Ecological and Economic Sustainability of Non-Timber Forest Products in Post-Conflict Recovery: A Case Study of the Frankincense (Boswellia spp.) Resin Harvesting in Somaliland (Somalia)

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Dear author,

The topic developed is of interest and relevance. The research on how best to improve utilisation and management of natural resources –especially in least developed countries– is a very important concern in our field. This topic could provide an important contribution to this research area. However, the style of scientific writing should be improved. The paper should follow the IMRAD format. You can see, for this purpose, an interesting paper entitled, ‘How to write a paper for successful publication in an international peer-reviewed journal’ (Tress et al., 2014).  You should also review the “guide for authors”. I think the wording of the text could be improved, to a positive evaluation, if these considerations are taken into account.

Author Response

We thank the reviewer for their comments. However, we’re not sure we fully understand—We have followed the IMRAD format they suggest (using the Sustainability template), and our writing style is consistent with other papers scientific papers published in this field. After thoroughly reviewing the manuscript, we believe that the wording and style are appropriate. We did go though and make any additional edits to ensure the writing good. 

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 2 Report

Dear Authors,

I read the manuscript entitled Ecological and economic sustainability of non-timber forest products in post-conflict recovery: a case study of the frankincense (Boswellia spp.) resin harvesting in Somaliland (Somalia), Manuscript ID: sustainability-777154 , with great interest.

It deals with a topic suitable for Sustainability readers, but in my opinion you should implement it with a presentation of data in support of your theses.

In general, there is no adequate presentation of the group of respondents and of the information requested in relation to the years of the surveys. The manuscript is mainly descriptive, missing the data that you are commented on.

I think this is a very interesting research and the manuscript deserves to be published after an adequate profound review and data addition.

I give you some suggestions in a specific list.

Authors	Rev
Line 84  (A.D. pers. comm. with locals)	My opinion is that the authors need to confirm this claim with a verifiable source, such as a report, a publication ...
Line 89 resin (A.D. pers. comm.	In a scientific paper authors should not utilize the personal communication. In this case, I think that authors can find some published source.
Line 139 Figure 1 and 235 Figure 2	Please, consider combination of the figure 1 and 2
Line 238- 239 Overharvesting was observed in eight out of ten of the surveyed locations with B. carteri and  one out of three locations with B. frereana.	I do not understand. In which locations? Please specify How could you estimate over harvesting in the other area if you only performed one survey with the drone? Please, add the data (in a table with year)of overharvesting or harvesting in the other surveyed area and give methodology in methods paragraph.
Line 216 Table 1	Were these data obtained with the interviews? Please add information in caption
Lines 219-233	These paragraphs are mainly descriptive. Please add data As a reader I would like to know the data on which you based your interesting analyzes. How many respondents, the year, the region indicated, where the insect attack was found … for example
Line 248 Table 2	Table 2 was not cited in the text. Add the year of survey in the caption , please
Line 243 In one location…	Please, repeat the name of location and year
Line 230 … younger harvesters, although this view was contradicted by elders and very experienced harvesters	How may they were? Please, add this information. Probably a description of the pool interviwed is needed in methods.
Line 275	All traders interviewed agreed on three points:
Line 282-283 Likewise, some traders fail to pay for the 282 balance of the resin unless the harvesters agree to sell the next season’s resins as well. They may also inflate the value of the food pre-payments,	Please add data.
Line 294 and following	Please, add appropriate citation/s
Line 302Figura 3	Please give much more information in the methods section. For the first time there is a reference to females in the group of respondents (pictogram).
Line 413-415 Trees whose resin is of little value are frequently bark stripped in Somaliland, a fate frankincense trees are likely to suffer if the resin can’t be sold (A.D. and S.J. 414 pers. comm. with harvesters).	Please add data sources

 

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Author Response

We thank the reviewer for their comments and insights that have helped us to make this paper even better. 

Line 84: Added citation

Line 89: Added citation. However, we disagree with the first comment, that scientific papers should not utilize personal communications. In cases such as Somaliland, where there may be limited and/or outdated literature, personal communications can be important to convey critical background information. This is that would not necessarily be appropriate to report in the Results.

Line 139: We believe it is still best to have two figures. Figure 1 provides context in the Methods section, but it is more appropriate to have Figure 2, showing the actual surveyed locations, in the Results.

Line 238-239: The harvesting was assessed by extensive hiking through the frankincense moutians/fields and directly observing the number and type of cuts per tree. We have expanded on the methodology for doing this in lines 190-195.

We considered adding a table of the locations, but have chosen not to because doing so has the potential to quickly stir conflict in the harvesting regions. This has happened in the past when particular areas have been singled out as overharvested; while we see value in identifying the harvesting status of each location, we don’t believe that this value outweighs the potential for creating conflict. This paper aims to broadly investigate if there are sustainability issue with the harvesting of frankincense in Somaliland, which we feel can be accomplished without identifying the status of the individual areas.

Line 216 Table 1: Information added to the caption (The source of the data is also already mentioned in lines 183-185).

Lines 219-233: We have expanded on the number and type of respondents and added information to the methods (lines 178-180).

Line 248 Table 2: Citation and year added.

Line 243: See comment on Lines 238-239 above; we feel it is best not to specify the names of individual locations when noting the harvesting status.

Line 230: We do not have data on the exact ages of the harvesters (many Somali in this area themselves do not know their exact age), we simply mention this because we noticed that people who appeared older tended to be more conservative about the number of cuts, while people who appeared younger tended to think that more cuts would yield more resin.

Line 275: Comment is not clear.

Line 282-283: Data added.

Line 294: Data added.

Line 302: The presence of women in the supply chain is not a reference to female respondents, simply a statement that sorting of frankincense is done by women.

Line 413-415: The data source is already mentioned (it’s a personal communication with harvesters). This information was collected from key informants with whom we stayed in touch after the field assessments were completed.

 

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Round 2

Reviewer 2 Report

Dear Authors,

I agree with you on observation line 275, I liked to know how many traders were asked, but you have already answered extensively, changing the materials and methods.

I really appreciated the commitment to respond to my comments. I think the additions to the manuscript have made it much more interesting for a larger number of readers.

I have only underlined some inaccuracies, exclusively formal, at lines 30 and 69: they are names in Latin, therefore it is necessary to use italics.

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Author Response

Thank you very much for your thoughtful review and helping us to make this paper better.

I have made the two changes to italics  

Author Response File: Author Response.docx