THE world has long looked at forests as an inexhaustible source of timber. A third of the world's forests is harvested for timber, and demand for wood products continues to grow.

But forests offer more than just timber. They are home to thousands of wild plants, fungi and animal species that are used for food, medicine and emerging green industries. The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) says "50,000 wild species are used by some 5.76 billion people and play a vital role in human health and nutrition, especially for women, children, Indigenous peoples and vulnerable segments of society."

Sadly, the FAO notes, "these benefits are often overlooked in policy and practice."

In recent decades, however, there have been growing initiatives to develop non-wood forest products — NWFPs — as alternatives or supplements to forest management practices. Research is being done to find out if some forest types can be managed to increase NTFP diversity.

The FAO has taken the lead in promoting NTFPs as a way to transform agrifood systems. In May last year, the agency conducted workshops that "aim to enhance the linkages and complementarities between agriculture and forestry, and strengthen coordinated and coherent policy response toward the realization of the 2030 Agenda, the Convention on Biological Diversity, the Paris Agreement, the Decades of Nutrition and Ecosystem Restoration and other frameworks."

The economic value of NWFPs cannot be overstated. The FAO estimates that 80 percent of the population of the developing world uses NWFPs, mostly plant-based, for health. In 2011, such products generated $88 billion globally.

The Department of Science and Technology (DoST) has ramped up efforts to spur the growth of NWFPs. The department has established regional Forest Products Innovation and Training Centers that partner with universities and colleges to develop innovations for the country's forest-based industries and boost their competitiveness in the world market.

Innovation and training

Rico Cabangon, the OIC director of DoST's Forest Products Research and Development Institute, says the centers aim to "uplift the R&D activities in the regions, thereby creating new products and technologies, and enhance sustainable practices in the use of forest products."

In the Philippines, the main NWFPs are rattan, bamboo, fibers, vines, palms and exudates, which are substances secreted by plants and insects. From being traditional sources of food, furniture and handicrafts, NWFPs have branched out into the manufacture of pulp and paper, soap and shampoo and substitutes for plastic products like utensils.

NWFPs have long been a rich source of herbal products. Countries like China, Romania, Iran and Iraq welcome herbals from the Philippines, but we lack the capacity to export them in commercial quantities. The country's cosmetics and pharmaceutical industries even have to import their ingredients because they cannot get them locally.

A study by the Non-Timber Forest Products-Exchange Program (NTFP-EP), an international association that teams up with nongovernmental organizations and forest-based groups, noted "several challenges" that prevent the Philippines from realizing the full potential of non-timber forest products (NTFPs), the association's term for NWFPs.

"Most of these policies [governing NTFPs] are either outdated or have limited coverage."

A "comprehensive policy or a framework for NTFP development is also not in place and has been identified as one of the gaps to the development and sustainability of the sector."

The paper decried the dearth of baseline data, and that research and development "is not at par with existing policies."

The paper recommended, among other things, the "comprehensive and inclusive resource inventory/assessment of NTFPs" with the participation of all community stakeholders," the education and information and capacity-building" on the economic and socio-cultural impact of NTFPs, and the creation of a roadmap "covering policy formulation, governance, field practices, capacity-building, research and development, and marketing of NTFPs."

Setting up a regional network of Forest Products Innovation and Training Centers could address the need for a resource inventory of our non-wood forest resources and engage stakeholders in information and capacity building. But it will take a full-bore, government-wide effort to come up with a comprehensive roadmap for NWFPs.

That roadmap must lead to NWFP-based industries with international competitiveness and, at the same time, show the way toward promoting their sustainability.