TABLE OF CONTENTS

Download complete document Pdf )

SPECIAL FEATURES - (Pdf )

The versatile bamboo

    • Improved biological bamboo charcoal for wastewater treatment
    • Bamboo leading the way in textile innovations
    • Bamboo linen
    • Bamboo fashion fabrics
    • Bamboo power station
    • Bamboo shoots and paper mills
    • Building with bamboo – design competition
    • Bamboo planting can slow deforestation
    • Vietnamese bamboo fences to enter Europe
    • Bamboo plastic
    • Bamboo vinegar
    • Bamboo paper: centuries-old paper making handwork faces extinction

Forest cosmetics: NWFP use in the beauty industry

    • Scientists: man’s vanity dates back to prehistoric times
    • Aboriginal knowledge and the beauty industry
    • Thanakha, Myanmar’s natural cosmetic
    • New beauty products contain sea buckthorn oil
    • The scent of battle in Provence
    • Hunting for that fresh aroma
    • European sales of natural cosmetics surge
    • L’Oréal buys organic cosmetics company Sanoflore
    • More men now buying cosmetics
    • Mushroom cosmetic line developed
    • Shea butter’s role in the cosmeticindustry
    • UmMemezi bark: cosmetic use threatens native tree

NEWS AND NOTES - (Pdf )

Ayurvastra textiles
Beech forest “honeydew”
Biojewels
Bioprospecting or biopiracy?

    • Banking on bioprospecting in Costa Rica
    • Brazilian Government issues list of Brazilian plant species to prevent biopiracy
    • Chile no cuenta con una legislación contra la biopiratería
    • FTA paves way for biopiracy
    • Indian Government moves to check foreign patents threat

Boreal forests
Botanic gardens: using plant diversity for human well-being
Cadre légal et réglementaire régissant le secteur «PFNL» en Afrique Centrale
Carmine and cochineal extracts
Commercializing non-timber forest products: does it help poor people?
Essential oil of Spanish sage
Honey trials on cancer patients
Ice cream sprinkles
Marketingmaap: Medicinal and Aromatic Plants Marketing
Medicinal pillow
Natural fibres to save a million tropical forest trees
Nature-based entrepreneurship provides new business opportunities in rural areas
Newsletters

    • Biodiversidad
    • ForLive Highlights
    • The ComForM Newsletter

Non-profit organizations and NGOs• Caravan – Forestry Conservationand Development Project

    • Centre for Integrated Rural Development and Environmental Conservation (CIRDEN)
    • Earthwatch Institute
    • Ecological Internet, Inc.
    • MacArthur Foundation announces programme to recognize small non-profit organizations

Parasitism of amla, an economically significant • NTFP
Perspectivas de los PFNM y de los servicios ambientales en América Latina y el Caribe
Poisonous tree frog could bring wealth to a tribe in the Brazilian Amazon
Programme for the Promotion and Development of NWFPs across Africa
Reptile skins seized
Resin prices
Rights and Resources Initiative
Rosin bags and baseball
Special tools for safe gum tapping of Sterculia and Acacia trees
Trade and NWFPs

    • Global analysis of trade-relatedinstruments
    • International trade in NWFPs

Traditional allelopathic knowledge
Traditional leather craft

PRODUCTS AND MARKETS - (Pdf )

Ampelodesmos mauritanicus
Bark
Bushmeat
Cork
Lac
Maple syrup
Medicinal plants and herbs
Mulberry
Oak galls
Sandalwood
Stevia
Truffles

COUNTRY COMPASS - (Pdf )

Australia
Bangladesh
Bhutan
Bolivia
Brazil
Bulgaria
Burkina Faso
Cameroon
Canada
Colombia
Costa Rica
Democratic Republic of the Congo
El Salvador
Ethiopia
France
Ghana
India
Islamic Republic of Iran
Italy
Japan
Lao People’s Democratic Republic
Malaysia
México
Nepal
New Zealand
Nicaragua
Nigeria
Pakistan
Paraguay
Peru
South Africa
Sri Lanka
Sudan
Togo
Tonga
Uganda
Ukraine
United Kingdom
United States
Viet Nam
Zambia

ECONOOK - (Pdf )

Madagascar Declaration focuses African development policies on the value of nature
New multimillion dollar investments will help protect Himalayan species
US$20 million pledged to protect Amazon
Giant panda ecological corridor
European Union announces plan to fight extinction of plants and animals
Central Africa’s first debt-for-nature swap
Saving languages to save species

INTERNATIONAL ACTION - (Pdf )

FAO
The Global Facilitation Unit for Underutilized Species

RECENT EVENTS - (Pdf )

FORTHCOMING EVENTS - (Pdf )

PUBLICATIONS OF INTEREST - (Pdf )

WEB SITES - (Pdf )

READER'S RESPONSE - (Pdf )

Non-Wood News 14

AN INFORMATION BULLETIN ON NON-WOOD FOREST PRODUCTS

JANUARY 2007


EDITORIAL

A new year, a new look! Mr Jan Heino, the new Assistant-Director General of the Forestry Department has written the editorial of the restyled Non-Wood News.

