Computer aided inventory analysis for sustainable management of non-timber forest product resources

Abstract

Non-Timber Forest Products (NTFPs) consist of variety of useful products such as bark, fruits, seeds, leaves, gums and resins, tannins, dyes, roots etc. These resources are renewable if sustainably managed. Quantitative inventory of NTFP resources will in aid formulating sustainable NTFP management practices. Inventory of NTFP resources in the tropics is relatively new and has received little formal study. In this paper, we outline the methodology for inventorying NTFP resources highlighting various nested elements involved in the multi-resource NTFP inventory, possible sampling procedures, methods for the estimation of density and diversity measures and quantification of useful products. The details of the software ‘InventNTFP’ developed for carrying out inventory analysis are also presented. The software handles large number of species simultaneously and takes into consideration different aspects of inventory and reduces time greatly in carrying out analysis and generating results. It produces density and diversity measures and extrapolates availability of useful products from various species following non-destructive approach. Although the software is originally conceived for the analysis of NTFP inventory, it may be found useful in other areas involving fixed area plot based surveys for working out various density and diversity measures. Such application domain includes inventory of selected floral and faunal groups.