NTFP Management

Developing National Standards for NTFP Certification in India

Executive Summary

NTFP Certification is a voluntary market tool which attracts green consumerism by ensuring principles of sustainable forest management (SFM). However it is still very recent and largely untested except for few cases but has a great potential for global business. NTFP availability, utilization, commercialization, exploitation, management practices, policies and tenure system between different parts of India has high diversity and variability, which imposes even greater challenge for development of any generic standards for certification even though many of the principles, criteria, indicators and verifiers are universally applicable for certification. The harvest of NTFP is coming under increasing scrutiny for certification programmes, as it plays a key role in sustainable forest management and community benefit worldwide. NTFPs are presenting many new challenges and opportunities in certification due to the wide range of management practices and difficulty of monitoring their harvest and processing. India is a net importer of Timber and 70% of the forest export revenue in generated from NTFPs. Thus the sustainable management of NTFPs and vis--vis its certification becomes priority for India. Owing to its importance, government of India is giving due consideration for incorporation of NTFPs in National Forest Working Plan Code so that adequate management inputs are provided. Key Words: NTFP Certification, National Standard Development, Sustainable Collection, Fair Trade, Criteria and Indicators