Think non-timber forest products

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Aboriginal people must take the lead in developing Manitoba's non-timber forest products (NTFP) industry if they are to receive the benefits, participants at a recent conference were told. Conference speakers also emphasized, however, that co-operative relationships with forest products companies are an essential part of the mix.

The Non-Timber Forest Products Conference held March 17 and18, was organized by the Cedar Lake Community Futures Development Corporation, based in The Pas.

The industry comprises a wide range of products, including wild edible mushrooms, berries, nutriceuticals such as St. John's wort, greenery used by floral companies, and craft materials.

The Pacific Northwest (western Washington, Oregon and B.C.) has a well-established NTFP industry. Salal, a floral green, brought in more than $13 million (US) to harvesters in the Pacific Northwest in 1989. Revenue generated by all floral greens and Christmas greens in the Pacific Northwest to harvesters that year was over $42 million (US).

Edible mushrooms can also be a strong revenue generator. Pickers of chanterelles in Saskatchewan can receive up to $4 a pound, with Grade 1 pine mushrooms yielding from $10 to $30 a pound to harvesters.

Aboriginal control of emerging opportunities in non-timber forest products is heavily tied to land tenure and intellectual property rights issues, said Harry Bombay, executive director of the National Aboriginal Forestry Association.

"From the Aboriginal point of view, one of the key issues is recognition of Aboriginal treaty rights. Part of that is how those rights translate into decision making on resource management," Bombay noted.

Another issue, said Bombay, is access for traditional activities. Third is the application of traditional forest-related knowledge.

"This should be closely connected to and used in sustained forest management. There has to be a way to combine western and traditional forest knowledge."

Bombay acknowledged that the issue of intellectual property rights is very complicated.

"With knowledge that is collectively held, the onus has to be on Aboriginal people to develop appropriate systems. It's a touchy subject for Aboriginal people. The area of medicinals is particularly controversial."

There's a need for innovation, Bombay noted, with one area of development of trust accounts worth exploring.

Gary Raven, a healer and entrepreneur from Hollow Water First Nation, Man. picked up this issue in his presentation. Raven noted that in his culture there has traditionally been no separation between timber and non-timber forest products, and that such resources have always been regarded as a 'forest store' bestowed freely by the Creator.

While cautioning strongly against the commercialization of medicinal non-timber forest products, Raven said, "I'm not telling you what to do. The Creator gave us these things free. That's what the Elders told us."

Conference speakers emphasized the importance of taking an inventory of all resources on Aboriginally-held or occupied lands, and of attaching some hard numbers to the value of those resources. "We hired a consultant out of Oregon, who identified an immediate demand for $2 million worth of product in northern Saskatchewan," said Gerry Ivanochko of Saskatchewan Agriculture and Food.

Ivanochko noted that an inventory should include not just NTFPs, but also infrastructure like community kitchens or drying facilities used for other industries that could be leased by NTFP entrepreneurs.

Ivanochko also stressed that it was important to work with timber harvesting companies to co-ordinate harvest opportunities. In a panel discussion later during the conference, Bill Henderson, a representative of Tolko Industries Ltd., agreed that collaboration was in everyone's best interests.

Henderson used forest inventory maps as an example. These maps are designed primarily to facilitate timber harvest and do not usually pinpoint specific locations of NTFPs. Hoever, Henderson pointed out, the forest stand and soil types identified on these maps can provide good indications of where certain NTFPs usually associated with those stand types might be found.

Entrepreneurs interested in developing food and nutriceutical products from non-timber sources can receive assistance from the Portage la Prairie Food Development Corporation.

The successful NTFP entrepreneur, said consultant Tim Brigham of Duncan, B.C. is flexible and innovative. Such a person, for example, will pick mushrooms when they're in season, and combine that with floral greenery harvest and perhaps some ecotourism to round out the year.

Brigham added that niche marketing of high-end, ethically wildcrafted products holds the greatest potential for NTFP entrepreneurs.