Non-Wood Forest Products Information Network (NonWoodIN) covers information/technologies available on the production, harvesting and management, marketing/trading, policy concerns on non wood forest products (NWFPs). The NWFPs include goods/products that are principal sources of food, fiber, medicine, valuable materials for the manufacture of furniture and handicrafts, pulp and paper, paint and varnish, soap and shampoo. These are also valuable sources of essential oils, dyestuffs, tannins, low cost housing materials and animal-based products such as honey, beeswax and edible bird's nest. These NWFPs maybe gathered either from the wild or produced in forest plantations, agroforestry schemes and from trees outside the forested areas.

Most, if not all, NWFPs are sources of livelihood for the upland dwellers. The development of the industry based on these raw materials could address poverty stricken communities in the uplands and consequently lead to achieving the millennium development goal of reducing poverty by 2010 as set by the United Nations.

Added to the economic value of NWFP is the preservation of socio-cultural norms of a number of ethnic groups whose lifestyles are anchored on NWFPs. The direct dependence of tribal groups/ indigenous peoples and their sustainable practices has prolonged the existence of valuable plants in either the protected areas and ancestral domain.