Questionnaire research conducted all over Poland has shown that the harvesting of non-wood forest products helps to improve the living standards of poor families. In 2004, in the households under research, income from the sale of these products amounted to about 27% in summer season and nearly 18% per year of the total income of these families. The income from non-wood forest products was used mainly to buy food. The most frequently harvested products were mushrooms and forest fruit, followed by fuel, decorative branches and medicinal herbs.
The NWFPs (non-wood forest products) sector is of the crucial importance to the Polish households but its social and economic role is varied and depends on place of residence. For the inhabitants of villages and small towns forests are the place of working and NWFPs sale provides an additional financial resource. City-dwellers do not treat NWFPs as a source of income but rather as an element of recreation and they use these products mainly for their own needs. Some remarks for the developing of this sector in Poland were given in this paper.