The Non-Timber Forest Products Sector in Nepal: Emerging Policy Issues in Plant Conservation and Utilization for Sustainable Development

The non-timber forest products (NTFPs) sector in Nepal is being promoted with the concept of sustainable development as articulated by the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). Traditionally, people have been dependent on NTFPs for subsistence; however, international trade is growing. To promote this sector, Nepal adopted the 2004 Herbs and NTFP Development Policy. Our goal is to assess the effectiveness of the policy along with the other forestry and natural resource policies in Nepal concerning the conservation and use of NTFPs. We conducted open-ended semi-structured interviews with 28 key informants in summer 2006 in Nepal and collected relevant documents and publications. Qualitative analyses of data yielded important issues that should be addressed to promote the sector as envisioned by the Government. The most important is the need for inventory and research on NTFP species in widespread use. There are some issues regarding species banned under various other National Acts; the lack of marketing information and capacity building; administrative barriers; royalty rates; and illegal harvesting. The most important immediate need is the development of an NTFP Strategy and Action Plan. Our findings should help further implement the policy and promote the sector along the stated mission of conservation and sustainable development.     

Macroporous cellulose-based cryogels with tunable porous structure and surface functional groups

In this work, cellulose-based macroporous cryogels were fabricated by grafting with acrylic acid and acrylamide, which provided the carboxyl and amino functional groups, respectively. The effects of crosslinker, extra water, acrylic acid/ (acrylic acid+acrylamide) feeding ratio on the structure and swelling performance of the resultant cryogels were experimentally investigated. Cellulose-based cryogels with different pore size were prepared by adjusting the reaction parameters. The pore size and functional group contents influenced the swelling behavior of the cryogels. The fabricated cryogels were also investigated as an adsorbent for the removal of toxic methyl blue (MB) from aqueous solution. The interconnected macroporous structure as well as large number of functional groups of the cryogels led to the high adsorption capacity of MB. The maximum adsorption capacity was around 990.1 mg per 1 g dye gel within 60 min. The investigation of the adsorption kinetics revealed that the adsorption process of MB from aqueous solution was well described by pseudosecond order kinetic model. Large-scale preparation of cryogel adsorbents with tunable porous structure and surface functional groups are possible. Therefore, the macroporous cellulose-based cryogels can be used as an adsorbent for the removal of chemical toxic products from aqueous solution.