Non-timber forest goods and local economic development: An untapped potential?

Improved and sustainable utilisation of forest resources will be crucial to local economic development in Norway in the future. However, an increasing part of value generation is likely to come from the supply of non-timber forest goods (NTFGs) such as re creational tourism, wildlife safaris, cultural tourism, hunting, fishing, and biodiversity conservation/ecosystem services; and not from traditional timber production. Strong long-term forces nationally and internationally, both on the supply and demand s ide, make this development path very likely. These trends represent not so much a threat to the traditional forestry as a golden opportunity for alternative value generation from the supply of NTFGs. To realise this untapped potential we need to know much more about the demand and supply sides; and the current constraints to the utilisation of NTFGs. The objective of the project is to fill this gap. The project will map people?s willingness to pay for NTFGs (Task 1 - Demand), forest owners? attitudes and willingness to accept payment for alternative uses of their forests (Task 2 - Supply), and explore synergies and linkages between different NTFGs and their potential contribution to sustainable local economic development (Task 3 - Local economic developme nt). This research will form the basis for the final research task (Task 4 - Policy measures) that will identify constraints to utilising NTFGs, and propose feasible policy measures that can better match supply and demand in order to realise the total eco nomic value of forests. The project is innovative both in its content and methodological approach. The results will be of value to policy makers on the local as well as central levels, to the forest sector, and to the national and international research c ommunity. The project will be implemented by the Department of Economics and Resource Management at UMB and NORSKOG (a forest owner association), in cooperation with SKOGFORSK and ECON Analysis.