[MPWG] News article (Scotland): New controls on trading wild foods announced & comparisons to U.S. NTFP harvest

Tue Apr 21 14:47:21 CDT 2009

Thanks to Penny Frazier (Goods from the Woods) for sending the news clip 
below.  Penny noted the high value of Scotland's commercial trade in these 
forest products -- which gave me the idea to provide some comparisons to 
harvest of non-timber forest products (NTFPs) in the U.S.--at the bottom 
of this e-mail.  I encourage listserve members to post additional info on 
this subject.  -Patricia
- - - - 
From: 
http://news.stv.tv/scotland/88619-new-controls-on-trading-wild-foods-announced/
New controls on trading wild foods announced
Last updated: 15 April 2009, 22:27
Millions of pounds worth of food and foliage are being stripped from the 
country's forests every year - but most of the people who own the land 
aren't profiting.
New measures are being introduced to control Scotland's booming trade in 
wild foods.
Millions of pounds worth of food and foliage are being stripped from the 
country's forests every year - but most of the people who own the land 
aren't profiting.
A growing band of commercial foragers are entering woodlands - often 
without permission - and then selling on the plants, flowers and fungi 
they collect.
"People are going in to forests all over Scotland and collecting Sphagnum 
moss for hanging baskets. At Christmas time, they decimate hollies for 
their berries for wreaths. They're carrying out mushroom collections for 
hotels and restaurants," explained Mike Strachan of the Forestry 
Commission.
"It's estimated there's a commercial trade value of £7million to 
£20million per year, but the landowners are not benefiting from it at 
all."
New access laws have given the public more freedom to roam the great 
outdoors.
The Forestry Commission say that it is not a right to profit from nature.
They have launched a new policy to help manage commercial foraging.
"We're not talking about every dog walker having to pay a licence to 
collect things," said Mr Strachan.
"We're looking at foragers being more responsible and to try and make sure 
that anybody doing it on a commercial basis has got permission of the 
landowner to do the work."

- - - - - -
How does this compare to the United States?
On some U.S. federal and state lands, no harvest is allowed.  Where 
allowed, harvest from federal land requires a permit, & different agencies 
have different rules governing on harvest from public land for personal 
use.  States generally have a requirement to obtain the owner's permission 
to harvest from private property. 
With regard to harvest levels & market share/profits/net worth, there are 
no ready statistics for the amount of woodland foods/foliage that is 
harvested in the United States, nor is there any single resource that 
collates the total market value of non-timber forest products.  Here are 
some statistics compiled a few years ago by a group of MPWG members.*  As 
you can see, these statistics run the gamut, providing varying levels of 
detail and involving different resource groupings (i.e., some address the 
employment sector & others are specific to a species in only one area).
Thank you,
Patricia

The estimated value of the North American market for medicinal herbs in 
1998 ranged from $1.6 billion to $2 billion, contributing to the $14 
billion global market (Chamberlain et al. 1998); [NOTE: This is the value 
of the MEDICINAL herbs market in NORTH AMERICA; compare this to the figure 
in the article above -- the conversion rate from the British pound to US 
Dollar: £7million - £20million = USD 10,257,310 - 29,306,600.]
In 2001, approximately 18 tons of bloodroot were wild-harvested, with an 
estimated wholesale value of $2 million (AHPA 2003; Hornbeck et al. 2003);
In 2001, approximately 92 tons of black cohosh were harvested from forests 
of eastern United States with an estimated wholesale market value of 
approximately $550 thousand (Predny, et al. 2006); 
The 2001 ginseng harvest in Ohio was worth approximately $1 million, 
seventh highest in the nation (USFWS 2002).
In 2002, North Carolina had approximately 2200 registered ginseng 
harvesters (Greenfield and Davis 2003);
Retail sales of saw palmetto, the fruit of which is collected primarily 
from Florida forests, exceeded $20 million in 2004 (Blumenthal 2005);
2004 U.S. Census data indicates 211 firms involved in forest nurseries and 
gathering forest products employ approximately 14,444 people with an 
annual payroll of $64 million; this is considered an underestimate, see 
Estimates and Measures, below (
http://www.census.gov/epcd/susb/latest/us/US1132.HTM);
In 2005, Washington Department of Natural Resources estimated the annual 
wholesale NTFP total sales in Washington and Oregon at $200-400 million, 
cautioning that this is a gross underestimate (Lettman and Kutara 2005); 
and
In 2006, the Special Forest Products industry in the Pacific Northwest 
alone employed more than 15,000 people and generated over 150 million 
dollars annually (http://www.fs.fed.us/r6/olympic/passes/).

*The Non-Timber Forest Products Task Force, an ad hoc committee of the 
Medicinal Plant Working Group, comprised the following members:  Jim 
Chamberlain, USDA-Forest Service; Patricia De Angelis, US Fish and 
Wildlife Service; Colin Donohue, National Network of Forest Practitioners; 
Trish Flaster, Botanical Liaisons, LLC; Elise George, Rural Action; Megan 
Haidet, Plant Conservation Alliance; Eric Jones, Institute for Culture and 
Ecology; and Rebecca McClain, Institute for Culture and Ecology.

References:
AHPA (American Herbal Products Association). 2003. Tonnage Survey of North 
American Wild-harvested Plants, 2000-2001. American Herbal Products 
Association: Silver Spring, MD.
Blumenthal, M. 2005. Herb Sales Down 7.4 Percent in Mainstream Market; 
Garlic Is Top-Selling Herb; Herb Combinations See Increase. HerbalGram 
66:63.
Chamberlain, J., R. Bush, and A.L. Hammett. 1998. Non-Timber Forest 
Products: The Other Forest Products. Forest Products Journal 48(10): 2-12.
Greenfield, J  and J.M. Davis. 2003. Western North Carolina Non-timber 
Forest Products. Draft final report. On file with: USDA-FS-Southern 
Research Station, 1650 Ramble Road, Blacksburg, VA, 24060. 81 pp. plus 
appendices. 
Hornbeck, J.H., C.H. Sieg, and D.J. Reyher. 2003. Conservation Assessment 
for Bloodroot in the Black Hills National Forest, South Dakota and 
Wyoming. USDA-FS-Rocky Mountain Region, Black Hills National Forest: 
Custer, SD.
Lettman, G. and K. Kutara. 2005. Creating an Indicator for Non-Timber 
Forest Products Summary. OR. Dept. of Forestry: Salem, OR. 
http://www.oregon.gov/ODF/RESOURCE_PLANNING/docs/NTFP_Information100405.doc
Predny, M.L.; P. De Angelis, and J. Chamberlain. 2006. Black cohosh (
Actaea racemosa): An Annotated Bibliography. General Technical Report, 
SRS-97. USDA-FS-Southern Research Station: Asheville, NC. 
USFWS (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service). 2002. Convention Permit 
Applications for Ginseng Harvested in 2002.  Division of Scientific 
Authority: Arlington, VA.

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