Researchers, practitioners and entrepreneurs from Asia and other regions who are involved in non-timber forest products (NTFP) initiatives began a four-day conference in Hanoi on June 11 to assess the role of NTFPs in poverty reduction and biodiversity conservation.
Reports delivered at the conference show that NTFPs play an important role in the livelihoods of the rural poor, as a source of food, medicine, construction materials and income. It is estimated that about 500 million people in Latin America, West Africa and South East Asia live on forest products, and access to forest resources helps rural households diversify their livelihood base and reduce their exposure to risk.
Thanks to its geographical location, Vietnam boasts different kinds of forests with a variety of timber and non-timber forest products. For a long time NTFPs have become one of the major sources of income for people in mountainous areas as they helped alleviate poverty, eradicate hunger and ensure food security and people’s health.
In recent years, international economic integration has opened up the chance for forest products, particularly non-timber forest products to develop vigorously. However, like many other developing countries, Vietnam has faced excessive exploitation of natural products without taking into account the conservation and development of non-timber forest products. Consequently, it has been running out of natural forest resources, leading to degraded biodiversity and badly affecting the livelihoods of forest-dependent people.
The forest sector considers the conservation and development of non-timber forest products part and parcel of the 2006-2020 national forest development strategy, which was approved by the Prime Minister in February 2007. The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) also approved a scheme on conservation and development of non-timber forest products in the 2006-2020 period and is considering the early approval of a national plan of action on non-timber forest products till 2010. It is drafting a pilot project on NTFP support to be implemented in the 2007-2010 period with technical support from the World Conservation Union (IUCN). The project will be submitted to the Trust Fund for Forest for financial support.
According to MARD Deputy Minister Hua Duc Nhi, a NTFP support project which has been implemented in Vietnam since 1998 with financial and technical assistance from the Netherlands and IUCN, has paid off, helping improve the livelihoods of farming households living inside and near forests.
To conserve and develop non-timber forest products in the 2006-2010 period, Pham Duc Tuan, Deputy Head of the Vietnam General Department of Forest Protection said it is imperative to intensify measures to protect NTFP species on the brink of extinction and to exploit NTFP species in natural forests in a proper and sustainable manner.
Vietnamese NTFPs have been exported to nearly 90 countries and territories with an annual total value of nearly US$200 million, mostly generated from rattan and bamboo products. The figure is expected to rise to US$700-800 million by 2020 with an annual export growth of between 10-15 percent.
Source: VOV