Strengthening farmers access to forests for sustainable use of non-timber forest products: lessons based on community managed matsutake mushroom and bamboo shoot collection in Yunnan Province, southwest China

In the past decade, there has been increasing recognition that the collection of NTFP (NonTimber Forest Products) plays a significant role in reducing poverty and maintaining forests as part of the global trend of sustainable development. Simultaneously, the development of a market economy also provides opportunities for forest-depended communities to commercialize NTFP collection. Without good management, commercial NTFP collection may lead to resource depletion and socio-economic differentiation. This goes to the fundamental problems of the “tragedy of open-access”. Through the lessons learned from the management, harvesting and trading of Matsutake mushrooms and bamboo shoots in Yunnan. Southwest China, this paper attempts to explore how NTFP conservation could be enhanced through local collective action of NTFP management. It is argued that local collective action can play a crucial role to change the negative impact of “open access” by utilizing the strength and power of communities. The changes are to lead to a sustainable and commonly managed resource, withstanding and coping with the pressure of the new market economy, by strengthening farmers’ access to forest and resulting in a better resource management of the environment and forests.

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