Dear Readers,

Welcome to another issue of our quarterly on NWFPs. This issue focuses on NWFPs and the "bioeconomy", or the economic activities that use renewable biological resources -- in this case NWFPs -- for the production of goods, services, food and energy. Special emphasis is given to the Bioeconomy conference held in Finland: Paltola Rainer of LUKE provides us with a summary under regional dispatches. Other highlights include:

• Bioeconomy & NWFPs: An overview, Nataša Lovrić
• Q&A with EU's INCREDIBLE Project
• Novel and systematic business model solutions for NWFPs 
• China conference to focus on "green innovation" with bamboo and rattan, INBAR
• Finland: Alternative approaches to integrate bilberry yields into regional long term forest, Mikko Kurttila
• United States: Pacific Northwest NTFP Production and how local woodland coop helps producers break market barrier, Tiffany Fegel

We would like to remind our readers to send contributions (including recent papers, projects, workshops, articles, etc.) to: non-wood-news@fao.org.

Bioeconomy & NWFPs: An overview
Nataša Lovrić

©Jordana Wright

Humanity is struggling to secure its future needs to be based mostly on natural renewable resources. In order to achieve that, it must ground its future practices in the current bioeconomy premises. A broader understanding of the full spectrum of available forest resources is one way to do that. Identification of their current and future roles and potential is of extreme importance. The forest related sector is working with full speed to ensure its place on the top of the bioeconomy practicing industries, which are able to provide us with most sustainable future. However, it will take a great effort to shift the forest sector paradigm to fully embrace non-wood forest products and related institutions as an equal providing partner in achieving this goal. It will entail awareness raising actions in the wider forest sector to expand their inclusion. 

NWFPs were always part of the products and services, which are these days considered as part of the standard forest sector bioeconomy practice. Nowadays, NWFPs are considered essential part of forest inhabitants’ household consumption and trade. Before petroleum refining begun, in the late 18thcentury, pine resin was extensively used in industrial processes as the main source of oil-based solvents, turpentine, tars and pitches. + READ MORE

Q&A with EU's INCREDIBLE Project

“The INCREDIBLE project aims to show how Non-Wood Forest Products (NWFP) can play an important role to support sustainable forest management and rural development, by creating networks to share and exchange knowledge and expertise. ‘Innovation Networks of Cork, Resins and Edibles in the Mediterranean basin’ (INCREDIBLE) will promote common spaces of work in the Mediterranean area, with NWFPs as protagonists." + READ MORE

NTFPs and Bioeconomy Conference
Peltola Rainer

The NTFP2017 – conference, organized by Natural Resources Institute Finland and Arctic Centre, University of Lapland was held on 28–30 November 2017 in Rovaniemi, Finland. The themes of the conference covered several research areas related to natural products, ranging from ecology to biotechnology and human sciences. The total number of participants was 95 persons, most of them from different research institutes. Most of the participants were from Nordic and European countries, the farthest guests came from USA and India. 

Prior to conference the organizers were happy to receive numerous high-quality abstract submissions, of which the organizing committee, consisting of representatives of several research institutions, selected 22 oral and 33 poster presentations. + READ MORE

Novel and systematic business model solutions for NWFPs

China conference to focus on "green innovation" with bamboo and rattan
INBAR

©FAO/Giulio Napolitano

Our world today faces a set of fundamental challenges. Poverty, climate change, unsustainable resource use and ecosystem degradation pose serious threats to human wellbeing and our environment. They also slow the pace of development. In a world where 800 million people live in poverty and 1.1 billion have no access to electricity, how can we bring about development and growth in an environmentally sustainable way? 

