Abstract
The domestication of non-timber forest species (NTFS) is receiving increasing attention from developing economies. However, little is known about the selection of NTFS in Nepal for commercial uses. Sixteen selection criteria were developed and NTFS were ranked for community and private plantations in both low altitude and high altitude areas of Makawanpur district, Nepal, by workshops of multiple NTFS stakeholders. The rigorous scoring of 12 ecologically screened NTFS against the 16 selection criteria revealed that kurilo and sarpagandh are highly preferred NTFS for low altitude areas whereas chiraito and jatamanshi are highly preferred for high altitude. This finding coincides with the general perception of participants and contemporary literature. These are the species being rapidly depleted from the natural forests. Rapid decline of valuable species creates strong motivation from stakeholders for planting them on community and private land.
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Notes
Definitions of NTFPs vary, but in Nepal fuelwood, fodder and timber are not regarded as NTFPs (MFSC 1989). The terms minor forest products (MFPs), NTFPs, Jaributi, and medicinal and aromatic plants (MAPs) are used interchangeably; for the purpose of this research, NTFPs refer to the traded parts of plants other than timber, fuelwood and fodder.
US $1 = 77 Nepalese rupees (NR), as in May 2002.
Community forestry is a forest management regime in which local people are organised into a forest user group and take full responsibility for conservation, management and utilization of the government forest handed over to them as per the Forest Act 1993 and Forest Regulation 1995.
Leasehold forestry is a forest management regime in which the degraded land is handed over to the eligible people for 40 years for forest-related use as per Forest Act 1993 and Forest Regulation 1995.
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Acknowledgements
I would like to thank the Australian Centre for Sustainable Catchments, University of Southern Queensland, for logistical and other support. My special thanks go to Steve Harrison of the University of Queensland and Jerry Maroulis of the University of Southern Queensland for their tremendous effort in editing and providing critical comments that assisted in the production of this final version. Most importantly, my cordial thanks go to the forest officers, rangers, district development committee members, village development committee chairpersons and secretaries, and NTFS collectors, planters, processors, middlemen and wholesalers of Makawanpur district, Nepal, for their invaluable contributions and discussions to the workshops.
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Maraseni, T.N. Selection of Non-timber Forest Species for Community and Private Plantations in the High and Low Altitude Areas of Makawanpur District, Nepal. Small-scale Forestry 7, 151–161 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11842-008-9047-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11842-008-9047-1