15.SAARC Forestry Journal Wild plants and edible fungi are the potential resource of the Non Wood Forest Products (NWFP) that provides rural poor people with food and cash during the lean agricultural farming season leading to ensure the food security. Bhutan stands at one of the fragile mountain ecosystems of the world which need much attention to the conservation of ecosphere for maintaining its biodiversity. People residing in High Mountain or in the foothills of Bhutan have immense knowledge and skill on ethno-plants resources. Hence, the wild plant survey was conducted to reveal the traditional knowledge and documentation of available NWFP species that are locally used by the remote community people of Dagana district. The 14 block administration that includes all in the district was accounted to conduct field survey. The survey tools included direct observation, semi-structured interviews, individual discussions, key informant interviews, focus group discussions, questionnaires, and participatory rural appraisal.
It was found that 241 species of NWFP are used by the local community. Some species does have potential for commercialization and it is being observed that low income group of the people benefitted monetarily the most. The NWFP farmer groups in Dagana have been getting good monetary advantage from the sale of matured spikes of Piper longum L. and Piper peepuloides Roxb. and the leaves of Cinnamomum tamala(Hamilton) Nees & Ebermaier.
Dagana has diverse NWFP species that provide subsistence livelihood to economically disadvantaged group of people. However, it was revealed that because of rural-urban migration, the transferring of indigenous knowledge from elderly people to younger generation is in the stage of oblivion. The flow of indigenous knowledge from generation to generation is at stake thus, it is very much necessary to have documentation of such knowledge before it gets depleted.
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