Status, Prospects and Challenges for Non-Timber Forest Products Conservation in Nepal: A Critical Review

Non-timber forest products (NTFPs) consist of goods of biological origin other than wood, derived from forests, other wooded land and trees outside forests. The importance of NTFPs for sustaining rural livelihoods, fostering rural poverty alleviation, enhancing biodiversity conservation, and facilitating rural economic growth is well known in Nepal. In spite of these facts, NTFPs have not received the sustained and systematic support. With the gradual rise in population, unsustainable harvesting and depletion of resources, sustainable management of NTFPs has become a challenge. Similarly, the increasing global demand of NTFPs leads to over-exploitation of these resources that further leads to dwindling and adversely affecting the biodiversity. In this context, this paper intends to explore and analyze the conservation status, prospects and challenges for efficient and sustainable management of NTFPs in the context of Nepal. with keyword ‘Prospects and Challenges of Non-timber forest products conservation in Nepal’. A total of 51 results from 1976 to 2019 were obtained. Finally, the literatures collected were systematically reviewed for logical discussion and conclusion.


Introduction
Nepal is well known for its rich biological and cultural diversities. Variability in physiographic and climatic condition has enriched the country with a high diversity of flora, fauna, ecosystems and cultural heritage. Overall, Nepal occupies about 0.1% of the global land mass in which floral diversity harbours 3.2% of the global diversity (MoFSC, 2014). The country is ranked on 25 th position of global biodiversity richness and 11 th among Asian countries (MoFE, 2018b). The country boasts over 11,971 flora species out of which 284 flowering plants are endemic to Nepal (MoFSC, 2014). Based on various publications related to flora of Nepal, about 5,833 species of flowering plants have been recorded by Koba et al. (1994), 6,500 by DoF (2004), 6,973 by MoFSC (2014), and, recently, Rajbhandari et al. (2017) have reported 5,309 species under 1,515 genera and 193 families. In total 7,000 species of vascular plants are found in Nepal and more than 2,000 species are regarded as producing the NTFPs, among which 1,624 species are estimated to have medicinal uses (MoFSC, 2012).
Non-timber forest products (NTFPs) are also known as minor forest products (MFPs) and non-wood forest products (NWFPs). There is no uniformity in the use of the term. FAO (1999) has defined NTFPs as all goods of biological origin as well as services derived from forests, other wooded land and trees outside forests, and excluded woods in all its form. There are many other terms that have been used for these products, such as alternative, special, and secondaryall of which emphasize that the product is subsidiary objective of forest management. It means, their production is secondary in importance and excludes woods in all its forms (Wong, 2002). In Nepal, the NTFPs are also termed as Jaributi (herbs) and include all biological materials and different services rendered by forest land; for example, medicinal materials, fibers, dyes, gums, fatty oils, wild edible products (vegetables, fruits, spices and condiments), agricultural implements, thatching grasses, rattan, resins, pesticides, animal bedding, veterinary medicines, green manure, ornamental plants, cosmetics, ceremonial products, tannins, charcoal, honey, food, etc., and wildlife products (e.g., bones for ritual and decoration) are grouped as NTFPs (GoN/MOFSC, 1993).
