Beyond timber: a review on the role of non-timber forest products for ecological sustainability and rural empowerment in India

Non-Timber Forest Products (NTFPs) represent a significant but often overlooked interface between forestry, agricultural systems, and rural livelihoods. The present article reconstructs NTFPs as core resources to sustainable and equitable futures through their capacity for promoting conservation while improving wellbeing among people. Here, we have discussed seven different thematic groups with India as the case study and hot-spot place. This includes forest foods, medicinal botanicals, bee products, exudates, green timber substitutes, oilseeds and forest fats, and emerging superfoods. Each cluster describes how forests supply sustenance in areas of nutrition, health, income, and identity. The examination moves beyond the list of products to explore how livelihoods, institutions, and markets organize their value. From the tendu leave collectors in Madhya Pradesh to the lac cultivators of Jharkhand and honey collectors in Sundarbans’, all these groups show how traditional practices can support cultural diversity as well as foster the environment. Over-harvesting, spoilage, and inaccessibility to the market are predicaments that continue to jeopardize these livelihoods. In this review article, we reported the ways in which new ideas such as freeze-dried herbs, green bamboo laminates, and blockchain-traceable honey are helping to bring about change. Here we focused on sustainable methodologies to maintain ecological balance such that science and traditional knowledge can walk hand in hand nourishing forests as much as people occupying the forests.