgressions (Major, personal communication).
With the rapid growth and spread of modern technology driving global economic development, methods for exploiting natural resources have become increasingly sophisticated and efficient. Nearly half of the world's tropical forests were cleared during the last 50 years. The resulting threat to society is not confined to forest dwellers alone. A number of the world's most eminent scientists share concerns that the current global development trajectory, particularly the continuing destruction of tropical forests, could ultimately have far-reaching repercussions that place the future of life on earth at jeopardy (Myers 1980, WCED 1987, Raven 1988, Vida 1988).
During the past decade, there has been an upsurge of interest in the study of indigenous technical knowledge (ITK) systems (e.g., see the Indigenous Knowledge and Development Monitor). Many ITK systems have evolved in relation to the dependence of remote traditional populations on forest resources to secure reliable and sustainable livelihoods. In contrast to the kinds of modern resource management technologies that have had adverse effects on tropical forests, ITK may be adapted to help ensure sustainable forest management.
With increasing appreciation of the scientific validity of traditional knowledge regarding forest ecology and sustainable management and the urgent need to conserve biodiversity, efforts to study and document these systems are advancing rapidly. Yet ITK is a pragmatic science involving the day-to-day survival efforts of its practitioners. As forests disappear and indigenous peoples are alienated from the resources that give practical meaning to their traditional knowledge, this valuable knowledge itself is also being lost. In the interest of sustainable NWFP management and in the face of vanishing ITK systems, efforts to document and thereby conserve indigenous knowledge regarding sustainable forest resource management should be accelerated.
Development of local NWFP enterprises is one of the principal components of integrated conservation and development project (ICDP) approaches (Hyman 1996). By extracting and selling NWFPs, local communities become more aware of the value of their ecologically diverse and productive forests. Successful community-based sustainable forest management approaches usually involve NWFPs as a "turnkey strategy." This is based on the premise that managing tropical forests sustainably for multiple use generates greater long-term economic value and benefits than exploiting forests solely for timber or converting forests to pastures or single-species plantations (Peters cited in Panayotou 1993). When properly managed in this way, NWFP harvests can generate considerable revenues, advance biodiversity conservation objectives, and contribute to the welfare of upland and watershed communities (Mittelman 1996a, 1996b).
Recent recognition of the implications and destructive consequences of outsiders' control over forests has led to a growing trend to legitimize community rights throughout the region (see Republic of the Philippines 1992, Government of Vietnam 1994, Government of Lao PDR 1996). NWFP-based ICDP approaches provide a new paradigm for forest and biodiversity conservation efforts to assist the socio-economic development of marginalized people and preserve forest-based cultures, traditions, as well as the forests themselves. These efforts are based on indigenous knowledge of forest ecology, and characterized by sustainable harvest, processing and marketing of a diversity of NWFPs.
An ICDP strategy is being employed to implement the National Integrated Protected Area System in the Philippines (NIPA 1996). In West Kalimantan, Indonesia, local communities are in the process of being granted forest use rights in exchange for assuming responsibility for sustainable forest management (Fricke 1994). NWFPs also provide much of the impetus for joint forest management in India (Poffenberger and McGean 1996). In Vietnam, sustainable development of NWFPs has begun to provide alternatives to destructive shifting cultivation (Tien 1994). Indeed, throughout the Asia-Pacific region, community-based sustainable forest management is emerging as an alternative strategy for ICDP and rural development activities (AFN 1992-1996). The growing number of on-the-ground examples and experience gained should contribute to replication and more effective programme implementation elsewhere in the region.
In the vicinity of Kerinci-Seblat National Park in Sumatra, Indonesia, a major ICDP initiative has been launched with World Bank financing. NWFPs are among the alternative development options being tested. Many new lessons, both positive and negative, are being learned from these efforts. A recent review of Indonesia's ICDPs found that very few of these projects can realistically claim that biodiversity conservation has been or is likely to be significantly enhanced as a result of current or planned ICDP activities (World Bank 1997). Although relatively new, many problems faced by ICDPs in Indonesia reflect flaws in basic assumptions and planning that are inconsistent with field realities and current capacities of government and communities in remote parks, protected areas and buffer zones. ICDPs have tended to focus on the perceived threats to protected areas from local communities. However, there is ample evidence that for most parks, large public and private investment schemes were or are much greater threats to biodiversity concerns. It was also found that the linkages between conservation and development are extremely weak and confined to relatively few stakeholders in Indonesia (World Bank 1997).
While ICDPs have considerable potential as an integrative approach to resource conservation and development, they cannot be prescribed as a panacea in all situations. There are daunting problems and complexities in operationalizing the ICDP concept in remote forest areas. The emerging lessons from ICDPs in Indonesia and other countries are extremely important. These lessons must be shared, and applied judiciously to improve future ICDP activities.