Solving these problems requires new approaches, from people across very different sectors and between countries. It also involves ‘green tools’: innovative nature-based solutions which can help lift people out of poverty while protecting the environment, stimulating genuinely green growth.  + READ MORE

Finland: Alternative approaches to integrate bilberry yields into regional long-term forest scenario analyses
Dr. Mikko Kurttila

This presentation, now published, focuses on the positive effects managing forests for timber and bilberry production can have on bilberry yields.  Regional scenario analyses were conducted to investigate the effects of four different approaches on economics, management and resulting forest structures in North Karelia. Under a business as usual scenario, bilberry yields would decrease.  When forests were managed only for bilberries (timber zero-priced), bilberry yields started to increase immediately resulting in 1.5-fold difference in 50 years as compared to timber only scenario. + READ MORE

United States: Pacific Northwest NTFP production and how local woodland coop helps producers break market barriers
Tiffany Fegel

This presentation explores non-timber forest products being produced in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It covers the production of mushrooms, maple syrup, floral greenery, bundled firewood, essential oils and more. It explains how a small local woodland cooperative is helping NTFP producers break through common market barriers. + READ MORE

Ramps (Allium tricoccum)

A good way to describe ramps, it has been said, is to note what they are not. Ramps are not leeks, nor are they scallions or shallots. Ramps look like scallions, but they're smaller and have one or two broad, flat leaves. Among the first green things to pop out of the ground in the spring across the sprawling forests of Appalachia, ramps (Allium tricoccum) taste stronger than leeks, which generally have a mild onion flavor, and are more "garlicky" than a scallion. As such, the uniquely pungent plant has become the darling of chefs and foodies and a much-sought-after commodity. All the attention on ramps of late has convinced Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture officials that they need to know more about the market for ramps and the wild stocks of the plants to manage and perhaps protect them. So, with a Specialty Crop Block Grant, they funded a novel, interdisciplinary study led by researchers in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences. In addition to assessing supply and demand, researchers will analyze the plant's phytochemistry and nutritional makeup. + READ MORE

LITERATURE

Campbell AJ, Carvalheiro LG, Maués MM, et al. 2018. Anthropogenic disturbance of tropical forests threatens pollination services to açaí palm in the Amazon river delta. J Appl Ecol.00:1–12. https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2664.13086

Egbe, E. A. & Tsamoh, T. T. 2018. Vegetation studies of Non-Timber Forest Products (NTFPs) at three sites with varying levels of anthropogenic disturbances in the Southern Bakundu. J. Ecol. Nat. Environ. 10, 22–33.

Garcia-Barreda, S. 2018. et al. Black Truffle Harvesting in Spanish Forests: Trends, Current Policies and Practices, and Implications on its Sustainability. Environ. Manage. 61, 535–544.

Hwang, Larry C. 2017. An environmental and economic approach to the development and sustainable exploitation of non-timber forest products (NTFP) in Liberia. doi:https://doi.org/10.7282/T30V8GXN.

Iponga, D. M. et al. 2018. The contribution of NTFP-gathering to rural people’s livelihoods around two timber concessions in Gabon. Agrofor. Syst. 92, 169.

Kilpeläinen, H., Salminen, O., Härkönen, K., Miina, J. & Kurttila, M. 2017. Integrating bilberry yields into regional long-term forest scenario analyses. Scand. J. For. Res. 0, 1–9. 

Leßmeister, A. et al. 2018. The contribution of non-timber forest products (NTFPs) to rural household revenues in two villages in south-eastern Burkina Faso. Agrofor. Syst. 92, 139–155.

Lowore, J., Meaton, J. & Wood, A. 2018. African Forest Honey: an overlooked NTFP with potential to support livelihoods and forests. Environ. Manage. 1-14. doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/s00267-018-1015-8.

Matias, D. M. S., Borgemeister, C. & von Wehrden, H. 2018. Ecological changes and local knowledge in a giant honey bee (Apis dorsata F.) hunting community in Palawan, Philippines. Ambio 1–11. doi:10.1007/s13280-018-1038-7.

Pasalodos-Tato, M., Alberdi, I., Cañellas, I. & Sánchez-González, M. 2018. Towards assessment of cork production through National Forest Inventories. Forestry 91, 110–120.

