Opportunities for making the invisible visible: Towards an improved understanding of the economic contributions of NTFPs

- Data collection on forests underestimates their contributions to household incomes and international, national, and local economies.
- Systematic data collection and aggregation is critical to help governments better value their forests.
- The Sustainable Development Goals offer an opportunity to increase attention on the non-cash contributions of forests.

Forests around the world remain under-valued because governments, policymakers, and other key actors do not consider the global or national contributions of non-timber forest products (NTFPs) when estimating the value of forests. Where available, existing estimates suggest the non-cash benefits of forests are substantial, in many cases three to ten times higher than those for which systematic national and global data are collected. Part of this under-valuation stems from a general focus by governments on forest resources that are commercially valued as well as from government failure to include estimates of NTFP contributions in their national accounts. Beyond these reasons, however, lay methodological challenges in measurement techniques and comparability across studies, countries, and regions, both of which result in limited data on NTFPs. This article reviews NTFP studies at the global and national levels to provide estimates of the non-cash contributions of NTFPs and to shed light on challenges related to the absence of systematic, reliable data on the economic contributions of forests. The article then considers the implications for forest governance, management, and policy, arguing that the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) offer an opportunity to increase attention on the non-cash contributions of forests and turn this invisible contribution into a visible one.