Sustainable Commercialization of Non Timber Forest Products: the Case of Ghana

It is estimated that up to one billion people depend on NTFPs at least for part of their income and that about 80 percent of people in the developing world directly use resources from the environment for either food or medicine. In Ghana, much work, ranging from the socio-cultural importance of NTFPs to the inventorization of NTFP species to the contribution of cash incomes from NTFPs have been explored Their commercialization contributes in diverse ways to the incomes of different categories of both urban and rural communities. However trade liberalization and economic development tend to present both opportunities and challenges. It is important therefore, to ask if this can be worthwhile, at the same time, being concerned about the sustainability of their resource base. The paper uses the frameworks of sustainable development and global value chains to respectively analyze extraction of the NTFPs and their commercialization. It reveals that lack of public sector participation to build capacity of local processors of these NTFPs, especially shea, to take advantage of its booming potential in the global market may mean a missed opportunity for the reduction of poverty. It also reveals that trade in Tetrapleaura Tetraptera has potential, but it is expanding at a slow pace whilst that of Marantaceae leaves is fast collapsing. Just as cocoa has served to enhance the livelihoods of many local people in the south, effective government attention to shea could do same for those in the north, especially women. Proper development of the shea can be a good starting point for the development of other commercial forest products like prekese.