NTFPs are important component of the Nepalese economy. They are associated with socio-economic and cultural life of forest-dependent communities inhabiting in a wide range of ecological and geo-climatic conditions throughout the country (Rijal et al., 2019;Rai et al., 2019). Globally, a large proportion of rural populations depend on NTFPs for livelihoods, such as for food, nutrition, medicines, fodder, fibres, and other useful materials Talukdar et al., 2021). In the mountains of Nepal, 10-100% of households are involved in the collection of medicinal plants and other NTFPs; and in certain rural areas, this contributes up to 50% of the family income (Olsen and Larsen, 2003;Rijal et al., 2019;Rai et al., 2019;. In the past, NTFPs had been considered secondary in importance against the timber and were confined to local economies, as very little knowledge existed about them. In recent years, NTFPs have attracted considerable global interest. This is due to the increasing recognition of the fact that NTFPs can fulfill community needs for improving rural livelihoods, contribute to household food security and nutrition, help generate additional employment and income, offer opportunity for NTFP-based enterprises contributing to foreign exchange, and support biodiversity and other conservation objectives (Pandey et al., 2016;Rai et al., 2019). In the past few decades, with growing concern about conservation, together with rural poverty and sustainable development, researchers, as well as conservation and development organizations, made efforts to bring NTFPs at the centre of discourse (Belcher et al., 2005;Subedi, 2003;Banjade and Paudel, 2008). As a result, the governments of several developing countries, including Nepal, received pressure to formulate plans and policies that promoted NTFPs. Following the changing global focus, forest policies in Nepal for the last three decades have also highlighted NTFPs through various policy documents, public meetings, party manifestos and other documents. This paper aims to analyze the conservation status, prospects and challenges of NTFPs for the efficient and sustainable use in Nepalese context. This study is based on an extensive review of government policy documents, available published and grey materials. Google Scholar and ResearchGate were the primary databases used for acquiring the literature with keyword 'Prospects and Challenges of Non-timber forest products conservation in Nepal'. A total of 51 results from 1976 to 2019 were obtained. Finally, the literatures collected were systematically reviewed for logical discussion and conclusion.
Ministry of Forest and Environment, Government of Nepal has given its priority on NTFPs development, and that is why Government of Nepal has introduced NTFPs development programme in all 75 districts of Nepal. Similarly, Government of Nepal (GoN) has categorized 237 NTFPs in 8 groups for royalty determination under the Schedule-3 of the Forest Regulation 1995 (Table 1). The GoN has also imposed restrictions on the export of 12 NTFPs species under section 77 of the Forest Act 2019 (Table 2). Other international conservation agencies, like IUCN, CITES, have also listed such plant species in their Red Data Book 1 . The IUCN has listed total 9 groups of species in four different categories (MoFSC, 2014), while the CITES has listed a number of species existing in Nepal under various CITES appendices; viz. a total of 417 species (2 species in Appendix I; 411 species in Appendix II; and 4 species in Appendix III) (MoFE, 2018a). Similarly, the government has taken some initiation on conservation of NTFPs by prioritizing 30 major species for economic development of the country (Table 3) and 12 species have been selected for research and agrotechnology purpose (DoPR, 2009).   • Provides a systematic approaches and strategies for the promotion of NTFPs priority in equitable benefit sharing and sustainable harvest.

