Dyke, Alison Jane (2006) The practice, politics and ecology of non timber forest products in Scotland. PhD thesis. http://theses.gla.ac.uk/5632/ Copyright and moral rights for this thesis are retained by the author A copy can be downloaded for personal non-commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge This thesis cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the Author The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the Author When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given Glasgow Theses Service http://theses.gla.ac.uk/ [email protected] THE PRACTICE, POLITICS AND ECOLOGY OF NON TIMBER FOREST PRODUCTS IN SCOTLAND ALISON JANE DYKE PhD Faculty of Social Sciences University of Glasgow May 2006 © Alison Jane Dyke 2006 IMAGING SERVICES NORTH Boston Spa, Wetherby West Yorkshire, LS23 7BQ www.bl,uk BEST COpy AVAILABLE. VARIABLE PRINT QUALITY The Practice, Politics and Ecology of Non Timber Forest Products in Scotland. Alison Dyke Non timber forest products are the neglected resource of Scotland's woodlands, used by many, but with little provision in law, policy or management. Drawing on new research conducted in Scotland, and comparative studies in Finland, the Pacific Northwest USA and Canada, this thesis examines issues relating to the practice, politics and ecology of NTFPs. In doing so it uncovers and appraises the current state of NTFP use in Scotland. The methodological approaches used in the field research are set out in Chapter One, which also details the employment of theories of political ecology and access in the subsequent analysis. Chapters Two to Five explore the perspectives of stakeholder groups, who either use NTFPs directly or who influence the availability of resources and the ability of others to access them. The first of these groups is harvesters, with Chapter Two examining how issues of legal pluralism or the coexistence of both legal and customary rights for harvesting has resulted in the dominance of common practice over management and policy. Chapter Three discusses buying and processing activity, focussing on its contribution to both livelihood and lifestyle and its position 'somewhere in between' commercial and non-commercial benefit. The influence of land managers is examined in Chapter Four, reviewing the contrast between the privileged knowledge that enables harvesters to use resources, and the reliance on professionalised knowledge that renders land managers comparatively powerless. In Chapter Five the influence of organisations is explored, particularly in relation to the difficulty of accommodating the interests of such disparate groups without formal channels for representation. Through out these chapters, evidence is presented of how domestically produced NTFPs are used in Scotland and the social, cultural and ecological factors that determine and delimit NTFP involvement and harvesting. The thesis concludes by addressing policy and management concerns, both practical and ideological, and considering mechanisms for the management of NTFPs as a resource. It demands that ethical questions over benefits, values and rights be addressed, as well as issues surrounding sustainability and resource use. In pulling together the narratives of the different groups, the conclusion seeks to present a new system for the self-governance of NTFP resources by the stakeholders themselves. ii I would like to thank those who funded all or parts of this study: particularly ESRC and NERC as main supporters, Scottish Enterprise, Central Scotland Forest Trust and the H K Harbinson Trust. I am also grateful to my collaborating organisation, Reforesting Scotland, for providing me with office space and inspiring and supportive colleagues and friends. Thanks to my supervisors: Nick Hanley and Adrian Newton (who encouraged me to get into this in the first place). It is impossible to mention everyone who participated in the research, but I would like to recognise the central contribution of all the interviewees, workshop participants and more casual contacts over the years. Thanks particularly to those who have helped to arrange overseas fieldwork: Ashley Selby (METLA), Simo Moisio (Arctic Flavours) and Rebecca McLain (The Institute for Culture and Ecology). I would also like to thank Rebecca and Marla Emery for the way in which they have helped to shape my thinking. Finally, thanks to my partner Matthew Reason, for constant encouragement and support. iii TABLE OF COf'.jTENTS Introduction .......................................................................................................... 1 Section 1: Introducing non timber forest products ............................................ 1 Non timber forest products in Scotland ........................................................ 1 Section 2: The practice, politics and ecology of NTFPs in Scotland ................ 4 Section 3: Structure and reflections ................................................................. 5 Study content ............................................................................................... 6 Chapter 1: Methodology and methods ................................................................ 9 Section 1: Methodology ................................................................................... 9 Research approaches and strategy ............................................................. 9 Disciplinary approaches to studying NTFP use. ......................................... 15 Methods of data collection and analysis ..................................................... 18 Section 2: Methods ........................................................................................ 21 Stakeholder analysis .................................................................................. 21 Data collection techniques ......................................................................... 25 The studies ................................................................................................. 28 Section 3: Limitations of the data ................................................................... 40 Section 4: Ethics ............................................................................................ 41 Chapter 2: Harvesters ....................................................................................... 45 Section 1: Harvesting activity ......................................................................... 45 Who are NTFP harvesters? ....................................................................... 45 Harvesting values and activities ................................................................. 52 Categorising NTFP use .............................................................................. 60 Section 2: Harvesting and access to resources ............................................. 66 Access to resources ................................................................................... 67 Structural reflection on Ribot and Peluso's framework ............................. 1 00 Summary and key points .......................................................................... 102 Chapter 3: Processors and buyers .................................................................. 1 07 Section 1: Processing and buying activity .................................................... 1 07 Commercial activity .................................................................................. 1 08 Non-commercial activity ........................................................................... 124 Section 2: The impacts of access to resources on buyers and processors. 126 Structural and relational mechanisms of access ...................................... 133 Structural reflection on Ribot and Peluso's framework ............................. 154 Summary and key points ....................................................................... ~ .. 155 iv Chapter 4: Land management. ........................................................................ 159 Section 1: Land management and NTFPs ................................................... 159 Policy impacts on the presence of NTFP species and management of woodlands ................................................................................................ 169 Case studies ............................................................................................ 