Livelihood dependency on NTFP's among forest dependent communities: An overview

Non-Timber Forest Products: Diversity, Utilization, and Dependency in Fringe Areas of Jaldapara National Park in Indian Sub-Himalayan Region

“…Socioeconomic profiling of forest-dependent communities helps in understanding their dependency on NTFP resources [2,3,13,49,50]. The settlement of the villages is in the designated forest area of JNP for past many generations with marginal land holding granted to the settlers in recognition of their traditional right to natural resources by the Forest Department.…”

“…NTFPs ensure year-round income to the households, and thus, the reliance of the households is more on them than on other livelihood options. This indicates that NTFPs are satisfying multiple needs of food, shelter, medicines, fibers, energy, and cultural artifacts and thus supporting the well-being of the indigenous people of JNP [2,3,39,60].…”

“…Any biological products and services collected mainly from forests and other associated tree-based land use systems are known as non-timber forest products (NTFPs) [1][2][3][4]. Most of the rural and indigenous communities residing in and around forests rely for their livelihood on NTFPs socioeconomically and culturally [2,3,[5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14]. Non-timber forest products (NTFPs) along with the tradition of plantsbased knowledge is distributed among the vast number of indigenous and rural communities [15,16].…”

“…In spite of the "right of ownership, i.e., access to collect, use and dispose of minor forest produce by the 'Forest Rights Act, 2006'" to the indigenous communities dependent on forest or forest dwellers, they still remain underprivileged and impoverished [18]. Having potential to address poverty, sustainable development, and tropical forest conservation without competing with agricultural activity, NTFPs is now receiving more academic and policy attention [2,3,19,20].…”

“…The dependency of the indigenous forest and rural people on NTFP continues today because of their poor economic conditions and non-empowerment toward socioeconomic development [21] through its use in food, medicine, fiber, fuelwood and sale [2][3][4]. Plant and animal resources and their value as NTFPs are rich among the ethno-cultural groups [22,23], but potentialities of many of these resources and valuable plants are yet to be explored [2,3]. Unfortunately, till now, there are no serious efforts either to document the NTFP resources or to analyze their utilization and socioeconomic aspects [5].…”