2004
Herbs and NTFPs Policy 9 • Promoted conservation and sustainable management of NTFPs. Improvement of harvesting, processing and marketing of NTFPs. • Local participation in NTFPs development, income and employment opportunities. 2012 NTFPs Inventory Guideline 10 • Provides systematic approaches for inventory and assessment of NTFPs resources in the country. 2014 National Biodiversity and Action Plan 11 • Emphasizes a systematic approach and strategy for the conservation and promotion of NTFPs. Priority is given to people's participation, equitable benefit sharing and sustainable harvest. 2019a National Forest Policy 12 • Emphasizes on conservation, development, management and processing of NTFPs. 2019b Forest Act 13 • Promotes conservation, development and sustainable management of forest resource or biological diversity. • Imposed restrictions on the collection sale, distribution and export of endangered and important NTFPs species.

Prospects of NTFPs in Nepal
About 7,000 vascular plant species have been reported in the country so far, out of which more than 1,600 are identified having medicinal value, of which 238 are chemically tested and 160 species are in collection and trade (Subedi, 2003;GoN, 2004;MoFSC, 2012). The Government of Nepal has kept 30 species in priority list, from which 12 are for commercial cultivation and market promotion (Subedi, 2006;DoPR, 2009). It is well established that NTFPs fulfill multiple functions in supporting human well-being. NTFPs have been a welfare or livelihood commodity for long; these are traditional sources of food and nutrition, medicine, fodder, fuel, thatch and construction materials, mulch and non-farm income (Malhotra and Bhattacharya, 2010;Pandey et al., 2011). About 80% of the households in rural hilly areas in the country are reported to be involved in commercial collection of NTFPs and MAPs in Nepal (NEHHPA, 2012;Rai et al., 2019). The Department of Forest and Forest User Groups (FUGs) collect revenue of NPR 25 million per annum from the trading of NTFPs (MoFSC, 2012). NTFPs sub-sector in Nepal contributes about 5% to the National Gross Domestic Product (GDP), and about 15% GDP is contributed by the whole forestry sector (ANSAB, 1999;MoFSC, 2009). More than 160 types of NTFP species are harvested from the wild and traded in international market, mostly to India; 95% of the NTFPs are collected from the wild and 90% are exported to India in raw form (MoFSC, 2012).
The NTFPs create high economic value and large-scale employment. NTFPs have become the major source of livelihood for farmers in the mid-hills of Nepal and continue to be in future, as there is a lack of off-farm employment opportunities (Olsen and Larsen, 2003;NEHHPA, 2012). There is always a strong potential for community forests to serve as the basis for improving the quality of life and the status of livelihoods in rural Nepal while conserving forest resources, on the other hand (Thoms, 2008). In recent years, NTFPs have attracted considerable global interest due to the increasing recognition of the fact that they can provide important community needs for improved rural livelihood (FAO, 1999;World Bank, 2006). The importance of NTFPs for sustaining rural livelihoods, furthering rural poverty alleviation, biodiversity conservation, and facilitating rural economic growth is well known. Even with good evidence of the fact, NTFPs have not received the sustained and systematic support (Luintel et al., 2004;Uprety et al., 2016;Rai et al., 2019).
With the gradual increase in population and depletion of natural resource base, sustainable management of the NTFPs has become a challenge (Pandit, 2001;Uprety et al., 2016). Similarly, the increasing global demand of NTFPs leads to over-exploitation of these resources, which further leads to dwindling the biodiversity and adversely affecting the ecology. Therefore, it is very essential to educate and capacitate forest managers and forest users about the importance of NTPFs in their livelihood for sustainability of the forest resource management.

Challenges of NTFPs in Nepal
Non-Timber Forest Products (NTFPs) in Nepal are being increasingly recognized for their role in rural livelihoods, biodiversity conservation and economic values. As such they are of interest to a wide disciplinary range of researchers and government agencies seeking to promote rural livelihoods, incomes, and ecologically sustainable practices (Shackleton et al., 2018). The market of NTFPs is expanding, and this is an opportunity as well as a challenge for a more sustainable, efficient and equitable management of NTFP resources. Effective management through sustainable harvesting and market driven commercialization are two contrasting aspects that are bringing challenges in development of NTFPs sector. Inventory and research on NTFPs, identifying potential species having market value, conducting value chain analyses, promotion of capacity building and technology transfer and sustainable management of NTFPs need analysis of their use patterns by communities and trends at a regional scale (Subedi, 2003;Heinen and Shrestha-Acharya, 2011;Uprety et al., 2016). Some of the major challenges for conservation and sustainable management of NTFP species in Nepal are discussed in the following sub-headings.

Inventory and research on NTFP species
In Nepal, need for inventory and research on NTFP species is a major issue. Various studies indicate that there is lack of inventory of NTFP resources in the country (Luintel et al., 2004;Heinen and Shrestha-Acharya, 2011 (Heinen and Shrestha-Acharya, 2011;Uprety et al., 2016). At present, all these information are scattered and there is no linkage between them. For example, in mid-west and far west Nepal, it is said that there is a trade worth millions of dollars of Yarsagumba (Ophiocordyceps sinensis), a rare and protected plant species in Nepal colloquially known as caterpillar fungus used as aphrodisiac and tonic in Chinese medicine, but none knows the exact volume of the available plant material. Thus, identification and inventory of NTFP species are very important for sustainable management.

