Jeff J. Felardo

Local residents near forests often collect non-timber forest products (NTFPs) for a variety of reasons, including food, medicine, firewood, religious reasons, or to produce handicrafts. This study focused on NTFP collection in the Phu Sritan forest in northeastern Thailand. Interviews were conducted with 568 residents to understand which NTFPs were collected, how the NTFPs are used, and how much income is generated. We found that 96% of those surveyed visit the local forest to collect NTFPs, mushrooms were the most frequently collected item, and the average income per year from NTFPs was $19 US. Also, most interviewees were not processing the raw materials collected, meaning that a value-added process for the NTFPs in the future could result in higher income possibility. We recommend that future research should focus on individual species that are under extreme NTFP collection pressures, and that harvest amounts should be measured and documented.

Forests provide many benefits (e.g., esthetics, water purification, habitat, carbon sequestration) to humans when they are conserved. However, forest conservation efforts may conflict with other uses, particularly timber harvest. Incentives for forest conservation can be established through payment for ecosystem services (PES) policies. PES policies rely on forest valuation studies which traditionally have valued the whole forest, or characteristics of a forest. Methods that allow variability in estimated forest values over space can provide valuation information at a finer scale and aid in the optimization of PES policies. These spatially explicit values provide information critical to many policy decisions, particularly conservation prioritization and planning. Using moderate resolution satellite remote sensing (i.e., LandSat) and a forest use survey conducted in Kam Cha i, Thailand, methods to estimate forest product valuation for spatially heterogeneous plots are demonstrated. These estimates are produced using geographic information system (GIS) multicriteria decision analysis (MCDA). The MCDA method combines forest use data with associated travel costs and vegetation cover estimates to provide spatially explicit estimates of forest values. This information is then used to compare local use values against potential carbon credit values estimated from the literature. The results show that a majority of the forest plots have higher PES values than for local forest products. Some do not, however, which suggests a possible cause for resistance against potential PES policies implemented in these areas. •We use multi criteria decision analysis to compare local versus global forest values.•Surveys administered in rural Thailand estimated local values.•Carbon credit programs were used to estimate global values.•Values can be distributed spatially based on forest accessibility and quality.•Spatial comparison of values shows potential locations of conflict.