Non-timber Forest Products Survey of Forest Landscape Restoration: A Case Study of Hybrid Ecosystem Restoration in Invaded Hawaiian Forest

ABSTRACT

Forest restoration of landscapes benefits both biodiversity and multiple stakeholder groups. We examined how the concept of hybrid ecosystem restoration could be employed in invaded lowland wet forest in Hawai′i to examine biological, economic, and sociocultural benefits of restoration. We quantified the market prevalence of all species found within the Liko Nā Pilina experimental plots in comparison to an invaded lowland wet forest reference site with remnant native species. Using a combination of formal market and informal interviews with cultural practitioners, we examined the use of Non-timber Forest Products (NTFPs) from these species and determined the composition of native and introduced species. We found that the restoration experiment drastically increases the number of desirable species present onsite by more than five-fold, and that the majority of the NTFP species were introduced. Many different plant parts (e.g., stems, leaves, roots, flowers, and fruit) and most species in the restoration site were present in markets as raw and processed ingredients, with a majority sold as value-added products. The incorporation of agroforestry crops and native species is a multi-use perspective that greatly improves the condition of heavily-invaded forest ecosystems, and provides critical cultural and economic benefits to local people.

KEYWORDS:

• Agroforestry
• introduced species
• multifunctional landscapes
• native species
• Non-timber forest products (NTFPs)

Acknowledgments

We thank the following people and institutions for use of both published and unpublished information as well as field support: Nicole DiManno & Henry Inman, University of Hawaii at Hilo; Amanda Uowolo, USDA Forest Service, Hilo; Travis Idol & J.B Friday, College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources (CTAHR), University of Hawaii at Mānoa

Disclosure statement

No potential competing interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Strategic Environmental Research and Development Program; NSF; Environmental Change Institute, University of Oxford.