Production and harvesting management
Unsustainable harvesting of NTFP species is another issue in NTFPs sector in Nepal. The management options for increasing production while making it sustainable do not exist in practice in most of the areas. The current practice of NTFP utilization involves only harvesting that is convenient to the collectors. Often, collectors do not know which species are traded. There are instances of early harvest due to competition without leaving sufficient stock for regeneration of many NTFPs. Generally, the harvesting practices are unsustainable due to a lack of sensitivity and market information (Subedi, 2003;Heinen and Shrestha-Acharya, 2011). Therefore, there is a need to consider several possible options for production management depending upon the institutional arrangements, capacity enhancement, information transformation and commercial opportunities. The key for the sustainable management is the reconciliation of biological sustainability with commercial viability. There may be several possibilities to increase the NTFPs production in a sustainable way: improving production from the wild, through domestication and improving harvesting technologies, reducing post-harvest lost, and institutionalization of management system.

Value addition
Lack of proper value addition is another challenge for NTFPs management in Nepal. The value of Nepal's NTFPs is significant, but the potential of value adding opportunities is unrealized. There is not much processing and value addition being done to NTFPs that are collected and exported to India mostly in raw form. The collected or produced NTFPs from wild or cultivated land can be sold in different forms i.e., crude raw materials, improved raw materials or processed raw materials through different marketing channels. The improved and processed raw materials generally yield higher price than crude raw material. Value addition to the raw material can not only increase employment but also can contribute to the economic development of a region or nation. Unfortunately, value addition or processing of NTFPs in Nepal has exploited and deprived the local producer or collectors due to the lack of coordination between collectors and local traders (Subedi, 2003;Heinen and Shrestha-Acharya, 2011;Chakravarty et al., 2015). A lack of market and marketing infrastructure, and limited access to availability of information and technology for product development and processing are hindering the value addition process. Resource based enterprise development has not been initiated in the country. Thus, there is a need for increasing the efficiency in each stage of the value chain of NTFP products. NTFPs can be processed, or value added into consumer-oriented products. Processing or value addition of NTFPs should now be promoted as an approach to local development, particularly in NTFPs rich country like Nepal. Improvement to raw materials and the processing are two major examples of value addition that can be done by local communities.

Domestication
Studies show that NTFPs can be domesticated, like other agricultural crops (Leakey and Newton, 1994;Bista and Webb, 2006;Pandit, 2008). In Nepal, NTFP producing species are almost non-domesticated. Unfortunately, many of the most often used annual and perennial NTFPs remain neglected for domestication till date. Though DoPR (2009) under the Ministry of Forest and Environment (MoFE) has prioritized 12 NTFPs for research and cultivation, domestication of NTFPs is still in slow pace and not extensive. The people are generally not very much willing to cultivate NTFPs on the cultivated land. No research has been done so far why people are unwilling to domesticate, as NTFPs have high potential in fulfilling the household needs. In Nepal, some efforts have been made by individuals and groups to domesticate some exotic as well as indigenous NTFP species. But there are several stages of scientific procedures, which need to be addressed during the domestication process, such as characterization, germplasm exploration, vegetative propagation, genetic selection, and incorporation into a sustainable land-use system (Leaky and Newton, 1994;Subedi, 2003;MoFSC, 2012). The domestication of promising, under-exploited species in private farmland, community managed forest land and leasehold forest land can contribute a lot to this sector. Agroforestry practice can also offer a flexible land use system by which NTFPs can be domesticated gradually in a way that is adapted to local conditions and practices.

