Forest Products, Livelihoods and Conservation

Terry C.H. Sunderland, Susan T. Harrison and Ousseynou Ndoye 11

economically valuable NTFPs few management techniques are applied under

traditional harvest practices (Malleson 1999; van den Berg et al. 2001). The

case studies in this book serve to emphasize this situation. Overlapping layers

of class, education, elite and statutory ‘rights’ overlying basic traditional tenure

systems will affect how innovations and management options are implemented,

and together these relationships will play a direct role in management successes

or failures.

In many of the case studies described in this book the lack of management

regimes is precipitated by the fact that the resources are considered ‘open-

access’, for which there is no customary control on harvesting. Destructive

harvesting techniques that increase as market pressure begins to build are

often a direct result of situations where property rights are poorly defined or

not at all (Dove 1993). Similarly, such insecure tenure discourages the

investment in intensification through cultivation and this is particularly

characteristic of the African NTFP sector, which is heavily reliant on wild-

sourced forest products. It has been argued that even if the open-access

problems that lead to destructive harvesting were resolved, increases in the

value of NTFPs might not benefit the conservation of tropical forests or the

livelihoods of their inhabitants (Southgate et al. 1996). The reason given for

this partly historical observation is that as an extractive commodity becomes

scarce, cultivation outside the natural ecosystem has been a characteristic

response. However, often such intensification efforts exclude the original

resource users with the majority of resultant profits accruing to local élites or

commercial concerns (Dove 1993). In addition, removal of an economically

valuable product from the forest economy reduces the value of the standing

forest leading to more lucrative, often destructive land-use alternatives

(Homma 1992). This situation is particularly highlighted by the devil’s claw

(Harpagophytum spp.) case study where Rachel Wynberg articulately describes

the inequity caused by intensification:

‘[With the issue of cultivation] two trends are worth noting.

First, there is a high level of competition among projects,

evidenced by a complete shroud of secrecy (often formalised

through confidentiality provisions in contracts), an astonishing

absence of collaboration and a distinct lack of published

information about the technical aspects of the disparate

projects. A second and related trend concerns the increasing

involvement of the pharmaceutical industry and private sector

in sponsoring and initiating cultivation projects, a

development that reflects the vested interests of the industry

to secure long-term supplies of the drug and to ensure a high

quality product. With a few notable exceptions this is

associated with the virtual exclusion of local research

institutions from participation in the technical work required

and negligible involvement of rural communities in the

establishment and ongoing maintenance of projects. Instead,

most cultivation initiatives to date draw upon foreign

scientists and are located on the lands of commercial white

01 introduction Africa.p65 11 22/12/2004, 11:04