Abstract
BackgroundNon-timber forest products (NTFPs) are an important part of forest biodiversity, and the subsistence and trade of local people, especially in less developed countries. Because of the high ecological and economic value, NTFPs have faced the problem of over-exploitation, and the key to solve this problem is to determine the feasible way of sustainable utilization of NTFPs. Harvest intensity is one of the most important and easily controlled utilization factors, which can greatly influence the plant individual survival, growth and reproductive performances, and even the population structure and dynamics. Therefore, we chose two common and important NTFPs species with different marketable parts (i.e., Acanthopanax senticosus with tender leaves and Aralia elata with tender buds) as our study objects. Aiming to determine the optimum harvest intensity for sustainably utilizing both NTFPs species, five levels of harvest intensity treatments (i.e., control, light, medium, high and severe) were designed to assess the effects of harvest intensity on their marketable organ yield, plant growth and reproductive performances.ResultsThe biomass growth rates of marketable organ and plant growth of A. senticosus under light harvest intensity treatment were significantly higher than those under other harvest intensities. The plant height growth and 1000-seed weight of A. elata under severe harvest intensity treatment were significantly lower than those under control treatment.ConclusionsThe light harvest intensity with 25% leaf removal and the high harvest intensity with all terminal buds harvested are the optimum harvest intensity to maintain the sustainable utilization of A. senticosus and A. elata, respectively. These findings could provide managers with basic but practical guidance for making decisions about the sustainable harvest management plan for the cultivated NTFPs species, and further provide a theoretical basis for managers to establish the harvest regulations for wild NTFPs species. Consequently, the local residents or communities can improve their income while ensure the sustainable development of wild NTFPs.
Highlights
Non-timber forest products (NTFPs) are an important part of forest biodiversity, and the subsistence and trade of local people, especially in less developed countries
Biomass growth rate of marketable organs The biomass growth rate (BGR) of A. senticosus tender leaves was significantly affected by the harvest intensity (P = 0.003), but the BGR of A. elata buds was independent of the harvest intensity (P = 0.212) (Table 2)
The sustainable utilization of target NTFPs in our study are considered as the harvest intensity at which the yield/biomass of marketable organs is maximized under the constraint that growth and reproduction of each plot are not significantly reduced
Summary
Non-timber forest products (NTFPs) are an important part of forest biodiversity, and the subsistence and trade of local people, especially in less developed countries. Aiming to determine the optimum harvest intensity for sustainably utilizing both NTFPs species, five levels of harvest intensity treatments (i.e., control, light, medium, high and severe) were designed to assess the effects of harvest intensity on their marketable organ yield, plant growth and reproductive performances. NTFPs are an important part of forest biodiversity and the subsistence and trade of local people (Ros-Tonen 2000). According to FRA 2020, information on NTFPs is reported in 124 countries and territories, which account for 73% of the global forest area and have about 6.2 billion urban and rural people (FAO 2020a). The importance of NTFPs for rural and urban residents’ livelihood, especially in developing countries, has been widely recognized (Chou 2019)
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