Non-timber forest products: from restoration to income generation

Abstract

The Action Against Desertification project supports Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Gambia, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Fiji and Haiti in the sustainable management and restoration of degraded land. The project promotes community-based restoration approaches along value chains - from the seed to the market - for several economically significant non-timber forest products. Some of these products are particularly important because they can be produced across most of the core area of the Great Green Wall for the Sahara and the Sahel initiative. This publication presents an overview of these key products - gum arabic, honey, fodder, Balanites oil, and restoration seeds and seedlings - and how the project is promoting them along entire value chains, from land restoration using targeted species, to harvesting, processing and marketing.