The bioeconomy and non-timber forest products

This book provides the first in-depth investigation of how non-timber forest products are an integral part of local, national, and global bioeconomies.

While the plants and fungi that produce non-timber forest products are essential to the sustainability of forest ecosystems, peoples' food and livelihood security and sovereignty, and thus the bioeconomy, are often absent from bioeconomic strategies. Presenting a selection of empirical cases from around the world that engage with the bioeconomy and non-timber forest products, this volume reveals how essential these products are to creating a greener and more sustainable future, how to to better integrate them into efforts to transition to and expand the bioeconomy, and how such efforts can be supported and developed. Chapters analyse how and to what degree non-timber forest products promote sustainable resource use, generate employment, and contribute to food and livelihood security and poverty alleviation. The volume develops approaches and identifies interventions and policies to support the integration of non-timber forest products into bioeconomy strategies, including in national reporting schemes to provide recommendations for future research and practical implementation.

This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of forest and natural resource management, bioeconomics, circular economy and ecological economics more widely. It will also be of interest to professionals working in sustainable development and the forestry sector.

Carsten Smith-Hall is a Professor in Forest and People in Developing Countries in the Department of Food and Resource Economics at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark. He co-coordinates the Global Task Force on Unlocking the Bioeconomy and Non-Timber Forest Products and serves the World Conservation Union's Medicinal Plant Specialist Group.

James L. Chamberlain is a Research Forest Products Technologist for the US Forest Service and an Adjunct Faculty member in the Department of Sustainable Biomaterials at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, USA. He co-coordinates the Global Task Force on Unlocking the Bioeconomy and Non-Timber Forest Products.