SPECIAL FEATURES
• Economic value of nwfps
• Forestry products gain market in Brazil
• NTFPs in the Russian Far East: challenges and opportunities
•
Selling forest products to improve livelihoods in the Gambia
•
Mushrooms: cash crops from the forest floor
•
Nepal’s lokta resources and handmade paper
• Growth of the bamboo sector in China
• Cuban pine resin in the international market
•
NWFP cooperatives and the Siberian Pine Syrup Project
•
Moss is a cash crop for mountain people in the United States of America
•
Economic benefits of conserving the rain forest
• La valeur monétaire de la forêt suisse en tant qu’espace de détente
•
Mondia whitei, a socio-economically important plant
• Trade in nwfps
• International trade in NWFPs
•
Trade data on NTFPs in India
• Trade measures – tools to promote the sustainable use of NWFPs?
• PhytoTrade Africa: adding life to trade
• Aggressive strategy for MFP exports planned
•
Exports of Korean ginseng
• High sales boost plant extract drug company
NEWS AND NOTES
• Alaska paper birch tree woods holds potential for new drugs
• Arsenic-eating ferns hold hope for tainted soils
• Bark paintings
• Biopiracy, bioprospecting and traditional knowledge
• Traditional knowledge: a legal and market conundrum
• India’s digital library will stop biopiracy
• African women against biopiracy
• Curbing biopiracy
• Moves to protect devil’s claw (Harpagophytum procumbens)
• Amazon countries team up to tackle biopiracy
• Patenting of Peruvian plants
• Andean nations seek United States patent protection for native medicines
• Is Brazil beating biopiracy or biodiversity research?
• Bioprospecting programme in Malaysia
•
Bioprospecting in the Pacific region: who will benefit?
• Bird flu is also a forest problem
• Boreal forest garden
• Boswellia serrata: a tree of possibilities
• Bushmen’s quiver tree threatened by climate change
• Challenges in the congo basin
• Cpf sourcebook for funding in forestry
• Does bacopa monnieri improve cognitive function in older australians?
• Domestication
•
Population preferences for local fruit-tree species: implications for the domestication of Dacryodes edulis and Irvingia gabonensis in Cameroon
• Sustaining forest resources
• El camu camu logra certificación orgánica
• Ethnoforestry paradigms
• Forest cosmetics and fragrances
• Sourcing Brazilian rain forest ingredients for cosmetics
•
Shellac may combat skin disorders
•
Forest berries find their way to cosmetics
•
Aniba rosaeodora: a quest to save a tree
•
Sandalwood fragrance
• Incense
• Borneol
• Spikenard
• Star anise
• Les sources de la fertilité et de la durabilité
• Manejo de semillas forestales nativas de la sierra ecuatoriana y norte del perú
• Myrica gale
• Non-profit organizations and ngos
•
Biodiversity Research and Development Centre (BIRD)
• Pragya, India
• Tree Aid
• United Plant Savers
• Non-timber forest resource enterprises: fatty oils for edible and non-edible purposes
• Nwfp fabrics
•
Bamboo charcoal textile products
• Bamboo T-shirts
•
Modi: ethnic and exquisite
•
United Nations recognizes bark cloth as world heritage
• Fabrics with a healing touch
• Nwfp fuels
• Bamboo-fuelled power plants in India
•
Ipomoea fistulosa – the crisis fuel of wetlands
• Mushrooms as fuel?
• Poison frog production and export
• Trees for health forever
• Twigs and young trees are falling prey to human hygiene
• Vasaka (adhatoda vasica nees)
• “Wildlife interpol”
PRODUCTS AND MARKETS
• Bamboo
• Bamboo attracts global audience
• Bamboo flavone for prostate patent approved
• Bamboo solution to lake pollution
• Bamboo houses
• Chestnuts
•
Just as sweet as a chestnut
•
Scientists trying to resurrect American chestnut trees
• Cork
• Wine company abandons cork stoppers
• Alcan seeks to turn tables on cork diehards
• Conserving cork forests in the Mediterranean
• Edible insects
•
Creature-eating source of income and nutritious food
•
Insectes comestibles au Sud-Bénin
•
Edible insects on sale in the United Kingdom
• Ginseng
• Ginseng guidelines
• Root of the matter in the Republic of Korea
•
Ginseng export restrictions toughened in the United States
• Honey
• Honey used as an antibiotic
•
Honey’s healing qualities stump scientists
•
Honey production in Malaysia
•
Honey exports from Nepal to the European Union likely to resume
• Brazilian honey has flavours and colours for all tastes
• Medicinal and aromatic plants
• Artemesia annua shows “potential” in preventing breast cancer
•
Artemisia annua fights malaria
•
Fighting malaria with traditional medicinal plants
•
Boswellia ovalifoliolata (Bal. et Henry)
•
Mappia foetida
•
Stephania brachyandra shows capability to treat melanoma
•
Stevia rebaudiana to cure diabetes
• Moringa oleifera
•
The ultimate multipurpose tree
•
Moringa tree production gets US$60 million boost
•
Farmers’ drumstick beats drought
•
Zimbabweans living with HIV/AIDS turn to herbal medicines
• Rattan
•
Silvicultural and sustainable management of rattan production systems
• Sea buckthorn (hippophae rhamnoides)
•
Breakthrough in the fight against acne and eczema
•
Tribes in India to grow wonder plant
•
Ladakh berry beverage
• Shea butter (vitellaria paradoxa)
• L’arbre à karité (Vitellaria paradoxa)
• Shea butter becoming popular in Europe
• Shellac
•
Lac cultivation in Viet Nam
•
Growing lac insects for resin in an agroforestry system in Indonesia
• Truffles
•
White magic
•
Secretive truffle growers in New Zealand
•
Hidden delicacy in Oregon’s forests
COUNTRY COMPASS
• Angola
• Australia
• Bhutan
• Brazil
• Cambodia
• Cameroon
• Canada
• Chile
• China
• Cuba
• Czech republic
• Democratic republic of the congo
