Nepal's First Certified Sustainable Nepal Forest Products

While more than 80% of all medicinal plants are collected from the wild, the collectors rarely receive a living wage. This is particularly true in Nepal where every year villagers gather some 15,000 tons of medicinal plants, pack and dry them and sell them to traders for export.

Although the plants hold the promise of a potentially sustainable source of income for local villagers, most of the time they must sell their goods to medicinal herb traders, who encourage them to harvest as much as they can, while paying them poorly for their products. Once a plant supply runs out, the medicinal traders move on, leaving the villagers, who have destroyed their only source of livelihood, without recourse.

Thanks to the efforts of the Nepal Nontimber Forest Products Promotion Alliance, essential oils and handmade paper harvested to protect forests and provide benefits to villagers in Nepal are now available in the US. Coordinated by the Asia Network for Sustainable Agriculture and Bioresources, the alliance includes Aveda Corporation; the Rainforest Alliance; community forestry groups and local institutions; and donors, including the United States Agency for International Development and the Ford Foundation.

As a result of the group s efforts, in January 2005, the Rainforest Alliance an international conservation organization accredited by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) awarded certification to the Federation of Community Forest User Groups Nepal, whose members manage community forests and supply wild-crafted ingredients to the international herbal, medicinal and natural products industry. This certification is the first in the world for handmade paper and the first in world with regards to the variety and quality of non-timber forest products.

The FSC provides third-party standards to promote forestry practices that protect the world s forests for future generations. Over 118 million hectares of forests in 60 countries around the world are now certified under the FSC s standards. The Rainforest Alliance/FSC certification of the forest user groups in Nepal ensures responsible forest management, explains Walter Smith, senior forester at the Rainforest Alliance, It also provides Western markets with quality control and the assurance that the products they are buying namely essential oils and a paper handmade from the bark of a bush locally called Lokta — are obtained legally and sustainably.