The economic value of non-timber forest products in Southeast Asia

A fully revised and extended version of a report with the same title, first published in 1989. The book deals with an important but long neglected aspect of the use and management of tropical forests, analyzing the role of the vast array of non-timber forest products in the local and national economies of Southeast Asia. The term "non-timber forest products" encompasses all biological material other than timber which are extracted from forests for human use. These include foods, medicines, spices, essential oils, resins, gums, latexes, ornamental plants, wildlife, fuelwook and raw materials like rattan, smallwood and fibres. The book, which gives special attention to the importance of non-timber forest products for the more than 30 million forest-dependent people in Southeast Asia, has already proven to be stimulating reading for all those concerned with forest conservation and sustainable forest use. In Southeast Asia, but also in many other parts of the world.