ABSTRACT
Non-timber forest products (NTFPs) play important roles in the livelihoods of millions of rural and urban people across the globe (Shackleton et al. 2002, Malhotra and Bhattacharya 2010, Pandey et al. 2011). Many NTFP species with medicinal value are harvested for local healthcare needs as well as for sale in national and international markets (Stewart 2009, Hamilton 2004, Pandey and Bisaria 1998, Pandey and Shukla 2008). However, the growing demand for NTFPs for both subsistence uses and commercial trade (Hamilton, 2004; Botha et al. 2004a) can in certain contexts and under lax or uncertain governance result in unsustainable management of such resources (Cunningham and Mbenkum 1993, Peres et al. 2003, Botha et al. 2004b, Pandey and Shukla 2006). However, ecological sustainability, or not, is context specific (Stanley et al. 2012), being related to characteristics of the species being harvested and the intensity and methods of harvesting (Ticktin and Shackleton 2011, Cunningham 2014). In situations where harvesting is deemed ecologically unsustainable, interventions around governance or actual harvesting approaches can often turn the situation around. But this requires detailed knowledge of the harvesting system and the response of the target species to harvesting.
