Non Timber Forest Products (NTFPs) are biological materials, excluding timber, that are harvested and used for food, tools, handicrafts, building, medicine, rituals and the like.
Traditional knowledge is central to the value of NTFPs - it is important to know the harvesting, processing and storage processes of these materials. Unfortunately, much of this knowledge is handed down by oral tradition, and so can be easily lost with the changing of lifestyles and the passing of older generations. The NTFPs themselves are also vulnerable products. Many communities report the increasing scarcity of forest products, such as rattan or cardamom, because forest areas have shrunk as farming of cash crops increases.
In Bokeo Province there are a range of projects and social enterprises aiming to preserve traditional knowledge of NTFPs, and create natural, organic products which have good potential in the international market. Possible products include a brown-sugar-glazed organic ginger candy and banana liquor infused with cinnamon or cardamom.
Visit Bokeo during the cool season and you will see Ton Khaem - a type of broom grass - lining the road side and river banks to dry in the sun. They are then thrashed against the ground to remove tiny seeds. The branches are usually sold to Thai traders who make them into brooms, although local people also make them. The brooms are sold at the Houay Xay Talat Sao market, and at small village stores.
Tea is a key local product, the leaves are harvested throughout the province and from ancient tea trees in the Muang Meung area. The leaves are often baked inside bamboo containers. Also from this area are Mak Ku, a kind of nut similar to a pine nut. They grow on old trees and must be broken out of a large hard gem-shaped shell.