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.