Section 1 Introduction

This section introduces the objectives of this publication, provides some background, and outlines the approach used in preparing it.

1.1 Objectives of the paper

This is a resource for people who want to know more about inventory for measuring and planning management of non-wood forest products (NWFPs).

This publication is intended as reference material for practitioners considering inventory of NWFP resources. Through review and analysis of experience it provides information:

· on the range of approaches used and developed to date and their biometric adequacy; and

· to help the practitioner decide when biometric methods are necessary;

· to guide the design and selection of appropriate biometric methods for resource quantification in different situations and for different products.

This publication will be of most interest to people with some previous knowledge of the basics of inventory. It is not a textbook - forthcoming FAO publications will provide manuals of how to implement inventory (e.g. FAO, in press).

1.2 What is a NWFP?

Despite much discussion there has, as yet, been no agreement on terminology to describe NWFPs. Many different terms have been developed for them. Even the terms `forest' and `product' can be debated.

A key component of definitions of NWFPs is that they exclude timber, and that the product, benefit or service should come from a forest, or from trees on other land. The central part of the concept is that the product of interest is of use to human society. As such, any part of any plant or animal harvested for use can be described as an NWFP.

The FAO has adopted the working definition that:

"Non-wood forest products consist of goods of biological origin other than wood, derived from forests, other wooded land and trees outside forests." (FAO, 1999)

The term NWFP differs from the commonly used non-timber forest product (NTFP) in excluding all wood while NTFP includes wood for uses other than for timber, although there are still many grey areas.

Classification systems for NWFPs

Many efforts to classify NWFPs have been made, but there is no single, commonly used classification. Developments to date have usually used a unique classification to suit particular purposes. Classification systems are useful to: aid reporting; provide a basis for developing an understanding of the uses and demand for products or help match methodologies to resources. There are a wide range of classifications for NWFPs, though there is some consistency within disciplines. There are a number of general approaches which classify varyingly according to products, end uses, taxonomy, management characteristics, or life-form (see Annex 1 for more details).

Classifications based on products or end uses tend to ignore the product source, but can facilitate tracking through the market. This can be useful in determining their importance in national and international economies. These are also often the only source of statistics on NWFPs and as such are, at least, important starting points for NWFP resource assessments.

Very few NWFP classifications have been constructed for the purpose of resource assessment or inventory. Those available generally distinguish plants based on broad life-form groups - e.g. herbs, trees, shrubs, rattans, etc. - and reflect a predominantly forestry-based approach. Adequate classification is difficult, but some type of grouping of the diversity of NWFPs is needed - it is not realistic to develop and recommend a different method for each species. Section 5 deals further with this problem in the context of designing a NWFP inventory.

Definitions

For the purpose of clarity, some key terms are defined below. The glossary at the front provides a more complete description of other terms used in the publication.

· Resource species: the species from which a product is harvested.

· Resource assessment: an evaluation of some aspect of the resource based on information gathered from a variety of sources. It can include socio-economic issues, market issues, or the quantity and quality of the resource.

· Biometrics: the application of statistical methods to the measurement of biological objects.

· Product: any part of a plant or animal that is harvested for human use or consumption.

· Sustainable harvest: the harvest which can be removed from the forest in a sustainable manner, generally determined in advance using a yield model and prescribed in management plans.

1.3 Background

Why are NWFPs important and why measure them?

Historically, a wide range of products from forests have been used by people. However, the development of forest management has focused on timber, thereby marginalizing other products. `Forest management' has come to mean `timber management'.

The timber focus has arisen as wood has increasingly been seen as the major economic crop from forests. This change in perceptions has arisen for a number of causes:

· historically important NWFPs - such as rubber, chicle, and gum copal - have been substituted by synthetic alternatives;

· domestication of NWFPs - such as oil palm, rubber, and cocoa which are now grown in large-scale plantations as agricultural crops, rather than harvested from the natural forest; and

· institutional lack of regard for local people and their dependence on NWFPs for subsistence and enterprise.

The recognition of the role of NWFPs in community-level livelihoods has been important in stimulating interest in bringing NWFPs back into forest management. There is currently a lot of interest in NWFPs amongst conservationists, foresters, development workers and indigenous people's groups. They are interested in the potential of NWFPs for:

· income generation for rural development;

· more equitable sharing of the benefits of forests; and

· sharing forest management with local people.

Development of NWFPs for subsistence or commercialization should ideally be based on sustainable exploitation of the products. For biologically sustainable harvest levels of a product to be determined, there must be a minimum set of good information available on the resource species': abundance, distribution, and reproductive biology.

This kind of information can be gained from a number of sources, including informal knowledge collected from indigenous people as well as formal, scientific investigations. Formal resource assessment of NWFPs in developing countries is relatively new and has received little attention to date. Researchers and practitioners have developed methodologies, but typically tailored to specific local situations and particular resource species, and often based on timber inventory methods. There is a need to consolidate this experience to promote common, appropriate and reliable methodologies. Biometrically sound approaches are key to ensuring statistically reliable data on which to base management.

1.4 Approach, scope and limitations

What information is the publication based on?
What are its limitations?

How is the publication organized?

This publication's history and basis

This publication is based on the outputs of the Forest Research Programme's (FRP) pre-project ZF0077 on the biometrics of current NWFP resource assessment methods. This project organized a workshop that brought together a range of people interested in NWFP assessment, to discuss the need for quantitative assessments and to decide on priority research themes. The workshop was informed by a background review paper, primarily concerned with the statistical reliability of results from resource inventory. Both the review and the workshop report are available on the CD-ROM enclosed.

