Dataset of non-timber forest products use and impacts of recent climate change in the Upper Madi Watershed, Nepal

This dataset presents data collected from household surveys from Upper Madi Watershed of Nepal describing the benefits of non-timber forest products (NTFPs) to people of mountain ecosystems, their perceptions of climate change, and perceived impacts of climate change on NTFPs ecosystem services. The data were collected from 278 households that were randomly selected from the four villages in the watershed during the period September to December 2019. The survey assessed socio-demographic information; collected and utilized NTFPs; perceptions of climate change, and; perceived impacts of climate change on NTFPs ecosystem services. These data are important in understanding the benefits of non-timber forest products in mountain ecosystems and the impacts of climate change as the benefits and impacts are currently not well understood. The data will be helpful in formulation and implementation of adaptation strategies to sustain the supply, protection, and management of NTFPs in mountain ecosystems.


Specifications
Ecosystem services Specific subject area Non-timber forest products, Climate Change, Ecosystem Services, Mountain Ecosystems Type of data Primary data,

Value of the Data
• These data are important for understanding the benefits of non-timber forest products to mountain communities and the impacts of recent climate change as the benefits and impacts of climate change are not well understood. • The data can benefit different stakeholders such as policymakers, practitioners in formulation and implementation of adaptation strategies to sustain supply, protection, and management of NTFPs in mountain ecosystems. • Researchers in the field of climate change impacts, non-timber forest products and mountain ecosystems can use these data to compare with similar studies in the mountains elsewhere or supporting systematic reviews in the future.

Data Description
The dataset provides information on data collected from 278 household surveys on the benefits of non-timber forest products, perceptions of climate change within mountain communities and impacts of climate change on non-timber forest product ecosystem services. The survey data include the following sections: a) socio-demographic information of respondents including age, gender, ethnicity, educational background and occupation b) utilization of non-timber forest products by mountain communities c) perceptions of climate change d) Perceived impacts of climate change on non-timber forest products ecosystem services. The questionnaire is provided as a supplementary file. Social-demographic characteristics are presented in Table 1 .
The details of non-timber forest product use in the Upper Madi Watershed of Nepal, number of non-timber forest plant species, purpose of NTFPs collection, respondent perceptions of climate change, perceived impacts of climate change on non-timber forest products ecosystem services are described in Tables 2-8 . Data are provided as a supplementary file.

Survey Design, Materials and Methods
This research was based on primary data collection through a household survey [1][2][3][4] during the period September to December 2019. In our survey the unit of analysis was the household and the household head or his/her representative was the respondent. A complete list of 909     [5] to provide a statistically significant sample from the target population of the study area [ 6 , 7 ]. Our sample represents approximately 31% of the total households in the study area. The Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) was used to randomly select 278 households from the household list. We had contacted 278 householders and all of them had responded, most of the respondents were household heads and some were representatives of the households where the heads were absent. Face to face interviews were conducted with household heads (or their representatives) using a structured questionnaire containing both closed and open-ended questions [1] .
To check for clarity and understanding of the survey questions, 10 households were pre-tested    Table 5 Purpose of NTFPs collection ( n = 278).

Responses Proportion (%)
Purpose of NTFPs collection Household use only 42.1 Both for sale and household use 57.9 Table 6 Extent to which respondents agree that climate change is occurring ( n = 278).
Agreement that climate change is occurring Responses Proportion (%) Extent of agreement on the statement "Climate change is happening in your area" Strongly disagree 0 Disagree 0 Not sure 13 Agree 86 Strongly agree 1  Table 8 Perceived impacts of climate change and extreme events on NTFPs.   [1 , 8] prior to survey implementation. 5-point Likert scales [1] were used to quantify the local perceptions of climate change and perceived impacts on NTFP ecosystem services. The quantitative data obtained from household surveys were analyzed using SPSS and Microsoft Excel to obtain descriptive statistics such as frequencies and percentages of responses. The Dictionary of Nepalese Plant Names [9] was used to identify the botanical and common English names of most plant species as local common names collected from household survey were in the Gurung language.

Ethics Statement
Ethical approval was obtained from the faculty of Science Engineering and Built Environment Human Ethics Advisory Group, Deakin University (reference number STEC-31-2019-GURUNG). Respondents' participation was completely agreed, voluntary, and anonymous.

Authors' contribution
Lila Jung Gurung: Conceptualization, methodology, data collection, and writing of the manuscript.
Kelly Miller, Susanna Venn, and Brett A Bryan: Conceptualization, methodology, review and editing the manuscript.

Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships which have, or could be perceived to have, influenced the work reported in this article.