I am fully aware of the social, cultural and economic importance of non-wood forest products (NWFPs) in the lives of many people – both in my own country, Finland, and worldwide. Over the years, I have been impressed by how Non-Wood News has managed to capture this importance, as well as the diversity of NWFP actors, in its many articles, features and reader contributions.

I also fully recognize the need for further protection and promotion of traditional forest related knowledge (TFRK), which is closely linked with the cultural and intellectual heritage of indigenous people and other forest dwellers.Their practices can form a significant part of sustainable forest management. It is imperative to ensure that they receive benefits from the use of this knowledge and that technologies drawing from traditional forest-related knowledge clearly acknowledge the origins of this knowledge. Many recommendations on this topic exist internationally, but their implementation has remained inadequate. Promotion of TFRK needs to be better incorporated in national forest programmesas well as in forest management planning at the local level.

This restyled Non-Wood News is one of the outcomes of the auto-evaluation exercise that took place in 2005 and is a direct response to the readers who commented on its format and legibility. We hope that you like it and would welcome your comments on this “face-lift”. In another response, which requested more information more often, we are also increasing the frequency of Non-Wood News to every six months.

Yet another outcome of reader participation is that we now have a regular section covering non-profit and non-governmental organizations. We invite NGOs and non-profit organizations that are involved with any aspect of NWFPs (including indigenous knowledge, biodiversity, environment and gender issues) to submit information on their organization and the NWFP activities/projects they implement.

However, we would like to stress that behind the new-look Non-Wood News is the usual wealth of information from the world of NWFPs. The Special Features section covers two different aspects of NWFPs: a specific product (bamboo) and a developing market (cosmetics and beauty care). As you will see from the articles, bamboo is versatile: it can be transformed, for example, into textiles, charcoal, vinegar, green plastic or paper and can also be used as a food source, a deodorant, an innovative building material and to fuel power stations.

Reports indicate that natural cosmetics and beauty care are a huge global market, with forecasts indicating an annual growth of 9 percent through 2008. The Special Feature on “Forest cosmetics: NWFP use in the beauty industry” builds on this and includes information industry interest and marketing strategies (consumers are being drawn to natural products and thus their content is emphasized). Usually considered a predominantly female market, it is now also increasingly becoming an important market for men too. However, as can be seen from the articles on shea butter in Africa and thanakha in Myanmar, many societies have always used and benefited from natural cosmetics. In this issue you will find other examples of traditional knowledge, such as using the secretions of a poisonous tree frog in Brazil and the use by the traditional healers in India of allelopathic knowledge.

Non-Wood News readers are indeed very active and participatory and, as the new head of the Forestry Department, it is very gratifying to learn that so many e-mails and letters are received from you. As we have shown with the new look, increased frequency and greater coverage of traditional knowledge and NGOs, we genuinely take your opinions into consideration and try to act upon them.

I would particularly like to thank the many people who have contributed to this issue; we greatly appreciate your interest and views. I believe that this very active reader participation provides a unique networking opportunity and is a great strength of Non-Wood News.

 

NON-WOOD NEWS

Is compiled and coordinated by Tina Etherington, Forest Products Service of the FAO Forest Products and Industry Division. For this issue, editing support was provided by Sandra Rivero; language editing by Roberta Mitchell, Josiane Bonomi and Deliana Fanego; design, graphics and desktop publishing by Claudia Tonini.

Non-Wood News is open to contributions by readers. Contributions are welcomed in English, French and Spanish and 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 31 March 2007, to:
NON-WOOD NEWS – FOIP
FAO, Viale delle Terme di Caracalla, 00153 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 23 November 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.

 

 

Non-wood forest products (NWFPs) are goods of biological origin other than wood, derived from forests, other wooded land and trees outside forests. Non-timber forest products (NTFPs), 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.