Non-Timber Forest Products and its Sustainability

• ‘NTFP are plants, parts of plants, fungi, and other biological materials that are harvested from within
• and on the edges of natural, manipulated or disturbed forests’.
• NTFP may include fungi, moss, lichen, herbs, vines, shrubs, or tree. Many different parts are harvested, including the roots tubers, leaves, bark, twigs, and branches, the fruit, sap and regin, as well as the wood.
• are commonly grouped into categories such as floral greens, decorative, medicinal plants, foods, flavors, and fragrances, fiber, and saps and resins.

Significance of NTFPs

• NTFPs includes food and food additives (edible nuts, mushrooms, fruits, herbs, spices and condiments, aromatic plants, game), fibers (used in construction, furniture, clothing or utensils) resins, gums and plant and animal products used for medicinal, cosmetic or cultural purpose for human use (FAO 1982).
• The exact number of NTFPs is unavailable in Nepal, but 10 % of 7000 estimated plants species have been officially cited, the number of NTFPs obviously be greater than 700.
• NTFPs are the integral part of sustainable natural resource management, leading to ecosystem and biodiversity conservation of an area.