Future of Brazil Nut Production

• Title

  Future of Brazil Nut Production

• Authors

  Scott Alan Mori

• Description

  Until now Brazil nuts have been gathered mostly from wild trees. In recent years, Brazil nut production has declined because of deforestation, the exodus of Brazil nut gatherers to large metropolitan centers, the flooding of some traditional Brazil nut stands, and perhaps because of disruption of pollinators caused by fires during the dry season when Brazil nut trees are in flower (Kitamura and Müller, 1984; Mori and Prance, 1990b). If traditional methods of Brazil nut production are to be maintained, very large extractive reserves will have to be established in areas of high Brazil nut tree density. However, those interested in the preservation of tropical nature should be careful not to equate the establishment of extractive reserves with the maintenance of Amazonian biodiversity. Because Brazil nut gatherers and rubber tappers do more than just gather Brazil nuts, they often have a negative impact on plant and animal diversity. Indeed, extractive reserves may become little more than secondary vegetation with economic plants such as Brazil nut and rubber trees scattered here and there. Therefore, the establishment of extractive reserves does not negate the need for well planned biological reserves. The future success of Brazil nut plantations is still open to debate. Until now, there have been no examples of economically successful plantations of this Amazonian tree. All attempts at growing tropical trees in plantations that do not naturally grow in nearly monotypic stands have been failures. In their native habitat, Brazil nut trees are distributed more or less scattered in the forest in much the same way that rubber trees grow. The economic disaster of attempting to bring rubber into plantations within its home range has been well documented (Hecht and Cockburn, 1989), and there is no reason to believe that Brazil nut plantations in Amazonia will not meet the same fate as the Amazonian rubber plantations. Careful observation of the Aruanã Plantation over the next decade may allow us to determine if Brazil nut production in plantations is a viable alternative to collection from wild trees. If plantations are viable, then conservationists will have to be prepared to assess the impact that plantations will have on the maintenance of extractive reserves. Finally, it is important that we do not place too much hope on Brazil nut extraction as an economically viable way to support an ever increasing population in Amazonia. In the first place, world markets may not be able to handle much of an increase in Brazil nut production, and, in the second place, such low intensity use of land is not capable of supporting human populations at the level needed to increase the standard of living demanded by more and more people. If Ewel's (1991) estimates that hunting-gathering and shifting agriculture can only support one person per 5 square kilometers and one person per square kilometer, respectively, are correct (there is no reason to believe they are not), then extractive reserves will do little to absorb population growth in Amazonian countries. The future of extractive reserves and humanity's ability to preserve a representative sample of Neotropical biodiversity depends on the success of controlling population growth and consumption both inside and outside of the tropics (Erhlich and Erhlich, 1990).