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IFCAE Project: U.S. Nontimber Forest Product Management and Biodiversity Conservation |
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| Timeframe: | July 2002 - December 2003 |
| Investigators: Rebecca J. McLain, Kathryn A. Lynch, Eric T. Jones | |
| Administration: Institute for Culture and Ecology | |
| Funding: | National Commission on Science for Sustainable Forestry (Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, National Forest Foundation, Surdna Foundation, The David and Lucille Packard Foundation) |
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Publications:
Downloadable reports require
Acrobat Reader to view.
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Project Overview
The
Grant
In June 2002, the
National Commission on Science for Sustainable Forestry (NCSSF) awarded
the Institute for Culture and Ecology (IFCAE) an 18-month, $200,000 grant
to assess the relationships between forest management practices, nontimber
forest products (NTFPs), and biodiversity in the U.S.
The Challenge
Thousands of people across the U.S. spend regular time in the forests
harvesting medicinal plants, floral greens, wild foods, and other
nontimber forest products. Forest managers, practitioners and policy
makers have expressed a need for better information in order to help
facilitate sustainable harvests of these species. Data about the density
and distribution of forest resources, population structure and
productivity, and the ecological impact of different harvesting levels are
often lacking. Likewise, the economic, political and cultural factors
that drive resource use patterns are often poorly understood. Monitoring
efforts are minimal or non-existent.
Our Project
Our research has addressed these challenges through five interrelated
components:
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Ethnographic interviews throughout forested areas in the lower 48 states to synthesize harvester knowledge about management and biodiversity.
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Four regional workshops designed to bring together land managers, policy makers, scientists, buyers and harvesters to develop a participatory biological monitoring approach.
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Expansion of a state and federal NTFP Management Survey in order to document managers’ views on how management activities affect local biodiversity.
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Expansion of our free, web-based NTFP Species Database that is used for identifying commercially harvested NTFPs in a region. www.ifcae.org/ntfp/
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Expansion of our free, web-based annotated NTFP Bibliographic Database that catalogs references specific to NTFP conservation, policy, management, culture and ecology. www.ifcae.org/ntfp/
Objectives
1) raise awareness and advance understanding of the role
and impact of NTFP management in forest ecosystem sustainability and
biodiversity; 2) directly support the ability of U.S. forest managers to
assess NTFP sustainability.
Funder Background
The National
Commission on Science for Sustainable Forestry (NCSSF) is comprised of
scientists, forest managers and policy makers from government, industry
and environmental organizations. The NCSSF is a partnership funded by the
Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, Surdna Foundation, Packard Foundation,
and the National Forest Foundation and is conducted under the auspices of
the National Council for Science and the Environment, a non-profit
organization dedicated to improving the scientific basis for environmental
decision-making.