The review covered material from the following disciplines:

· biodiversity inventory;

· social science techniques, e.g. indigenous knowledge and household surveys;

· anthropological methods, e.g. ethnobotany and quantitative ethnobotany;

· economic methods, e.g. valuation studies and market and income studies;

· quantitative plant inventory, e.g. forest inventory;

· wildlife management; and

· autoecology (the study of the ecology of a single species).

This publication is based on the review and the workshop debates. Similarly, its focus is consideration of the biometric properties of alternative approaches to NWFP inventory in current use. Whilst the review mainly covered studies in forested areas, the principles are also relevant to NWFPs harvested from agroforestry areas, farms and other areas. The material presented is intended for use in the tropics but will be of relevance elsewhere.

Scope and limitations

The review collated nearly 400 references with relevance to either inventory methods or the assessment of NWFPs (available in the enclosed CD-ROM). The criterion for including papers was that they should concern some plant or animal resource that is being exploited by people. The subset of 126 studies selected for biometric analysis had to include the enumeration of some characteristic of the resource, e.g. its abundance, growth rate, yield or describe monitoring methods. The enclosed CD-ROM contains a database that tabulates the protocols used in the 126 qualitative studies as a resource to be used in the identification of gaps and good practice.

The review on which this publication is based covered:

· global experience, from both tropical and temperate regions;

· plants and animals, including a wide range of life-forms (trees and tree-like plants being the most commonly assessed forms);

· different products: NWFPs include a variety of harvested parts of individuals, from fruits or bark to whole plants or animals;

· small and large studies: from single research plots through local, area, regional and national level efforts to international assessments;

· literature in English: the work was carried out from a United Kingdom base and only includes material available in English; and

· published research: the difficulties of obtaining less formal, or `grey', literature without extensive travel meant that the review was heavily reliant on published reports.

The review paper limited its scope to NTFPs defined as:

"All products derived from biological resources found on forest land, but not including timber or fuelwood."

NWFP resource assessment is currently a field of confusion and complexity, with many and overlapping approaches. This is due to several reasons, including:

· diversity of different plants and animals (noted in Table 1) which can be NWFP resource species;

· variety of plant or animal parts that can be used (see Table 2);

· broad range of geographical and cultural situations;

· range of different disciplines undertaking studies (sociology, agriculture, zoology, forestry, botany, etc.);

· diversity in the scale of the resource assessments;

· differing aims for the assessments; and

· the level of resources available.

Table 1: Number of reviewed studies by life-form

Group	Life form	No.		Group	Life form	No.
Animals	Mammals	6		Fungi	Mushrooms	10
	Ungulates	5			Truffles	1
	Primates	4		Plants	Trees	31
	Rodents	3			Shrub	20
	Generic `animals'	3			Palm	18
	Carnivores	7			Generic `plants'	16
	Insects	2			Rattan	16
	Bats	1			Herbs	13
	Birds	1			Bamboo	10
	Fish	1			Climbers	5
	Insectivores	1			Epiphytes	1
	Marsupials	1
	Shrews	1
	Squirrels	1
	Snails	1

Table 2: Representation of NWFP plant resource types and plant parts in review

Resource category	Plant part	Studies
Reproductive	Fruit	24
propagules	Nut/seed	2
	Oilseed	1
Plant exudates	Resin	1
	Sap	1
Vegetative structures	Stem	20
	Leaves	7
	Root	2
	Bark	5
	Tuber	1
	Apical bud	1

This publication considers only the biometrics of the approaches used to quantify NWFP resources in the forest. This encompassed four elements of NWFP resource management:

· knowing where and how much of a resource is present in the area being managed;

· determining the growth or replenishment rate of the present resource levels;

· calculating a harvest level; and

· monitoring to determine if harvesting is indeed meeting objectives.

To ensure scientifically sound management, data should be derived from studies with a basis in statistical principles - i.e. they should be biometrically adequate. This aspect has often been neglected in NWFP studies.

A `route-map' through the document

The publication is organized into sections, which in turn deal with:

Section 2	The role of biometrics in NWFP resource assessments	Looks at: · why resource assessments are needed · what a biometric resource assessment looks like · the biometric qualities of current methods for inventory of NWFPs and · why resource assessments might need to provide biometric data
Section 3	Quantitative studies on NWFPs	Describes current experience in NWFP resource assessment. It covers: · inventory · yield measurement · growth studies · harvest determination and · monitoring
Section 4	Contributions from other approaches to NWFP resource assessment	Looks at approaches that are typically less quantitative and assesses their biometric value and relevance for NWFP inventory. Approaches include: · biodiversity inventory · social science techniques · cultural perspectives · ethnobotany · economic methods
Section 5	Designing a biometric inventory for NWFP	Helps the reader consider: · the relevance and application of biometrics in designing an inventory · a decision-support framework as a step-by-step approach to designing a biometric inventory · planning needs for data analysis and presentation and · some highlighted research needs
Section 6	Literature resources	Provides the reader with details of references cited and provides some useful information on relevant literature for further reading
Section 7	Annexes	· classification of NWFPs - examples of approaches used · understanding plots and subplots · example of NWFP inventory outputs · some currently used and emerging sampling methods and · useful institutions and Web sites