Institutional needs for sustainable Non-Wood Forest Product sector in South-East Europe
Sarajevo, Bosnia and Hezegovina, 10/02/2010 - 12/02/2010
Some 80 percent of the population of the developing world uses Non-Wood Forest Product (NWFP) for health and nutritional needs. At a local level, NWFP also provide raw materials for large scale industrial processing and some NWFP are also important export commodities. At present, at least 150 NWFP are significant in terms of international trade, including honey, rattan, cork, nuts, mushrooms, resins, essential oils, medicinal and aromatic plants, and animal parts for pharmaceutical products.
NWFP have also attracted considerable global interest in recent years due to the increasing recognition of their contribution to environmental objectives, including the conservation of biological diversity. Several million households world-wide depend heavily on NWFP for subsistence and/or income. Women from poor households are generally those who rely more on NWFP for household use and income.
NWFP can contribute to poverty reduction by providing safety-nets, which reduce the vulnerability of poor communities to risk when crops fail or illness hits. They can also contribute to poverty reduction by supplementing income from the more important farm and off-farm income-generating activities.
South-East Europe is Europe's centre of NWFP wild collection and plays an important role in the local, regional, and international trade. Collection and use of diversified forest and commercial non forest products are widely practiced activities, particularly among local rural population, dependant on agriculture/forestry to supplement their livelihoods. In Albania, for example, the money gained from the collection activity constitutes the second largest source of income for rural households.
The collection and use of NWFP are also traditional employment options, particularly for women and elderly people. Countries of South-East Europe have close links to the European markets, which creates opportunities for future integration, collaboration programmes between EU and SEE countries and companies. Identification of SEE comparative advantage at EU market would enable the long-term sustainable economic development of SEE NWFP market. At the same time, ecological and social sustainability in harvesting NWFPs would help to ensure the livelihood security for many rural people.
