Products like honey and nuts can be sold. Plants and plant fiber can be used to create furniture, cloth, and crafts; herbs processed to make herbal remedies and leaves and flowers sold for ornamental uses. All this contributes to income generation and is a valuable resource for alleviating poverty in rural communities.

Yet Non-Timber Forest Products (or NTFPs) don’t often feature in discussions about poverty reduction and alleviation. One of the reasons for this is probably the lack of qualitative studies on the topic; the kind which features stories from people who have used them to escape poverty. Users’ voices haven’t been heard enough to help scholars and policymakers understand the links between these products and poverty alleviation, and to harness these in poverty reduction strategies.

Non-Timber Forest Products are dwindling worldwide; climate change and overuse of land are contributing to this trend. But such products are still common in many parts of the world and – while there is no one-size-fits-all solution for poverty alleviation – they should be studied and considered in governments’ poverty reduction plans.

read more at... https://www.commodity-port.com/how-harvesting-natural-products-can-help-rural-people-beat-poverty/