5.11.00 - Non-wood forest products
Unit 5.11.00
UNIT NOTICEBOARD
Special issue of Forests: Call for Manuscript Submissions
Special Issue "Non-Wood Forest Products Management: Inventory, Planning, Governance, Marketing and Trade"
Forest ecosystems provide various benefits to society in the form of ecosystem services. Non-wood forest products or wild products (NWFPs) (forest fruits, mushrooms, cork, pine kernels, acorns, medicinal herbs, essential oils, chestnuts, etc.) are cross-categorical ecosystem services that have recently received substantial attention from researchers and practitioners. They have been used in pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, and food, in local medicines, and in other products supporting health and livelihoods. Many research works have been devoted to the study of various aspects of NWFPs, mainly to contribute to the creation of jobs, socio-economic opportunities, and the competitiveness of rural economies, while mitigating climate change effects, addressing soil conservation concerns, and providing effective responses to address the need for carbon-neutral energy. There are a myriad of opportunities to unlock the full potential of NWFPs, such as creating new knowledge and tools to optimize the sustainable provision and profitability of NWFPs, fostering the development of market conditions for NWFPs, and developing economic and governance strategies for the better management of wild forest products—particularly in low-income countries. Thus, we encourage research endeavors involving the development of models, methods, processes, and decision support tools to address the inventory, planning, harvesting, governance, certification, marketing, and trade of NWFPs to contribute to this Special Issue. This initiative will also contribute to the NWFP knowledge base and to the strengthening of research strategies to support the full encapsulation of NWFPs in the framework of the sustainable management of forest ecosystems. This Special Issue is developed in collaboration with the 19th Symposium on Systems Analysis in Forest Resources (SSAFR 2021), and it is sponsored by the International Union of Forest Research Organizations (IUFRO Units 4.04.04—Sustainable Forest Management Scheduling and 5.11-Non-Wood Forest Products as well as the IUFRO Task Force on Unlocking the Bioeconomy and Non-Timber Forest Products). Papers submitted for publication in this Special Issue will undergo a rigorous peer-review process with the aim of prompt and wide dissemination of research results and applications.
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 January 2022.
More information at: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/forests/special_issues/nonwood_forest_products
Carsten Smith-Hall, Denmark
James Chamberlain, United States
A.L. (Tom) Hammett, United States
Sujanapal Puthiyapurayil, India
Pawel Staniszewski, Poland
About Unit
The Non-Wood Forest Products Group covers all aspects of the wide variety of non-timber products found in forests around the world, and works to promote the discovery, development, and wise use of these resources. This Group includes research on medicinal and aromatic plants, edible plant products and forest fungi, resins and gums, and many other products important for rural people and industries.
Forests capture more solar energy than any other terrestrial ecosystem. That energy is used to produce the wood of trees, as well as a vast array of materials found in the shedding parts of trees (leaves, fruits, nuts, bark, exudates, and sap). Some of these materials can be directly harvested and used by simple techniques; others exist in minute amounts and require the most advanced technology to produce the desired product In quantity. Research in the Unit spans from developing sustainable harvesting techniques to resource governance and production networks.
Major goals of the Research Group are:
- To integrated non-wood forest products into the global forest-based bioeconomy
- To facilitate and coordinate research on non-wood forest products
- To organize and implement international meetings and workshops to discuss non-timber product and allied research
The Research Group and its Working Parties are pleased to welcome new members. We encourage everyone with an interest in non-wood forest products research to become involved and to actively participate. Contact the Coordinators to learn more about Group activities.
State of Knowledge
A workshop on NTFPs was organized in Marrakech, Morocco on 1-2 December 2005, paralleling the Global Forum for Agricultural Research (GFAR) and immediately prior to the Annual General Meeting of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR). A proposal was made to formally launch a Global NTFP Partnership with approval of GFAR under the Global Partnership Programme and a Global NTFP Partnership Strategy was formulated with inputs from the coordinators of this group.
The Partnership has a website at: http://ntfp.inbar.int/wiki/index.php/Main_Page