NTFPs on Nakai Plate.. - TABI

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7 Conclusions 7.1 What is the present use of NTFP’s in the area? Interviewed villagers could identify 306 species of NTFP’s: 223 food products and 67 nonfood products. Among the food products, 50 species of edible leaves, 50 fruit species, 31 mammals, 28 fishes were identified. Kisi resin (damar resin from Shorea sp.), fish/frogs, edible rattan shoots (Raphis sp. and Daemonorops schmidtii), cardamom (Amomum sp.) and wildlife (10%) are considered by villagers to be the most important products from the forest. Food products are more numerous and considered more important (56%) than non-food products (44%). According to ranking exercises, done with groups of villagers, NTFP’s account for 76 % of average family income over all five villages surveyed. Livestock sales are the second most important source of income (16%). Within the NTFP’s, kisi resin (14%), fish (12%), cardamom (11%) and wildlife (10 %) are the most important products sold. In the same exercise, we used to ask villagers to also rank their main expenditures. Buying rice (18%), other food (14%), clothes (13%) and medicines (12%) are considered as the main family expenditures. According to a survey over 100 out of 191 individual households in the five villages visited, family economies derived 41% of their income from NTFP’s, 32% from livestock sales and 28% form other sources in 1996. They spent 65% of their income on buying rice in 1996. These data differ from the outcome of the ranking exercise. Group discussions may underestimate the income from livestock. At any rate NTFP’s are by far the most important source of income in all villages. Unprecedented floods destroyed most rice crops in the wet season of 1996, therefore most families must spent their entire income on buying rice in 1997. Many families will not be able to find enough money to satisfy their needs in rice, even though they will sell more livestock and increase their collection of NTFP’s. The absolute amount of money earned from NTFP’s per family does not differ very much between poor and rich families. However, in poor families NTFP’s are often the only source of income, they do not have access to other options such as livestock raising, salaries or trading (see table 11). This finding has important implications for the planning of all income generating and social activities in the resettlement scheme. Poor families the are most vulnerable when access to NTFP’s is going to be reduced by the inundation of the former collection areas by the reservoir. Development agencies working with these families may want to develop special measures to counterbalance such losses. From the survey, kisi resin comes forward as the most important NTFP for income generation, going up from 28% of NTFP based family income in 1996 to 56% of average family income in 1997 (see table 8). Curiously rattan shoots have come up to second place in 1997, replacing bong bark which has been greatly reduced. This means that rattan shoots are
not only used for home consumption but are becoming an important trade product. The reduction of bong bark is probably due to depletion of the stock. Rattan canes have all but disappeared, cardamom remains stable. This picture may still change as we are early in the year. 7.2 How (un-)sustainable is the present use system? The harvesting of all wildlife, rattan canes (Calamus sp.), eaglewood (Aquilaria crassna) and ‘hak tin houng’ (Helminthostachys zeylanica) are particularly destructive and should be terminated. Harvesting of kisi resin is mainly threatened by logging of the commercially interesting wood of Parashorea spp. This logging should be limited. Harvesting of bong bark (Notaphoebe umbelliflora) has been very intensive lately and harvestable trees have almost disappeared from the forest. However this tree can coppice easily from roots and may come back, even though it takes 3-4 years for stems to regrow. 7.3 How would the planned reservoir affect the availability of NTFP’s? Overall, 60 % of NTFP’s was classified as collected from streams, ponds, paddy fields, grass fields and fallow fields, which are not strictly forest areas. These areas are likely to be mostly situated within the inundation zone. Only 25 % was said to be derived for the evergreen forest and mountains. Only 16 % of all NTFP’s are said to be derived from the proposed resettlement area, called “pa kok” by villagers. It is also remarkable that little difference in opinion was found between groups of men and women on this issue. We found that villagers are able to identify forest blocks and main products collected per block. Villagers estimates of yield potential for all blocks were too variable to be useful. However the delineation of forest use blocks seems to have a great potential for future participatory forest management. 7.4 What are the possibilities for exploiting NTFP’s in the proposed settlement area? The present lifestyle of most villagers on the Nakai plateau is not very sustainable. Families have to face constant rice shortages and irregular floods. Forest products are the main source of cash income but cannot supply enough cash to buy rice to feed the family all year round. Due to high collecting pressure and increased logging, the availability of most NTFP’s is getting smaller. In the case of an inundation of the proposed reservoir, the availability of NTFP’s will be reduced even more. Because of its poor soils, the proposed resettlement area on the southern edge of the escarpment can only produce very few NTFP’s and the potential for cultivating NTFP’s as crops seems to be limited. Within these limits, some products may have a potential for domestication which could be developed. Our work has also shown the effectiveness of RRA tools in analysing the village economy, in particular in identifying poor and wealthy families. These techniques could also be used by
Page 1 and 2: THE USE OF NON TIMBER FOREST PRODUC
Page 3 and 4: 5- According to a survey over 100 o
Page 5 and 6: PART 2: MAIN REPORT 1 BACKGROUND Th
Page 7 and 8: 2.2 Semi-structured interviews with
Page 9 and 10: 2.10 Village selection Out of the t
Page 11 and 12: Bamboos “mai” and rattan “vai
Page 13 and 14: 4 Importance of NTFP’s in the fam
Page 15 and 16: 4.2 Household interviews 4.2.1 The
Page 17 and 18: Table 8: Estimated income from NTFP
Page 19 and 20: 5 Traditional use areas and boundar
Page 21 and 22: 6 Potential use of NTFP’s in the
Page 23: same way as its close relative, the
Page 27 and 28: PART 3: ANNEXES ANNEX 1: List of al
Page 29 and 30: and walked back again, total six ho
Page 31: ANNEX 7: Pictures 1: Ranking exerci

NTFPs on Nakai Plate.. - TABI

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