172 Section 2: Ownership and management impacts on access and availability ..................................................................................................................... 178 Structural and relational mechanisms of access ...................................... 182 Structural reflection .................................................................................. 192 Summary and key points .......................................................................... 193 Chapter 5: Government and support organisations ......................................... 196 Section 1: The involvement of organisations with NTFPs ............................ 196 Policy objectives ....................................................................................... 196 Existing initiatives ..................................................................................... 203 Case study from the Pacific Northwest: Involving harvesters in inventory and monitoring ......................................................................................... 210 Section 2: Organisational ability to influence NTFP use .............................. 217 Rights based access ................................................................................ 217 Structural and relational mechanisms of access ...................................... 223 A final structural reflection ........................................................................ 232 Summary. and key points .......................................................................... 233 Conclusion .......................................................................................................2 37 Section 1: How are domestically produced NTFPs used? ........................... 238 Functional uses ........................................................................................ 239 Livelihood purpose ................................................................................... 240 Lifestyle .................................................................................................... 241 Section 2: What social, cultural and ecological factors are perceived as delimiting use? ............................................................................................. 241 Rights based access ................................................................................ 242 Structural and relational mechanisms of access ...................................... 245 Section 3: Is more active management of NTFP resources needed? ......... 248 Section 4: What form should the management of these resources take? .... 250 Section 5: Final reflections ........................................................................... 254 References ......................................................................................................2 37 Appendicies .....................................................................................................2 75 v Appendix 1: Acronyms used ........................................................................ 275 Appendix 2: Study reference numbers ......................................................... 275 Finnish study ............................................................................................ 275 The development of NTFPs in Scotrand ................................................... 277 Inventory study: Resource availability ...................................................... 277 Harvester workshops: The values and importance of NTFPs .................. 278 Pacific Northwest study: Involving harvesters in inventory and monitoring . .................................................................................................................2 78 Appendix 3: Species mentioned in the text. ................................................. 279 Appendix 4: Reports and publications ......................................................... 280 Appendix 5 Omnibus survey results ............................................................ 281 Appendix 6 Inventory and monitoring study details ...................................... 285 Example 1: Moss harvest monitoring, Hebo Ranger District. ................... 285 Example 2: Matsutake harvest monitoring, Diamond Lake Ranger District .................................................................................................................2 86 Example 3: Commercial quality salal monitoring, Vancouver Island ........ 288 Appendix 7: Recording of NTFP use: the role of gender. ............................ 291 Appendix 8: Permit schemes ....................................................................... 294 Competition between harvesters .............................................................. 294 Setting boundaries ................................................................................... 294 Equability. .................................................................... ~ ............................ 295 Administration .......................................................................................... 295 Effectiveness ............................................................................................ 296 vi TABLE OF FIGURES TABLES Ar~D Figure 1: Achieving sustainable resource use. After Martin (1994) in Cunningham (2001 P 6) ..................................................................................... 12 Table 1: Differences between natural resource sociology and environmental sociology. Adapted from Buttle (2002 p 207) ..................................................... 16 Table 2: Stakeholder groups and areas of investigation .................................... 22 Table 3: Comparison of geographic factors in NTFP use in the three study areas ................................................................................................................. 27 Table 4: Finnish study interviewees .................................................................. 30 Table 5: Lanark workshop codes ....................................................................... 32 Table 6: Those attending NTFP development workshops ................................. 32 Table 7: Woodlands surveyed ........................................................................... 35 Table 8: Harvester workshop participants ......................................................... 37 Table 9: Case study participants ....................................................................... 38 Table 10: Comparison of three surveys of forest use ........................................ 51 Figure 2: Seasonal calendar of NTFP harvesting (Output combined from two participative workshops with NTFP harvesters) ................................................. 54 Figure 3: Values matrix for NTFP groups .......................................................... 55 Table 11: Typology of non timber forest product harvesters. From Jones et al (2004 p 23) ........................................................................................................6 0 Figure 4: Factors in the categorisation of NTFP use ......................................... 62 Table 12 Access to mushroom picking areas for both commercial and non-commercial harvesting ............................................................................... 73 Figure 5: Routes goods may take through processing .................................... 108 Figure 6: Typology of Scottish commercial buyers and processors ................. 109 Table 13: Motivations for involvement in NTFP buying or processing ............. 113 Figure 7: Labour relations with harvesters ...................................................... 143 Table 14: Average size of woodlands over 2ha. After Forestry Commission (2001 ) .............................................................................................................. 160 Table 15: Forest and woodland ownership type by percentage of land area. After Forestry Commission (2001 ) ................................................................... 161 Figure 8: Impacts of management regime on management for NTFPs ........... 164 Figure 9: Typology of land ownership regimes and NTFP use ........................ 166 Table 16: Woodland cover. Adapted from (Scotland's Woods) ....................... 167 vii