Plants for food, medicine and materials (also called Non-timber forest products (NTFPs)) generate livelihoods other than logging from forests. They range from plants:
- gathered from the wild, in either timber-productive or non-timber-productive forests and lands e.g., mushrooms, devil’s club and other botanical medicines
- produced in forests with varying levels of management intensity, e.g., salal and other berries
- produced in agroforestry systems such as native forest plant species, e.g., wild ginger cultivated in a higher intensity
Some are found in old growth forests while others occur in different stages of forest development. Economic benefits can vary from the highly lucrative mushroom harvesting trade to small scale family botanical businesses that generate intergenerational livelihoods. Currently there is a rapidly expanding interest in the wild medicinal sector with recent discoveries in fungi and other forest organisms.
In the past, local communities had little control over harvesting in their territories. Increasingly, the stewardship and control over permits to these plants is being negotiated by the communities who hold the rights and responsibility for them, e.g., Secwepemcul’ecw Restoration and Stewardship Society.
Further resources:- British Columbia Community Forest Association: Non-Timber Forest Resources (NTFRs).