Marketing and trade
Another equally important challenge associated with promotion of NTFPs in Nepal is the lack of market and marketing information. The insecure and seasonal fluctuation in market price of the products, and the difficulties in processing, were the biggest issues in NTFPs sector. The main difficulties are getting reliable information, processing technologies and access to market. Community forestry, small holders, family farmers, and producers need to be able to meet the standards of quality and sustainability as important purchasing criteria (ASEAN, 2020). A study shows that trade in NTFPs is not transparent, and traders have greater influence over the pricing mechanism (traders-oriented price). Despite the materials are of good quality, harvesters do not have much stake in pricing due to the non-transparent nature of NTFP trade. Traders do not want to share real prices and mostly work in isolation. There is a huge gap between road head traders and harvesters, and harvesters get very little of the profit (Subedi, 2003;Heinen and Shrestha-Acharya, 2011;Uprety et al., 2016). In Nepal, NTFPs are sold in local, urban, national, regional and international markets. There seems market for NTFPs, but existence of market does not assure the access to the market, which is quite often very difficult to get for NTFPs. Majority of high-value NTFPs are located in very remote area, the processing and marketing costs are generally high. The NTFPs produced in remote areas are sold through a long marketing channel which is inefficient and costly from the perspective of the collectors. Moreover, the current trade chain is not providing the fair share of profits to the harvesters or collectors. The support services available for processing and marketing of NTFPs are not adequate for small fair-trade businesses. In some cases, these are favourable for illegal transactions. The additional challenges faced in marketing of NTFPs are the lack of marketing infrastructure, imperfect wholesale market for NTFPs (created by limited number of wholesalers, controlled by government and the major buyers), limited access to availability of information and technology for product development, difficulties in matching market requirements by suppliers due to several uncertainties such as reduction fluctuation, decreased collection, inconsistent quality of products coming from many sources, and guaranty of collection permits. So, there is a serious need to explore and address the existing markets and marketing systems of NTFPs. Improvement in communication about markets, prices and other concerns to collectors and traders can improve the market strategy for NTFPs promotion in Nepal.

Certification
Forest certification (FC) is a concept accepted worldwide, and that advocates the reflectance of sustainable forest management (SFM) and gives assurance to forest product users (FAO, 2000). Forest certification is intended to improve forest management via market-based incentives, and it is based on the assessment of the social, economic and environmental aspects of forest management as per the predetermined set of standards (FAO, 2000;FSC, 2015). Certification of forests is a newly introduced concept in Nepal and has formally been introduced by the Private Public Alliance (PPA) as a tool to promote sustainable forest management (SFM) and responsible business practices focusing on NTFPs (Kandel, 2007). Aiming the NTFPs, 14,086 hectares community-managed forests were certified in Bajhang and Dolakha districts under Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification scheme between 2004and 2005(FSC, 2015Kandel, 2007). Nepal Foresters Association (NFA) and Asia Network for Sustainable Bioresources (ANSAB), supported and funded by United States Agency for International Development (USAID), are major organizations involved in initiating and promoting forest certification schemes in Nepal. Currently, the area has been expanded to more than 80 community forest user groups (CFUGs) having their 17,146 hectares forests are certified incorporating payment for ecosystem services. It is meant to ensure that 24 NTFPs including herbal products, essential oils are sustainably harvested from sustainably managed forest (Acharya and Karki, 2015;Subedi et al., 2015).
However, certification of forest products (especially NTFPs) requires a base of knowledge regarding the ecology, socioeconomics and legal aspects of non-timber forest products, much of which is undocumented and unknown. A common challenge in NTFPs certification is the difficulty of marrying a system driven by international scientific norms with local community practices and cultures. Chain of custody (CoC) 14 certification has not been performed yet to export the NTFPs from certified forests of Nepal. On the one hand, the barriers to achieving certification for products from forests controlled by CFUGs are high, whereas the economic return remains largely unrealized in the absence of market where sustainably produced forest products are valued (Ebrahim et al., 2014). Some specific factors that are hindering the certification of forest products in Nepal are: • Inaccessibility of certification to small scale producers • Problems in meeting quality standards developed for industrial scale forestry • Complex chain of custody • Lack of capacity to achieve the technical conditions necessary for certification • Lack of market demand for NTFP products certified as environmentally friendly, or as originated from 'well managed' areas • Lack of ecological information to be able to prove the sustainability of any given harvesting operation.
Hence, there is a need to explore and address the existing certification issues. Promoting culturally appropriate education, capacity building and training, identifying synergies between forest and fair-trade certification, and leveraging the local and regional market could scale up the forest certification programme in Nepal.

