What we do

NTFP-EP aims to strengthen the capacity of forest-based communities and their support organizations. Employing a participatory strategy, NTFP-EP empowers its partners through information and knowledge exchange of appropriate resource management techniques and experiences, technical support and training, inputs in strategy discussions, documentation of best practices and success stories, mobilization of resources and contacts, advocacy support for local initiatives, and lobby for enabling policies.

Goal

Our shared goal is to forward forest conservation through the empowerment of forest-based communities in South and Southeast Asia through the sustainable management of non-timber forest products (NTFPs). For centuries, communities in the region have been using traditional ecological systems, knowledge, and practices to protect forestlands, which have in turn provided them with their basic needs such as subsistence use and income.

NTFP-EP aims to strengthen the capacity of forest-based communities and their support organizations. Employing a participatory strategy, NTFP-EP empowers its partners through serving as a platform for information and knowledge exchange of appropriate resource management techniques and experiences, technical support and training, inputs in strategy discussions, documentation of best practices and success stories, mobilization of resources and contacts, advocacy support for local initiatives, and lobby for enabling policies.

Specifically we work towards:

Forest conservation through forest management and sustainable harvesting of NTFPs to emphasize the forests’ intrinsic relationship with the culture and livelihood of indigenous peoples;

Land rights and governance and the recognition and enforcement of user rights through legal measures and policy advocacy, constituency building, ensuring enabling environments in which various sectors are in support of indigenous land rights and their NTFP enterprises;

Food and health security through the enhancement of subsistence uses of NTFPs, and promotion of indigenous peoples’ culture and traditional ecological knowledge; and

Income generation from value addition and marketing of NTFPs, using the low volume, high value approach;

Strategies

At the local, national and regional levels, we work to achieve these objectives by:

Facilitating the exchange of expertise, experiences and approaches;

Providing technical support/backstopping and enabling training;

Giving inputs in strategy discussions;

Documenting best practices and success stories and providing information on NTFP related issues;

Mobilising resources and essential contacts; and

Sourcing advocacy support for local initiatives and helping articulate needs and aspirations.