A spatial and temporal analysis of commercialized NTFP production in four administrative regions in Myanmar

The Myanmar Forest Department governs non-timber forest product (NTFP) commercialization through 10 -year forest management plan. The forest management plan targets future production based on records of NTFP production and current estimated NTFP stocks using forest inventory data from different districts. The plan focuses on forest environmental factors rather than including other potential factors that promote sustainable and successful commercialization. However, planning for districts separately without being aware of commercialized NTFP conditions in surrounding districts, may lead forest department staff to either underestimate the potential to boost future NTFP commercialization or fail to prevent over-extraction by reducing the targeted production in their district. We investigated whether spatial and temporal patterns of NTFPs production differed among adjoining districts. We carried out a spatio-temporal analysis of commercialized NTFPs to show the production patterns across 22 districts located in four administrative zones. The analysis was performed on five NTFPs categories: (i) food & medicine, (ii) wood fuel, (iii) raw material, (iv) fragrance wood, and (v) spices, by looking at the annual production of NTFPs from 2006 to 2014. We found that neighboring districts with similar forest environments had significant differences in spatio-temporal production patterns for many NTFPs. In particular, some districts had important commercial production of fragrance wood and spices, while their neighboring districts had not commercialized these NTFPs. Our study found other influencing factors besides forest environment that explained production patterns for different NTFPs at the district level, including seasonal collection, location, and market demand. We recommend that the Myanmar Forest Department investigates local factors influencing commercialization at the district level and uses them as additional input for developing the next 10-year forest management plan to promote successful NTFP commercialization.