Strengbom J, Axelsson EP, Lundmark T, Nordin A. 2018. Trade‐offs in the multi‐use potential of managed boreal forests. J Appl Ecol.;55:958–966. https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2664.13019

Suwarno, A., Hein, L., Weikard, H.-P., van Noordwijk, M. & Nugroho, B. 2018. Land-use trade-offs in the Kapuas peat forest, Central Kalimantan, Indonesia. Land use policy 75, 340–351.

Tirivayi, N., Nennen, L., Tesfaye, W. & Ma, Q. 2018. The benefits of collective action: Exploring the role of forest producer organizations in social protection. For. Policy Econ. 90, 106–114. 2018.

Thomas, E, Valdivia, J., Alcázar Caicedo, C., Quaedvlieg, J., Wadt LHO, Corvera, R. 2017.  NTFP harvesters as citizen scientists: Validating traditional and crowdsourced knowledge on seed production of Brazil nut trees in the Peruvian Amazon. PLoS ONE 12(8): e0183743. doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0183743. 

NEWS

How investments in nature conservation could benefit local communities in Europe's Danube region

Innovative solutions to support livelihoods and business opportunities for communities with a low economic status were the focus of an international conference on “Local Economy and Nature Conservation in the Danube Region” (LENA) held last month in Sofia. More than 50 participants representing 17 organizations from nine countries laid the foundations for co-operation aimed at connecting people with nature to enhance their well-being and prosperity during the meeting organized by WWF Bulgaria. + READ MORE

5+1 Steps towards a functioning insect economy

Finland finally allows the growing and selling of insects as foodstuff. But how will Finland become the number-one insect economy country in the world? The sale of insects as foodstuff is now permitted in many European countries, and Finland became one of them in autumn 2017. The edible insects market is small but fast-growing: according to predictions, the value of the global market will rise from the present tens of millions to over 400 million euros in the 2020s. In addition, using insects in animal feed presents a major future opportunity. + READ MORE

Forest rights create new livelihoods in Myanmar

In Myanmar, the National League for Democracy (NLD) is transferring the rights to forest land – and all its potential bounty – to local communities. Duncan McQueen explains how this important move, supported by peer-to-peer learning, is helping to establish new long-term livelihoods. It is impossible to talk about Myanmar without acknowledging the persecution of the Rohingya by the country's armed forces over which the NLD, Aung San Suu Kyi's governing party, has no constitutional control. + READ MORE

Forage in the forest on a wild food walk

Wild Food UK was set up five years ago by foraging friends Eric Biggane and Marlow Renton and this spring the pair are extending their organised tours into the Suffolk countryside with three trips to Thetford Forest. Marlow, whose passion for finding food in the wild was instilled by a Latin teacher when he was pupil at a school in Scotland, says the team are very excited to finally be offering foraging tours in Suffolk, an area they are well aware has a bountiful supply of natural edible treasures. + READ MORE

FAO helps Bolivian smallholder farmers produce sustainable world-class cocoa

North of the capital La Paz, in a region called Alto Beni, right where the Andes give way to Amazon forest, FAO is working with a community of Andean people that cultivate a world-famous cocoa variety, the "Criollo" cocoa, renowned for its nutritional values. Without easy access to the market in La Paz, and to avoid expensive intermediaries, farmers grouped in small cooperatives, which in 1977 formed a central organization named El Ceibo. Today El Ceibo is a leading cooperative in Bolivia, counting 48 cooperative members and including 1300 producers. + READ MORE

Researchers to study ramps' market, flavor profile, vulnerability to pest

A good way to describe ramps, it has been said, is to note what they are not. Ramps are not leeks, nor are they scallions or shallots. Ramps look like scallions, but they're smaller and have one or two broad, flat leaves. Among the first green things to pop out of the ground in the spring across the sprawling forests of Appalachia, ramps (Allium tricoccum) taste stronger than leeks, which generally have a mild onion flavor, and are more "garlicky" than a scallion. As such, the uniquely pungent plant has become the darling of chefs and foodies and a much-sought-after commodity. + READ MORE 

Articles express the views of their authors, not necessarily those of FAO. The designations employed and the presentation of material in this e-publication do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the FAO concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries.