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Non-timber Products and Markets: Lessons for Export-Oriented Enterprise Development from Africa

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Non-Timber Forest Products in the Global Context

Part of the book series: Tropical Forestry ((TROPICAL,volume 7))

Abstract

Micro-enterprise development is widely recognised as important in many developing countries, although support to the NTFP sector is only relatively recent. Much recent literature has questioned the benefits to local livelihoods, suggesting they are relatively small or not widely apparent. This chapter considers a number of examples of export market NTFPs across a wide range of products, which demonstrate that the value of these markets is enormous and each involves thousands of people. These export NTFP products have many characteristics in common. Particularly important is the need to understand supply chains, consumers, middlemen, prices, roles and market potential. Successful enterprises have concentrated on a few species that are potential winners. Common weaknesses of enterprises based on harvests by small-scale producers are their inability to get the large volumes to meet market demand, and lack of attention to quality, quantity and production on time. The characteristics of winning products in successful enterprises are considered.

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Acknowledgement

I am grateful to SIDA for their funding support to CIFOR through the Dry Forest project. I would also like to thank Mathurin Zida in Burkina Faso and my colleagues Xu Qiang, Luo Peng, Yang Jianjun and Lin Ling in the traditional medicines project funded through the EU-China Biodiversity programme. Josef Brinkmann, Pierre du Plessis, Gus le Breton, Cyril Lombard and Peter Lovett are also thanked for enjoyable discussions over several years.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for International Forestry Research, Bogor, Indonesia

    Anthony B. Cunningham

  2. School of Plant Biology, University of Western Australia, 35 Stirling Highway, Crawley, WA, 6009, Australia

    Anthony B. Cunningham

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  1. Anthony B. Cunningham
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Correspondence to Anthony B. Cunningham .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Dept. Environmental Science, Rhodes University, Grahamstown, 6140, South Africa

    Sheona Shackleton

  2. Dept. Environmental Science, Rhodes University, Grahamstown, 6140, South Africa

    Charlie Shackleton

  3. Forestry Research (CIFOR), Center for International, Bogor, Indonesia

    Patricia Shanley

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Cunningham, A.B. (2011). Non-timber Products and Markets: Lessons for Export-Oriented Enterprise Development from Africa. In: Shackleton, S., Shackleton, C., Shanley, P. (eds) Non-Timber Forest Products in the Global Context. Tropical Forestry, vol 7. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-17983-9_4

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