The staggering 70 percent of the Bhutanese populace inhabiting rural pockets of the country have depended on forest resources for livelihood needs since time immemorial.
Now the department of forest is looking at certain possible areas where the forest resources will be used to generate income for the people. Toward this end, forestry officials and community forest management groups from the central region have gathered in Gelephu to identify ‘high economic potentials’ of Non-Wood Forest Products (NWFP).
The three-day workshop which began yesterday will also address the full impact of NWFPs on Bhutan’s rural economy through entrepreneurial opportunities being created from the community forests.
“We are discussing on how we can market the community forest products to help the communities,” said the social Forestry Officer K J Temphel said. “Since the majority of under-poverty population lives in rural Bhutan exploring economic opportunities for the people is aimed at reducing poverty in the country,”
The Department of Social Forestry also has high hopes for Non-wood Forest Products (NWFP) to address the priority of poverty reduction. “So we mainly want to explore the market opportunities for the forest products,” said the forestry officer.
The first excess timbers from community forests were sold in 2007. “This shows the benefits and the potential of how community forest contributes to poverty reduction as the communities have an income from community forests,” added K J Temphel.
The communities have the management rights over their Non-Wood Forest Products with the right to sell the products. Therefore several initiatives have been started to establish small scale enterprises to either produce forestry products or sell the products in an organized way so the communities benefit even more.
The NWFP resource is rich in Bhutan and covers a wide range of products from medicines to dyes, oil seeds and nuts, incense, forest vegetables, fruits and nuts, bamboo and cane, spices, resins, and high value mushrooms, among others.
The community enterprise can be profitable but as individual (or as a group) they can also benefit additionally as their labour will be paid and the group will benefit from the sale of raw material to the community based enterprise.
Easier access to timber, strengthening of community forest management groups, establishment of saving groups, time saving as process to obtain permits for rural timber supply is easier, are a few benefits of community forests said Community Forestry Management Groups.
Community forestry in Bhutan was started in 2000. As of today, 200 community forests covering over 25,000 hectors of land have been spread countrywide.
The participants from the six central dzongkhags including Sarpang, Trongsa and Zhemgang are also visiting various farm enterprises in Gelephu today.
The six dzongkhag forest officers will present reports on the status of community forests in their respective dzongkhags.
The meeting will finally chalk out future policies and approaches on developing community forests on the concluding day tomorrow.
By Pema Denkar in THIMPHU
