"Keeping it living": applications and relevance of traditional plant management in British Columbia to sustainable harvesting of non-timber forest products.

—There has been increasing concern about sustainability in harvesting and marketing of non-timber forest products in North America. This paper examines traditional approaches and practices for use of plant resources by Aboriginal peoples and discusses their applications in a contemporary context. Philosophies and attitudes of caring and respect are embodied in many traditional resource use systems, and these can become models for developing a responsible land ethic as an essential component of any program of sustainable land use. Aboriginal peoples have also developed and used a variety of practices and techniques in resource management that maintain the capacity for growth and regeneration of species being harvested, including re-planting and transplanting, pruning and coppicing, and burning. These also have relevance in current harvesting and production systems. Traditional systems of tenure, too, have enabled Aboriginal peoples to control access and monitor impacts of use. Traditional modes of knowledge transmission, including experimental, site-based learning, use of specialized names and vocabulary, stories, discourse, and ceremonial reinforcement of values of respect and careful use, are also potentially valuable and applicable to contemporary harvesting practices for NTFPs. In such applications, however, the rights and interests of Aboriginal peoples must be recognized and incorporated in any relevant NTFP use. 1 Ethnobotanist and Professor, School of Environmental Studies, University of Victoria, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, V8W 2Y2; Phone: 250-721-6124; Fax: 250-721-8985; email: nturner@uvic.ca. INTRODUCTION Non-timber forest products (NTFPs) include many species and products harvested and used by Indigenous peoples. In British Columbia, for example, a wide range of traditional botanical foods, materials, and medicines have current or potential value in the NTFP industry (De Geus 1995, Mitchell 1998). In all, over 500 plant and fungus species are known to have specific cultural applications among Aboriginal peoples of northwestern North America, and most of these are forest species (see Compton 1993; Kuhnlein and Turner 1991; Turner 1995, 1997b, 1998). Products from some of these species are already being marketed. For example, pine mushrooms (Tricholoma magnivelare) and chanterelles (Cantharellus spp.) are currently bringing wild mushroom pickers in B.C. (some of whom are Aboriginal) around $25-50 million Canadian each year, while exporters are earning $50-80 million (Hamilton 1998). In B.C. in 1997, the 200-300 commercial gatherers of medicinal plants collectively earned an estimated $2-3 million Canadian (Wills and Lipsey 1999), but most of this would have been for non-Aboriginal harvesters. Other locally marketed products include huckleberries, baskets and weaving materials, and specialty wood carvings (Turner and Cocksedge, in press). Indigenous peoples have a number of concerns about commercialization of their traditional