- Title
- Ecologically sustainable harvesting of non-timber forest products: Disarming the narrative and the complexity
- Creator
- Shackleton, Charlie M
- Creator
- Pandey, Ashok K
- Creator
- Ticktin, Tamara
- Subject
- To be catalogued
- Date Issued
- 2015
- Date
- 2015
- Type
- text
- Type
- book chapter
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/10962/433670
- Identifier
- vital:72993
- Identifier
- ISBN 9781317916130
- Identifier
- https://www.routledge.com/Ecological-Sustainability-for-Non-timber-Forest-Products-Dynamics-and-Case/Shackleton-Pandey-Ticktin/p/book/9781138618251
- Description
- 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. On the other hand, the concept of an ecologically sustainable yield is relatively easy to grasp (Ticktin Chapter 3). All biological resources are renewable. If the rate of harvest is less than the rate of renewal, then the NTFP species or population should persist in the long term. This simplistic picture needs to be fine-tuned to ensure that there are no exacerbatory or synergistic impacts associated with the direct effects of harvesting (such as changes in browsing patterns or fire behaviour)(Ticktin and Shackleton 2011, Ticktin Chapter 3). Additionally, the effects at broader scales, ie beyond just the target species, need to be also taken into account, such as on pollinators, decomposers, nutrient cycles and the like (Ticktin 2004). But in principle, the definition and measurement of an ecologically sustainable yield is well within the means of modern science for the majority of plant and animal NTFP species.
- Format
- 18 pages
- Format
- Publisher
- Springer
- Language
- English
- Relation
- Shackleton, C.M., Pandey, A.K. and Ticktin, T., 2015. Ecologically sustainable harvesting of non-timber forest products: Disarming the narrative and the complexity. In Ecological sustainability for non-timber forest products (pp. 260-278). Routledge
- Rights
- Publisher
- Rights
- Use of this resource is governed by the terms and conditions of the Routledge Rights and Permissions Statement (https://www.routledge.com/contacts/rights-and-permissions)
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RU DST/NRF SARChI for Interdisciplinary Science in Land and Natural Resource Use for Sustainable Livelihoods
RU Department of Environmental Science
Shackleton, Charles Michael (Distinguished Prof)
SDG 11. Sustainable Cities and Communities
RU Books and Book Chapters
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