CONCLUSIONS
There are basically three major conclusions to be drawn from this report. The first concerns the ecology of tropical forest plants. Natural populations of most species occur at low densities in the forest, most require the services of animals to pollinate their flowers and disperse their seeds, and most have a very hard time getting their seedlings established in the understory. Plant populations with these characteristics exist in a very delicate balance with their environment.
The second conclusion of importance relates to the ecological impact of harvesting non-timber resources from these plant populations. Although the exploitation of some plant parts (e.g. fruits, seeds and latexes) is less damaging than others (e.g. bark, stems, or roots), almost any form of resource harvest produces an impact on the structure and function of tropical plant populations. If nothing is done to mitigate these impacts, continued harvesting will deplete the resource. This process is accelerated by destructive harvesting.
The final conclusion is a challenge. There are ways to exploit the non-timber resources produced by tropical plant populations with a minimum of ecological damage. Doing so, however, requires management. Baseline data about the size-class structure and yield characteristics of the population must be collected, regeneration surveys must be conducted, harvest levels must be periodically adjusted, and, in some cases, remedial treatments such as enrichment planting or weeding must be initiated. Although quite a bit more involved than simply picking up fruit or tapping rubber trees, these management procedures will produce a sustainable form of resource utilization.
There are convincing ecological reasons to implement the management strategies outlined in this report. If practiced on a sustainable basis, the exploitation of non-timber forest products provides a unique way to use species-rich tropical forest for profit and still conserve most of the biological diversity and ecosystem functions (e.g. protect soil fertility, prevent erosion, control run-off, regulate climate) of the forest. No other form of land-use practiced in the tropics has the potential to do this.
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