Wood and non-wood products of pistachio trees and some traditional knowledge related to them in Baneh forests

non-timber forest products (NTFP) is goods of biological origin other than wood derived from forests and other wooded land and trees outside forests. Pistacia atlantica Desf. is one of the ecologically and economically valuable trees of the Zagros forests, being many non-timber forest products. In Baneh city of Kurdistan province, although local communities use Pistacio (Pistacia atlantic) trees in different ways with high traditional knowledge, it has not been well investigated. Due to the importance of non-timber forest products (NTFP) related to forest trees, the purpose of this study was to study the NTFP related pistachio in Namshir (Zeyveyeh and Bilo villages) of Baneh city in Kurdistan province

Unstructured and semi-structured interviews, direct and indirect observations were used to collect information on the NTFP of P. atlantica trees. Snowball sampling was used for semi-structured interviews with key individuals. In this study, 60 informants were selected from the conventional systems and data were collected in the form of 28 interviews with an average of one hour and 10 minutes (for each interview).

The results showed that P. atlantica in the Bilo and Zeyveyeh villages includes 4.1% and 8.8% of the tree species composition, respectively, and has a share of 2.09% and 2.56% in the household economy. (Net household income in the above two villages is 34.07 and 41.12 million tomans per year, respectively). In both villages, on average, 4.19 million Tomans of income is obtained through natural resources, and the average income from each pistachio tree in Zeyveyeh village (or 109.8 thousand Tomans) is more than Bilo village (with 96.5 thousand Tomans in Year). P. atlantica was mainly used for medicinal (Saqqez (oleo-gum resin) and distillate), dietary (the fruit to flavor doogh, food, pickling, oil and snacks (gozhmeh concoction)) handicrafts (rosaries production, Bread cooking utensils and Sugar crushing bowl), construction and livestock have been registered. Saqez with 62.8% of total harvests was identified as the most important traditional harvest of P. atlantica trees. Bene resin (Saqqez) with 62.8% of the total harvests was identified as the most important traditional harvest of P. atlantica trees, followed by fruit harvest with 33%. On the other hand, 33.3% and 8.3% of P. atlantica products are available in provincial and international markets, and the rest of the traditional harvests are consumed by households and people of Baneh city. The main unprincipled uses of Saqqez included annual harvesting, pruning and bowl making disproportionate to the capacity of P. atlantica trees, Saqqez harvesting from old trees and the use of plastic bowls.

Overall, the results of this study confirmed the existence of several traditional knowledge related to this tree, but it is emphasized that this knowledge should be compatible with the principles of sustainable forest management. In general, to reduce the negative effects of Saqqez harvesting from P. atlantica trees, we suggested some solutions such as increasing the harvesting period to five years, forbidding the Saqqez harvesting from old and dried trees, and not using plastic bowls.