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Harvesting Non-timber Forest Products Sustainably: Opportunities and Challenges

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Non-Timber Forest Products in the Global Context

Part of the book series: Tropical Forestry ((TROPICAL,volume 7))

Abstract

The growing knowledge and understanding of the contribution of non-timber forest products to local livelihoods is not matched with equal understanding of the sustainability of direct consumption or of market demand. There are tens of thousands of NTFP species, and there are only a few for which there have been detailed studies on their autecology and the ecological effects and sustainability of harvesting. Even amongst these, few are based on long-term data or have considered the impacts at all scales. Of the case studies to date, the results are mixed, with some clearly indicating overharvesting, and others still well within harvest limits (based on current data). In the absence of rigorous data, the likelihood of ecologically sustainable harvest systems will need to be inferred from broad patterns of the species attributes, harvest systems, and nature of demand.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Botany, University of Hawai’i, Honolulu, HI, USA

    Tamara Ticktin

  2. Department of Environmental Science, Rhodes University, Grahamstown, 6140, South Africa

    Charlie Shackleton

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  1. Tamara Ticktin
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  2. Charlie Shackleton
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Correspondence to Tamara Ticktin .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Dept. Environmental Science, Rhodes University, Grahamstown, 6140, South Africa

    Sheona Shackleton

  2. Dept. Environmental Science, Rhodes University, Grahamstown, 6140, South Africa

    Charlie Shackleton

  3. Forestry Research (CIFOR), Center for International, Bogor, Indonesia

    Patricia Shanley

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Ticktin, T., Shackleton, C. (2011). Harvesting Non-timber Forest Products Sustainably: Opportunities and Challenges. In: Shackleton, S., Shackleton, C., Shanley, P. (eds) Non-Timber Forest Products in the Global Context. Tropical Forestry, vol 7. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-17983-9_7

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