Abstract:
To minimize the adverse impacts of climate change on food production and security we need new ideas and approaches. in our opinion such idea may be using non-wood forest products as additional natural source for increasing food production. Non-wood forest products include such wild products as: fruit and barriers, mushrooms, nuts (hazel-nuts, beech tree nuts), honey, medicinal herbs, condiments, sap, meat of wild animals and birds, and most valuable and priceless substance as oxygen that maintains the life of humans and all species of flora and fauna on the planet. NWFP are biological products and can be gathered from wild forests as well as from plantations, agroforestry and trees outside of forests. Some of them can be consumed raw, while others require complex processing before eating. According to the east European countries research NWFP production often exceed the financial incomes from selling the timber. Non-wood forest products include such wild products as: fruit and barriers, mushrooms, nuts (hazel-nuts, beech tree nuts), honey, medicinal herbs, condiments, sap, meat of wild animals and birds, and most valuable and priceless substance as oxygen that maintains the life of humans and all species of flora and fauna on the planet.
Nowadays forests are increasingly recognized as rich reservoirs of many valuable biological resources not just timber. NWFP are biological products and can be gathered from wild forests as well as from plantations, agroforestry and trees outside of forests. Some of them can be consumed raw, while others require complex processing before eating. According to the east European countries research NWFP production often exceed the financial incomes from selling the timber. The Baltic Republics (Estonia, Latvia and Lietuva), Czech Republic, Slovakia, Finland, are the most advanced countries in east Europe in producing different products from NWFP. In the Soviet period they managed to produce jams and juices from different wild fruits and berries, sold meat of wild animals and birds, lichen, condiments etc. But other countries don’t pay due attention to this problem until now. So, our task is to activate the problem and remind them that the time of ignorance ended and it is high time to use these resources that nature gives us for nothing.
