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Non-Timber Forest Products Pilot - Facilitation
and Adaptive Management
BC Ministry of Forests
The term non-timber forest products (NTFPs) describes
over 200 species of forest resources, other than timber, that are
harvested for commercial, personal or traditional purposes in British
Columbia. The more intensely harvested species include edible wild
mushrooms such as Pine mushrooms, Chanterelles, and floral greens
such as salal. The commercial extraction of these common pool resources
is currently unrestricted and unmanaged in British Columbia, which
has led to various ecological, social and economic concerns, and
highlights a need to find an appropriate NTFP management/stewardship
regime for the province.
The BC Ministry of Forests and Royal Roads University
have embarked on a pilot project to find institutional or property
rights solutions to the challenges associated with the use of NTFPs.
The objective of the pilot project is to test a variety of management
approaches in order to develop an effective, efficient and equitable
management regime for these resources in a manner that maintains
both the integrity of the forest ecosystem and sustainability of
NTFP resources—and thereby helping to sustain the communities
and cultures who rely on the long-term availability of NTFPs.
The NTFP Collaborative Stewardship Project comprises
distinct design and implementation phases. ESSA was contracted to
help provide guidance for incorporating adaptive management principles
into the design phase, and to write the Adaptive Management Plan
for the pilot design. The adaptive management approach is perfectly
suited to this project, as there is significant uncertainty regarding
how best to manage NTFPs in BC. In addition to helping reduce this
uncertainty, adaptive management also provides a framework to facilitate
project planning, data management, and evaluation and communication
of results.
The ESSA team also facilitated design workshops
in Victoria, Port McNeil and Chilliwack, to collect and organize
broad input from people with interests in NTFP resources.
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