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Non-timber forest product extraction as a productive bricolage process

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Forest-people interfaces

Abstract

This chapter explores the usefulness of the ‘productive bricolage’ concept, coined by Croll and Parkin (1992) and further elaborated by Batterbury (2001), in understanding the role of non-timber forest products (NTFPs) in people’s livelihoods and the forested landscape. I argue that NTFP extraction as part of a productive bricolage process – defined as ‘the flexible and dynamic crafting together of various livelihood options and its associated impacts on the landscape’ – holds limited potential for poverty alleviation as it is mostly a sign of economic precariousness. Regarding the impact of NTFP production on the landscape, I demonstrate that the productive bricolage concept is useful for reinterpreting Wiersum’s writings on the evolutionary continuum of forest-people interactions and the co-domestication of forests and trees. However, a more encompassing approach is needed considering the decreasing autonomy of community forestry and the growing integration of NTFP production into commercial networks and multilevel governance regimes. I propose political ecology as the overall perspective to deal with such multiscalar influences.

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Acknowledgements

I would like to thank my colleagues at the Natural Resources and Wellbeing subgroup within the Governance and Inclusive Development (GID) programme group at AISSR for their useful comments on an earlier version of this paper.

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  1. Amsterdam Institute of Social Science Research (AISSR), University of Amsterdam, Nieuwe Prinsengracht 130, 1018 VZ, Amsterdam, the Netherlands

    Mirjam Ros-Tonen

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Correspondence to Mirjam Ros-Tonen .

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Bas Arts Séverine van Bommel Mirjam Ros-Tonen Gerard Verschoor

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Ros-Tonen, M. (2012). Non-timber forest product extraction as a productive bricolage process. In: Arts, B., van Bommel, S., Ros-Tonen, M., Verschoor, G. (eds) Forest-people interfaces. Wageningen Academic Publishers, Wageningen. https://doi.org/10.3920/978-90-8686-749-3_2

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