Why Do People Use Non Timber Forest Products

Non-timber Forest Products does not increase the rate of deforestation because they are harvested without damaging the trees and timbers. Plus, most of the NTFPs are based on forest environment. That means without forests, it is not really possible to acquire NTFPs. Besides traditional timber forest products, NTFP is another major resources from forests. Technically, NTFPs are defined as “all biological materials, other than timber, which are extracted from forests for human use.” These include rattan and other materials for craft making, forest fruits, resins, gums, medicinal plants and honey. Sometimes small animals and insects are also included. For instance, bamboo is extremely versatile, with over 1500 documented uses, and can in principle

Most of the information we know about it is from media, not real experiences. Fortunately, this summer when I was still in China, I had a chance to hike in a valley full of various plants and forests. I witnessed how NTFPs are collected and brought to the market. The valley is partially reconstructed so visitors can travel through with ease on trials. There will be a lodge every hundreds meters of the trial. People can take a break near the lodge to replenish some energy for further hiking. Besides those lodges, local people often set up a table with some unknown barks, branches and fungi on it. If visitors feel hungry, they even have some delicious jelly made of acorn starch. The jelly is freshly made and flavoured with soy sauce, vinegar, garlic and chilli sauce. People enjoy the jelly a lot because it tastes exactly like something directly from nature, with few artificial processes. In China, noodles made of bean jelly and rice jelly are ubiquitous among cities and towns. However, their taste, compared to the acorn jelly made from forests products, are really artificially affected. Another interesting product on the table is the unknown tree bark. Those brown-colored barks are usually curved and have the size about the hand of adults. The seller said these barks can help with insomnia, meaning people who have hard time falling