The products result from a physical process carried out to transform inputs of goods and services into outputs of other goods and services. Market values of products are determined by the interaction of supply and demand. The less obvious but equally important non-market values are often not quantified (since they are enjoyed by society as a whole and not apportioned by individual use), even though theoretically they should appear in intersectoral transactions in national accounts.
A system of prices or attributable values will only be as good as the information on which it is based. For individual non-wood forest products the information needs to cover the nature and extent of the resources, the technology and costs involved in management and harvesting, the quality attributes of products and processing details, sustainable availability, and the uses and advantages in comparison with substitutes. Sustainable utilization of non-wood forest products as a group of goods and services can be promoted effectively only with adequate, specific and relevant information. The information available - indigenous, traditional or modern - is mostly scattered and adequate efforts have not been made to consolidate and validate it. Dissemination of information is also insufficient. This calls for enormous and cooperative efforts by all concerned.
As an initial step FAO proposes to prepare a compendium of information on goods and services (products) and on information sources, both national and international. We would greatly appreciate it if readers could provide us with any information they have. This, in due course, will be processed, with an acknowledgement to the contributor, and will be distributed to all those interested in the subject.
Non-wood Newsis compiled by C. Chandrasekharan and L. Russo, Wood and Non-wood Products Utilization Branch (FOPW) of the FAO forest Products Division. Assistance is provided by Tina Etherington, FOPW.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 1996, to: non-wood News FOPW FAO, Viale delle Terme di Caracalla 00100 Rome Italy Electronic mail: [email protected] 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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