Resource assessment of non-wood forest products
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The last decade has witnessed a steep increase in interest and activities concerning NWFPs. The current interest in NWFPs amongst conservationists, foresters, development workers and indigenous peoples' groups has prompted numerous initiatives aimed at promoting NWFP use and commercialization as a means of improving the well-being of rural populations and, at the same time, conserving existing forests. Rarely are these initiatives linked to studies on the sustainable exploitation of the pr oducts that are promoted, and no accurate information is available on the resource abundance, distribution, and reproductive biology, which is necessary for the determination of the biologically sustainable harvest levels of a product. Although there is often considerable indigenous knowledge for specific NWFPs, formal resource assessment of NWFPs, especially in tropical countries, is relatively new and has received little attention to date. The multitude and variety of NWFPs, the multipli city of interests and disciplines involved in NWFP assessment, the organizational and financial constraints, the lack of globally, or even nationally, recognized common terminology and units of measurement all contribute to make the assessment of NWFPs, and of the resources providing them, a difficult task.