• Ecuador
• Fiji
• Ghana
• India
• Indonesia
• Islamic republic of iran
• Kenya
• Liberia
• Malaysia
• Myanmar
• Namibia
• Nepal
• Nicaragua
• Nigeria
• Papua new guinea
• Paraguay
• Peru
• Russian federation
• Uganda
• United republic of tanzania
• United states of america
• Viet Nam
ECONOOK
• Traditional medicines could help african environment
• Conservation of the central albertine rift
• Transfrontier conservation areas
• Baltic forest
• Twenty percent of the world’s mangroves lost over the last 25 years
• Asian nations to build biodiversity conservation corridors
• European union to give e30 million for biodiversity conservation in china
INTERNATIONAL ACTION
• FAO
• South and east asian countries ntfp network (SEANN)
RECENT EVENTS
FORTHCOMING EVENTS
PUBLICATIONS OF INTEREST
WEB SITES
READER'S RESPONSE |
Non-Wood News 13
AN INFORMATION BULLETIN ON NON-WOOD FOREST PRODUCTS
April 2006
EDITORIAL |
Forest-dependent communities have always recognized the importance of NWFPs in their everyday lives – whether as food, shelter or medicine. Over time, recognition of the importance of NWFPs in poverty alleviation and knowledge of the multiplicity of uses and benefits deriving from NWFPs have grown steadily and many NWFPs are now traded at all levels: locally, regionally, nationally and globally (although figures on this trade are often unorganized, missing or incomplete, e.g. on bushmeat).
The Special Features section in this issue of Non-Wood News emphasizes
the economic importance of NWFPs and provides information on economic benefits
at the local level (see the Siberian Pine Syrup Project pp. 5–6) through
to the global level (see trade figures on pp. 8–9).
Traditional knowledge is a significant aspect of NWFPs, touching as it does on issues of benefit-sharing, bioprospecting and biopiracy, all of which have been covered extensively in this issue (see p. 15). Information on NGOs working with NWFPs has also been included, but we would like to hear more about NGO activity at both the grassroots and international level so please continue to send us your contributions.
Coverage of products in this
issue ranges from the versatility of bamboo (used equally successfully to build
houses or produce T-shirts) to the extensive use of medicinal plants worldwide.
There is information on products from both tropical and temperate forests, as
well as from the vast boreal areas. NWFPs exist in all regions of the world
and consequently the Country Compass section is particularly rich, with information
from 34 countries.
Information dissemination and networking are key aspects of today’s knowledge
society – both of which have always been important aims of Non-Wood
News. In 2005 we carried out an auto-evaluation exercise in order to improve
our service and to give you an opportunity to make suggestions and comments.
Over 600 readers completed our questionnaire (see pp. 69–70 for full results)
and we were delighted that so many of you took the time to share your ideas.
Thank you for such an excellent response.
This issue has started to reflect some of your suggestions and to address your comments – the most important of which regarded frequency: a vast majority wanted Non-Wood News to be issued at least twice a year (with many keen to see it as a quarterly newsletter). Accordingly, we will now be bringing you two issues yearly, which we ultimately hope will lead to a shorter and more streamlined product.
In conclusion, while many of us are not part of forest-dependent communities, we are definitely part of a wider global NWFP community. Our aim with Non-Wood News is to continue to disseminate knowledge on NWFP activities from all societal levels around the world in order to raise the profile of NWFPs and emphasize their importance – economically, ecologically and socially. |
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NON-WOOD NEWS |
NON-WOOD NEWS is compiled by Tina Etherington, Forest Products
Service of the FAO Forest Products and Economics Division. Assistance
for this issue was provided by Marisalee Palermo; design, graphics and
desktop publishing were coordinated by Tina Etherington.
Non-Wood News is open to contributions by readers. Contributions
may be edited to fit the appropriate size and focus of the bulletin.
If you have any material that could be included in the next issue of
Non-Wood News for the benefit of other readers, kindly send it, before
30 September 2006, to:
NON-WOOD NEWS – FOPP
FAO, Viale delle Terme di Caracalla
00100 Rome, Italy
E-mail: [email protected]
www.fao.org/forestry/nwfp/nonwood.htm
FAO home page: www.fao.org
All Internet links cited were checked on 16 February 2006. Articles
express the views of their authors, not necessarily those of FAO. The
designations employed and the presentation of material in this publication
do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of
the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (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. |
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Non-wood forest products (NWFP) are goods of biological origin other than wood, derived from forests, other wooded land and trees outside forests. Non-timber forest products (NTFP), another term frequently used to cover this vast array of animal and plant products, also includes small wood and fuelwood. However, these two terms are used synonymously throughout this bulletin. Other terms, such as “minor”, “secondary” or “speciality” forest products, are sometimes used to keep original names and/or titles. |
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