Governance of nontimberforest products in the Congo Basin

Non-timber forest product value chains The processes involved as non-timber forest products (NTFPs)1 are harvested, processed, sold and used create what is known as a value chain. A chain perspective allows the impacts of governance arrangements to be assessed. High levels of forest cover in the Congo Basin give rise to at least 951 species used as NTFPs in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and 706 in Cameroon. Approximately one-third of these are traded; around 50 plant-based and 70 animal-based NTFPs are exported (Ingram 2012). The vast majority of NTFPs are sourced from the wild: only 5% of plants are cultivated and less than 1% of animals are wild-sourced (Ingram 2012). The value chains operate in a context of increasing urbanization, significant poverty, a difficult business environment and significant corruption (de Wasseige et al. 2009)