Nontimber forest products as ecological and biocultural keystone species
- Authors: Shackleton, Charlie M , Ticktin, Tamara , Cunningham, Anthony B
- Date: 2018
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/180388 , vital:43359 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-10469-230422"
- Description: Nontimber forests products (NTFPs) are the mainstay of rural livelihoods and local economies the world over. As such they are of interest to a wide disciplinary range of researchers and development and government agencies seeking to promote livelihoods, incomes, and ecologically sustainable practices. With the attention on the various human uses of NTFPs, their role and networks in the broader biological communities in which they are located are frequently overlooked. Harvesting of many NTFPs has effects not only at the organism and population scales, but also on co-occurring species, some of which may also be NTFPs. Thus, reduction or loss of one NTFP population or species in a specific area may have cascade effects on other NTFP species, including those used for cultural purposes. We illustrate the little appreciated importance of NTFPs in broader ecological and social systems by assessing and illustrating the importance of NTFP species as ecological or biocultural keystones in providing regulating and supporting ecological services to other species and cultural services to people. We present a number of examples where NTFP species act as keystones in ecological and cultural systems, including food, pollination and dispersal, animal health, nutrients, shelter and protection, and cultural symbolism, most of which have not been considered by NTFP researchers and practitioners. From these examples we distill six propositions regarding NTFPs and discuss the value of recognizing some NTFPs as biocultural keystones to acknowledge and highlight their roles at broader scales.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2018
Ecological sustainability for non-timber forest products: dynamics and case studies of harvesting
- Authors: Shackleton, Charlie M , Pandey, Ashok K , Ticktin, Tamara
- Date: 2015
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , book
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/433656 , vital:72992 , ISBN 9781317916130 , https://www.routledge.com/Ecological-Sustainability-for-Non-timber-Forest-Products-Dynamics-and-Case/Shackleton-Pandey-Ticktin/p/book/9781138618251
- Description: There is growing knowledge about and appreciation of the im-portance of Non-timber Forest Products (NTFPs) to rural liveli-hoods in developing countries, and to a lesser extent, devel-oped countries. However, there is also an assumption on the part of policy-makers that any harvesting of wild animal or plant products from the forests and other natural and modi-fied ecosystems must be detrimental to the long-term viability of target populations and species. This book challenges this idea and shows that while examples of such negative impacts certainly exist, there are also many examples of sustainable harvesting systems for NTFPs. The chapters review and pre-sent coherent and scientifically sound information and case studies on the ecologically sustainable use of NTFPs. They also outline a general interdisciplinary approach for assessing the sustainability of NTFP harvesting systems at different scales. A wide range of case studies is included from Africa, Asia and South America, using plant and animal products for food, crafts, textiles, medicines and cosmetics.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2015
Ecologically sustainable harvesting of non-timber forest products: Disarming the narrative and the complexity
- Authors: Shackleton, Charlie M , Pandey, Ashok K , Ticktin, Tamara
- Date: 2015
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , book chapter
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/433670 , vital:72993 , ISBN 9781317916130 , https://www.routledge.com/Ecological-Sustainability-for-Non-timber-Forest-Products-Dynamics-and-Case/Shackleton-Pandey-Ticktin/p/book/9781138618251
- Description: As introduced at the outset of this book, the need for ecologically sustainable harvesting systems for tens of thousands of non-timber forest products (NTFPs) around the world is a requirement for the conservation of the species concerned, and the lives, livelihoods and economies that depend on those species. Ecological sustainability is not simply a ‘nice to have’, a marketing ploy or a conservation fad. Unsustainable harvesting leads to the decline, sooner or later, of NTFP gene pools, populations and species and hence the livelihoods, and species and ecosystem services dependent upon them. Often the negative impacts on peoples’ lives and incomes are not immediately apparent because they may substitute the diminishing returns from one species by harvesting another species, such as favoured firewood species for less preferred species (Madubansi and Shackleton 2007). However, the second, third or more substitute yields lower returns in quality or quantity (or both) than the most preferred species and so a trajectory of dwindling returns looms, either of the benefits obtained, or increased costs to access the benefits. On the other hand, the concept of an ecologically sustainable yield is relatively easy to grasp (Ticktin Chapter 3). All biological resources are renewable. If the rate of harvest is less than the rate of renewal, then the NTFP species or population should persist in the long term. This simplistic picture needs to be fine-tuned to ensure that there are no exacerbatory or synergistic impacts associated with the direct effects of harvesting (such as changes in browsing patterns or fire behaviour)(Ticktin and Shackleton 2011, Ticktin Chapter 3). Additionally, the effects at broader scales, ie beyond just the target species, need to be also taken into account, such as on pollinators, decomposers, nutrient cycles and the like (Ticktin 2004). But in principle, the definition and measurement of an ecologically sustainable yield is well within the means of modern science for the majority of plant and animal NTFP species.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2015
Introduction: the need to understand the ecological sustainability of non-timber forest products harvesting systems
- Authors: Shackleton, Charlie M , Ticktin, Tamara , Pandey, Ashok K
- Date: 2015
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , book chapter
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/433683 , vital:72994 , ISBN 9781317916130 , https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781315851587-2/introduction-charlie-shackleton-tamara-ticktin-ashok-pandey
- Description: The importance of non-timber forest products (NTFPs) in rural livelihoods in developing countries has become widely acknowledged over the last decade or so within the research and, increasingly, policy arenas, on the basis of numerous studies from around the world. Indeed, there has been a tenfold increase in the annual number of research papers published over the last 20 years (Figure 1.1). Most of these studies are from developing countries, but they do include developed countries (e.g. Kim et al. 2012, Poe et al. 2013, Sténs and Sandström 2013). Additionally, most are from rural areas, albeit with a smattering from urban settings (e.g. Kilchling et al. 2009, Poe et al. 2013, Kaoma and Shackleton 2014), although with increasing urbanization this distinction is blurred with significant markets for rural NTFPs imported into towns and cities (Lewis 2008, Padoch et al. 2008, McMullin et al. 2012). Two pertinent findings of many of these studies is that NTFPs generally contribute in many different ways to local livelihoods (see Chapter 2) and that when translated into income terms many households earn a significant proportion of their income (cash and/or non-cash) from NTFPs (Shackleton et al. 2007, Angelsen et al. 2014). In other words, they are not simply minor products of little value, but rather they are vital components of livelihoods, and in some instances, of local and regional economies. This requires that they, and the land on which they are found, are managed in a responsible manner to ensure that these livelihood benefits continue to accrue to rural, and often impoverished, people.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2015