| Abstrakt: |
The non-timber forests Products (NTFP) are part of natural resources of which the Congolese population has recourse to diversify its productive activities and to improve its income. These products are essential part of various menus; they guarantee the diversity, the quality, and the access to foods to a greater majority of the population. The lack of systematic information enabling to evaluate the contribution of NTFP to the income of households and to the improvement of food security, the lack of official programs of management and the promotion of these products constitute one of the obstacles to the prosperity of the NTFP sector and the improvement of the living standard of the people. The present work is aimed at analyzing in a global way and for the first time in the Republic of the Congo, the contribution of NTFP to food security. It covers the aspects related to the definitions of NTFP, to their classification in NTFP of vegetable origin and NTFP of animal origin, to the institutional context; it identifies the main stakeholders mainly the group of socio- economic actors involved in the exploitation and management of NTFP at the local level, the modes of exploitation and their impacts on the natural environment; the fields of commercialization enabling to fully understand the export products have been alternatively analyzed. A great important part of the study is devoted to the contribution analysis of the NTFP to the food diet of the Congolese people. This work highlights the main difficulties and obstacles of the social, institutional, commercial order and management which hinder the normal development of the NTFP sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
