Non-wood Forest Products of Nepal: Status, Issues, and Challenges

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AbstractForests provide enormous goods and services not only to mankind but also to all living organisms thus being the lifeline in the world. Non-wood forest products (NWFPs) are the most important provisioning services people obtain from the forest. The importance of these goods and services is even more significant to the people living in the remote mountainous regions of the Himalayan countries where rural livelihood is dependent on these resources due to the absence of alternative activities for an economy generation. This chapter aims to explore the present status, trade, processing, contribution, and challenges of NWFPs in Nepal. The unique position of Nepal in terms of geography provides harbor for thousands of potential NWFPs on which the livelihood of many people living in and around is associated. It has been reported that, around 2331 species of valuable NWFPs are distributed in the unimodal patterns along the altitudinal gradient. People harvest NWFPs mainly from the wild and sell them either in raw form or with a little processing for value addition. It is therefore, the utmost requirement to shift from traditional methods of harvesting and processing to scientific ones to address issues of commercialization of NWFPs, access to the national and international markets, sustainable harvesting and value addition activities.KeywordsValue additionMedicinal and aromatic plantsProcessingTradeLivelihood