ABSTRACT
As introduced at the outset of this book, the need for ecologically sustainable harvesting systems for tens of thousands of non-timber forest products (NTFPs) around the world is a requirement for the conservation of the species concerned, and the lives, livelihoods and economies that depend on those species. Ecological sustainability is not simply a ‘nice to have’, a marketing ploy or a conservation fad. Unsustainable harvesting leads to the decline, sooner or later, of NTFP gene pools, populations and species and hence the livelihoods, and species and ecosystem services dependent upon them. Often the negative impacts on peoples’ lives and incomes are not immediately apparent because they may substitute the diminishing returns from one species by harvesting another species, such as favoured firewood species for less preferred species (Madubansi and Shackleton 2007). However, the second, third or more substitute yields lower returns in quality or quantity (or both) than the most preferred species and so a trajectory of dwindling returns looms, either of the benefits obtained, or increased costs to access the benefits.
