HANOI, VIET NAM
28-–29 JUNE 2005
This workshop explored the opportunities and risks of a growing NTFP market and was organized around four different topics:
• NTFP marketing worldwide and in Viet Nam – an introduction to concepts, opportunities and challenges;
• NTFP market information;
• NTFP marketing and biodiversity conservation;
• tools for market assessment and analysis.
For more information, please contact:
Mr Maurits Servaas, NTFP Project Training Adviser, 8 Chuong Duong Do
Hanoi, Viet Nam.
Fax: 84 4 9 320 996; e-mail: [email protected]
WASHINGTON, DC, UNITED STATES
6–9 JULY 2005
This conference focused on two key questions to evaluate African traditional healing practices in the context of delivering affordable, sustainable and culturally sensitive care.
• What can African traditional medicines contribute to the prevention and control of infectious and chronic diseases and how can such contributions be validated and enhanced?
• What roles can traditional African health knowledge play in addressing issues of health disparities and equity, both at home and abroad, and how can these roles be enhanced?
For more information, please contact:
The George Washington University Medical Center, Office of Continuing
Education in the Health Professions, 2300 Eye Street, NW, Suite 313-D, Washington,
DC 20037, United States. Fax: +1 202 9941791; e-mail: [email protected];
www.africanmedicine.info/
BEIJING, CHINA
24–30 JULY 2005
This workshop was organized under the auspices of the International Tropical Timber Organization (ITTO)-funded project, “Capacity building for the development of a sustainable rattan sector in China based on plantation sources” (PD 100/01 Rev. 3[I])) with technical support from the International Network for Bamboo and Rattan (INBAR).
Topics discussed included
• research and development (R&D) issues in the rattan sector as well as directions and strategies;
• business and investment opportunities in the rattan sector in Asia; and
• new directions and strategies in the R&D of rattan.
In addition, it provided a platform for key players in the rattan industry and government officials to interact, network and build strategic partnerships.
For more information, please contact:
Huang Shineng, Ph.D., Assistant Project Director and Secretary of the
Workshop Organizing Committee, Research Institute of Tropical Forestry,
Chinese Academy of Forestry,
Long Dong, Guangzhou 510520, China. Fax: (86 20) 8703 1622; e-mail:
[email protected]
MOSCOW, RUSSIAN FEDERATION
24-–28 SEPTEMBER 2005
NTFP harvesting has a long tradition in Russian culture. Since the collapse of the Soviet era, small businesses have developed but are still confronted by many problems. Their participation at the Fair and Forum helped them to overcome some of these, broadening their marketing contacts and discussing problems such as bureaucratic and informational barriers.
The name of the fair, Gifts of the forest – culture of use, reflects its principal idea: to emphasize the sustainability of NTFP use and the importance of NTFPs in the revival of many cultural and commercial traditions. In fact, Russian boreal forests are threatened by illegal logging, overuse of economically accessible stands, forest fires and pests. The sustainable harvest of NTFPs is one of the possible alternative ways of using forest ecosystems, without destroying them. NTFPs consist of any resources of the forest other than timber, pulpwood or firewood. They include not only food products, such as herbal teas, preserved and fresh wild berries, mushrooms and fruits, but also a wide range of health products, natural cosmetics, medicine and crafts. As well as being an important source of additional income for forest-based communities these products have a high cultural and spiritual value. Moreover, buying sustainably harvested NTFPs helps local communities to maintain traditional knowledge or rediscover it.
The fair’s participants were mostly private businesses (double the number of 2004), varying from an artist creating pictures on birch bark, to a company processing and canning wild mushrooms and plants. There were also native cooperatives and groups such as Aleskam, Esso Native People’s Community and Kamchatka Herbal Tea, which are supported by the IUCN-CIDA project on Kamchatka and Sakhalin (see p. 62 for more information). They produce Siberian pine nuts, herbal teas, wild berry jams, birch bark crafts and other products from the taïga forest.
For more information, please contact:
Nikolay M. Shmatkov, Forest Programme Manager, IUCN Office for Russia
and the Commonwealth of Independent States,
3 bld. 3, Stoliamy Per., Moscow 123022,
Russian Federation. Tel./fax: +7(095) 609 3411; e-mail: [email protected];
www.iucn.ruor www.dary-lesa.com
BEIJING AND ZHEJIANG PROVINCE, CHINA
24 OCTOBER–4 NOVEMBER 2005
This workshop was jointly organized by the International Centre for Bamboo and Rattan (ICBR), the International Network for Bamboo and Rattan (INBAR), the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and the International Union of Forestry Research Organizations (IUFRO).
Although bamboo is an integral part of the tropical and subtropical forest, little is known about global bamboo resources. The rapid technological development of bamboo-processing technologies increases the importance of bamboo resources for poverty alleviation and sustainable environmental and economic development in developing countries. It is essential to develop remote sensing and on-the ground inventory methods to facilitate the global assessment of bamboo resources.
Topics at the workshop included remote sensing inventory methods and bamboo on-the-ground inventory techniques.
For further information on the workshop, please contact:
Fu Jinhe Ph.D., Programme Officer and Coordinator of IUFRO 5th November
2005 Bamboo and Rattan,
International Network for Bamboo and Rattan (INBAR), Beijing 100102-86,
Beijing 100102, China. Fax: +86 10 6470 2166; e-mail: [email protected];
www.inbar.int or www.iufro.org/science/divisions/division-5
KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA
22–24 NOVEMBER 2005
This biennial national conference was designed to bring the latest findings in forestry and forest products to the private sector, researchers, academicians, forest managers, industrialists and policy-makers. Discussions embraced issues pertaining to natural and planted forests, improved processing and utilization of wood and non-wood products, conservation of biodiversity, forest ecology, socio-economics and the potential for new developments in forest industry.
For more information, please contact:
The Secretariat, Conference on Forestry and Forest Products Research
2005 (CFFPR 2005), Forest Research Institute Malaysia, Kepong 52109,
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, attention
of Dr Lim Hin Fui; fax: 603 6280 4629;
e-mail: [email protected];
www.frim.gov.my.
YAOUNDE, CAMEROON
6–7 DECEMBER 2005
The objective of this symposium was to contribute towards the valorization of plant diversity and, more specifically, ascertain concrete strategies to ensure effective application of research results.
Subtopics included medicinal plants, spice and aromatic plants, ornamental plants and green species, valorization technologies and intellectual property rights.
For more information please contact:
CEN secretariat [email protected]or
Pr. Bernard-Aloys Nkongmeneck; BP, 812 Yaoundé; e-mail: [email protected]
INDIRAPURAM, DEHRA DUN, INDIA
20–21 DECEMBER 2005
The workshop was organized by the Centre of Minor Forest Products in order to improve the livelihoods of village and forest dwellers, including tribals and forest-based enterprises. Discussions were held to find remedial measures for economic cultivation and harvesting of medicinal plants; sort out problems of marketing and equitable distribution of profits from farmers to entrepreneurs; develop methodologies to forge linkages between farmers and buyers of medicinal plants raw material; and discuss difficulties of manufacturers of Ayurvedic medicines and Ayurvedacharyas. Useful recommendations emerged for cultivation of medicinal plants for boosting the economy.
For more information, please contact:
Ms Alka Shiva, President and Managing Director, Centre of Minor Forest
Products, HIG 2, No. 8B,
Indirapuram, GMS Road, PO Majra,
Dehra Dun – 248 001 (Uttaranchal), India.
E- mail: [email protected]or
[email protected][email protected]