Policy perspectives
More than 1 billion people globally use or trade non-timber forest products with the majority of NTFP use and trade occurring at local and regional scales, generally invisible to researchers and policy makers (Shanley et al., 2016). Among the developing countries, Nepal has been progressive in conservation and management of NTFPs for nearly four decades. The country formulated comprehensive legislation for the protection and management of natural resources (including NTFPs) and has amended conservation legislation many times to include more participatory approaches that have had many measured successes (Heinen and Shrestha-Acharya, 2011;Uprety et al., 2016 1988, which is the first comprehensive policy statement in Nepal's forestry sector, recognizes the participatory approach to forestry, but fails to appreciate the scope of the NTFPs as an important area of intervention from conservation as well as economic viewpoints. When evaluated in terms of the impact of the forest legislation on NTFPs conservation and management, the national policy objectives do not seem to be properly translated into regulations. The regulations pertaining to NTFPs are still based on restrictive policy (Ojha, 2000;Shrestha-Acharya and Heinen, 2006;Heinen and Shrestha-Acharya, 2011). Some of the major policy issues related to NTFPs that need to be addressed in the future are: • Contradictions between the Forest Act and the Local Governance Act regarding control over NTFPs use and management; • Ad-hoc royalty rates for NTFPs and absence of well-developed system of determining royalty; • Ban or restriction on collection and trade of commercially valuable NTFPs that can be harvested on a non-destructive basis; • Lengthy and costly export formalities for NTFPs trade; and • Inappropriate control and absence of enabling environment for conservation and trade of NTFPs.
The above-listed issues suggest that the government's efforts have focused on controlling the extraction, use and trade of NTFPs, while the resourceful traders are drawing profits often exploiting the local producers or collectors in the value chain, irrespective of regulatory control (Ojha, 2000;Shrestha-Acharya and Heinen, 2006). Nepal has a separate policy for NTFPs, but there are no implementation plans or regulations formulated in accordance with the policy. However, the recent Nepal National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan 2014 and the Forest Policy 2019 have emphasized sustainable use and management of NTFPs and critically provide special opportunity to support livelihoods of marginalized pro-poor and women through wise use of NTFPs. Yet, the present policy formation, implementation and field reality reflect power structures and domination by certain stakeholders and interest groups (Larsen et al., 2000;Uprety et al., 2016). Therefore, there is a need for administrative expansion and simplification of the policy that could address the current prevailing issues and the most essential would be the formulation of a separate NTFPs Management Strategy and Action Plan.

Conclusion
Non-timber forest products are the most important provisioning services the people obtain from forest ecosystems. The importance of NTFPs in rural livelihoods and forest conservation has been well recognized as they provide income generation opportunities to millions of people around the world. Nepal is well known for NTFPs. The diverse geography and climate have rendered it a unique land of over 2,000 species of plants that are considered to be potentially useful, including food, nutrition, fibres and medicinal values. NTFPs are an important part of the Nepalese economy and they are significant sources of subsistence, income and employment to the people dwelling in forests. Due to poor economy of the rural community and lack of alternative living sources, more pressure is observed on the forest resources. The lack of NTFP resources inventory, unsustainable harvesting and lack of marketing information and capacity building, and arbitrary legislative provisions were the major challenges and constraints for sustainable management of NTFP sector in Nepal. There is a need to create effective management through sustainable harvesting and market-driven commercialization by implementing adaptive policies.